This vibrantly colored version of my vanilla roll cake is made with a light sponge cake and filled with lightly sweetened whipped cream! Happy Pride Month everyone! I know I’m a little late to the party this year, but I’m thrilled to share this delicious rainbow roll cake to celebrate pride month this year! I wanted to make something just as vibrant as the rainbow ice cream cake I made a few years ago. After rolling around a few ideas in my head, I decided on this simple and beautiful rainbow swiss roll cake. Swiss roll cakes aren’t difficult to make. The trick is to get the texture and timing right to ensure a soft, moist, and delicious cake with absolutely no cracks! Thankfully, I’ve written a very detailed post on how to make the perfect swiss rolls cakes with my vanilla roll recipe. You can read that post for all my tips and tricks on perfecting Swiss roll cakes. Plus, I’ve also shared my chocolate roll cake, pumpkin roll cake, and yule log cake for other roll cake ideas! Since this rainbow swiss roll cake requires a fair bit of mixing in of colors, there is bound to be some deflation in the cake batter. But not to worry. I adapted this cake recipe to still ensure the BEST results, regardless.
How to make the Rainbow Sponge Cake base
The base for this rainbow swiss roll is a modified sponge cake. The sponge cake is made with whole egg foam, with an additional egg yolk added for richness, and with flour folded in for structure. As explained in my vanilla swiss roll recipe, I’ve previously tried making genoise sponge cake with whole eggs at room temperature. But I find that the warmer eggs produce a more stable foam that can withstand some mixing. I highly recommend reading my vanilla swiss roll cake post for more details and tips. But here is a summary of how to make the rainbow swiss roll base; This is the first stage of making the batter.
How to divide and color the batter
The rainbow colors I used here are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
How to assemble the rainbow sponge cake layer
Prep a swiss roll pan with parchment paper (10 x 15 inches). To avoid wrinkles in your rainbow swiss roll cake, butter the entire pan, and then line it with parchment paper. Make sure the parchment paper sticks to the baking tray properly to prevent wrinkles. To make it easier to manage the baked cake, make sure to have an overhang of parchment paper over the short edges of the pan. Visualize the swiss roll pan being horizontally divided into roughly 12 equal sections (i.e. two segments of the six colors). Cut about 1 cm from the tip of each of the pastry bags, and pipe the cake batter into the pan. Start with red and finish with purple, and then repeat the six colors one more time, for a total of 12 stripes as shown below. Knock the pan on a hard surface (kitchen counter) about 3 – 4 times, and bake the cake in the preheated oven until baked through.
How to maintain the vibrant color of the rainbow in your roll cake
Use gel food coloring instead of regular water-based food coloring. You’d need A LOT of the water-based food coloring to get similar vibrant colors. Be generous with the gel food coloring (I use americolor), to make sure you have a vibrant rainbow color in the cake batter to begin with. I used about 4 – 5 drops, but it could vary. Bake the cake at a slightly lower temperature to prevent the cake from browning too much.
Can I make the trans pride and bipoc inclusive pride flag cake?
Absolutely. You will need to divide the cake into 10 colors (the above 6 rainbow colors plus pastel pink, blue, brown, and black). You will also need to divide the pan into 10 sections (instead of 12 as we do here), so you know where to pipe each color.
How to prep and roll the baked rainbow swiss roll cake
You can check out my vanilla swiss roll post for a detailed look on how to prepare your swiss roll cake. But here are the key points;
While the cake is still warm, roll it up firmly but gently. You don’t want to roll it up too tight, because this will flatten the cake. Dust the surface with confectioner’s sugar to prevent the cake from sticking to the parchment paper. Allow the cake to cool completely before unravelling it (carefully). Fill the cake with an even layer of filling, leaving the outer edge unfilled. This helps seal the cake, once rolled up. Roll the cake and wrap it with parchment paper, and then plastic wrap, before refrigerating it. This will “set” the filling, and help maintain the shape of the cake.
How to neatly slice the swiss roll
The rainbow stripes should be visible throughout the rainbow swiss roll cake slice. To get nice, clean cuts, you could do either of these two things;
Serving suggestions
This rainbow swiss roll is gorgeous on its own. You don’t want to cover it with any decorations, because the rainbow colors of the exterior are obviously the draw here. The lightly sweetened whipped cream filling is the perfect filling for this light sponge cake. Making it irresistible to stop at just one slice. You could add fruits if you like though. A light drizzle of chocolate sauce is also a great option.
Why I love this recipe
The first reason why I love this recipe is the cake itself! Soft, light sponge cake, paired with a light filling is just a fantastic dessert. Once you get the hang of making the genoise sponge cake, turning it into a rainbow swiss roll is easy. It just takes a little planning and organization. I’ve made the recipe foolproof as possible, so that you have some room for error, and still produce an incredibly delicious cake. The second reason why I love this recipe is of course the beautiful symbolism of the cake. What these rainbow colors represent. Having grown up in a discriminatory culture with homophobic gestures, sentiments, and laws that were quick to heap pity and judgement if you were anything but heterosexual or the majority, I was incredibly happy to find a community and world out there that were far more accepting and loving. Even if I’m not part of the LGBTQ+ community myself, my whole-hearted and full-throated support is always present, and I want to be an even better ally. People come in different colors, and so does love, just like a rainbow. That’s what makes this world a beautiful place to live in! That’s what this gorgeous rainbow swiss roll cake represents. So what better way to spread love and celebration to everyone around you, than with cake? 😀
