This vegan and gluten-free vanilla sheet cake has a vibrant rainbow swirl frosting that makes it extra festive. The cake is light, fluffy and perfectly sweet. Best of all, this easy recipe contains nutritious ingredients that you can feel really good about.
Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Sheet Cake with Rainbow Frosting
This festive vegan and gluten-free vanilla sheet cake has a vibrant rainbow frosting that is a show stopper for kids and adults. I used natural food coloring paired with my vegan vanilla frosting and layered it onto the cake. Then, I simply used a chop stick (so fancy!) to create the fun design. The rainbow frosting pairs wonderfully with the light and fluffy vanilla cake. It is any easy dessert yet super impressive and delicious. The cake is made with simple nutritious pantry ingredients and is refined sugar-free.
The story behind this vanilla sheet pan cake with rainbow frosting
My 7-year-old daughter, Riley, was invited to a friend's birthday Zoom call over the weekend. Everyone had to come prepared with a joke, art supplies for a group craft and a dessert to enjoy when the birthday girl blew out the candles. Cute, right?
I asked Riley what kind of dessert she wanted to bake and she asked for vanilla cake with "rainbow tie-dye frosting" - right! On it! I searched the internet and Pinterest and couldn't find anything.
I didn't know quite what to do or how to make it work but we started with seven bowls and stirred the natural food coloring into each until the colors were just right.
We then "painted" on the frosting in vertical layers and swirled it horizontally with a chop stick. Riley was absolutely thrilled with the result and said I had to add this one to the blog. When I shared pictures of the cake on Instagram stories you all agreed, so here it is.
While not tie-dye at all I think we can all agree it is definitely a rainbow cake - and totally kid-approved. She was the envy of all her Zoomer friends when everyone showed off their desserts.
So, for your next virtual (or hopefully soon real life!) celebration, I hope you consider this fun, vibrant, festive rainbow cake. The best part about this cake is you can really use this recipe to decorate it however you want. You can do all one color or just a couple. You can swirl, or not. Whatever you want. This is a super easy cake recipe (hello sheet pan cake!) and can be totally customized to your color preferences.
More Festive Dessert Recipes
More celebrations ahead? These festive dessert recipes are all vegan, refined sugar-free and gluten-free:
Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
No-Bake Birthday Cake Energy Bites
Healthy Birthday Cake Smoothie Bowl
Vegan Chocolate Sweet Potato Cupcakes
Now, Let’s Make Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Sheet Cake with Rainbow Frosting!
This easy vanilla sheet cake recipe will be your new go-to dessert for festive occasions. It is naturally vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free, legume-free and refined sugar-free (without the frosting) so it works well for many types of diets.
I cannot wait for you to give this recipe a try! Let’s get baking!
Vegan Gluten-Free Vanilla Sheet Cake with Rainbow Frosting
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 16
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This vegan and gluten-free vanilla sheet cake has a vibrant rainbow swirl frosting that makes it extra festive. The cake is light, fluffy and perfectly sweet. Best of all, this easy recipe contains nutritious ingredients that you can feel really good about.
Ingredients
- 3 cups gluten-free old fashioned oats
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup plain, unsweetened plant-based milk (I have tested with oat and almond milk)
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- ½ cup avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 batches of Vegan Vanilla Frosting (divided into seven tiny bowls for separate food coloring)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 baking pan with avocado oil or coconut oil and set aside.
- In a high speed blender, add the oats and blend on the highest speed until a super fine oat flour forms. There should be no oat chunks remaining. Place the homemade oat flour into a mixing bowl.
- Add baking powder and salt and stir well to combine. Add milk, maple syrup, avocado oil and vanilla and stir again until well combined.
- Pour the cake batter into the greased baking pan and bake for 30 minutes.
- While the cake bakes, make a double batch of the vegan vanilla frosting. Divide the frosting evenly into seven tiny bowls and add 8-10 drops of natural food coloring to each bowl. Stir with a spoon to distribute the color evenly. Store the frosting bowls in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- When the cake is finished baking allow it to fully cool before frosting it. I like to stick the entire pan in the freezer to speed up the process. Once fully cooled, gently spread the colored frosting onto the cake in an even layer. It is okay if the colors overlap slightly. For this particular design, I start with red and then do orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink vertical lines. Then I use a chopstick to make horizontal lines in the opposite direction (this makes the pattern you see in the pictures but you can swirl however you want - just don't over-swirl or the colors will combine to create brown). Garnish your cake with dye-free sprinkles if desired. You can also garnish the cake with crushed freeze dried raspberries.
- Slice into 16 slices and enjoy. Store leftovers in an airtight container in your refrigerator. Allow the cake to come back to room temperature before enjoying.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 30
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven Baked
Mary says
I failed somewhere because mine came out very dense. It tasted more like a heavy plain donut. The rainbow frosting came out great.
Elaine Gordon says
Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that, Mary! Did you use store-bought oat flour? If you made it yourself to you blend it into a super fine flour? If you made it yourself did you measure out the oats before blending as opposed to the oat flour after blending? Please let me know so I can help you for next time! Best, Elaine
Georgia says
This recipe is amazing for people with dietary restrictions! It's a little dry and crumbly but tastes amazing! It has a very strong oat and vanilla taste; even my family members that don't have dietary restrictions like them! I haven't tried the frosting however due to allergies. Oh and they also work in cupcake form!
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much, Georgia! I'm happy to hear it was helpful with your dietary restrictions. I think the frosting might help balance out some of that... I have a couple different frosting recipes on the blog so if you let me know your specific allergies I can point you in the right direction. And good to know this recipe works as a cupcake - thank you for sharing that! Very helpful! 🙂 Best, Elaine
Dani says
Hi Elaine!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I have such a soft spot for all things vanilla 😊
Both cake and frosting (I made the easy version) taste AMAZING!
I'm looking forward to trying out your other recipes.
Greetings,
Dani
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much, Dani! I do too! Definitely give this one a try next (I like it even better!): https://www.eatingbyelaine.com/best-vegan-paleo-vanilla-cupcakes/ (You can do them with my vanilla frosting if you prefer which is also on the blog).
Karen says
I have a grandson with numerous allergies. He can have dairy, so can I use regular whole milk with this recipe? Also, he can have canola oil so is that a substituion that will work for the avocado oil. It is really trying as he is allergic to gluten, tree nuts, peanuts, and eggs. So almond flour is a no no too! It makes cooking a real project and a lot of investigation of recipes. His mom and dad work full tim, busy jobs, so the investigation is my job as I am retired. I love seeing him enjoy new recipes because the same ones all the time are boring! thanks for this site!
Elaine Gordon says
Hi Karen,
That is so wonderful that you’re taking the time to find and test recipes for your grandson—he’s lucky to have you! While I haven’t tested this recipe with regular whole milk, it should work as a 1:1 substitution for the dairy-free milk. Canola oil should also work in place of the avocado oil. Since you mentioned he can’t have almond flour, I just want to note that this recipe is already almond flour-free, so no worries there! I completely understand how challenging it can be to find safe and exciting recipes, and I love that you’re introducing him to new flavors. If you give this version a try, I’d love to hear how it turns out for you!
Best,
Elaine