How to Make a Rainbow Cake (Celebrating God’s Promises)

I recently mentioned on our facebook page that we were sorting M & M's to make a Rainbow cake (and how amazing it was that there were so few brown M & M's these days). The cake is so simple I probably don't need to write instructions!

Children as young as three could make a Rainbow Cake with help; older kids won't need any help at all.

My son is six years old and this was the perfect cake decorating project for him! He had fun making it and was very pleased with the results.

How to Make a Rainbow Cake

Items needed:

• Green food coloring
• Blue food coloring
• Cake
• Frosting
• Knife
• M & M's (one large bag)

Before any of these steps, it is best to read the story of Noah! Talk to your children about what the rainbow represents and why God put it in the sky.

Step One: Bake your favorite cake! We made ours in a 9 by 13 inch dish because it was easier, but a double layer round cake would work well too. Cake must be completely cool before frosting.

Step Two: Sort M & M's into colors. Decide which colors you will use. A rainbow has: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (you will need to leave some out).

Step Three: Prepare frosting. We made Maple Cream Cheese Frosting because it is seriously delicious and not overly sweet. Most any white frosting should work just fine.

Step Four: Divide the frosting in half and place into two separate bowls. Add a few drops of green food coloring to one half and blue food coloring to the other. Mix until you are satisfied with the colors. We are aiming for blue sky and green grass (our grass is a little light, but I tried not to take over the entire project!).

Step Five: Spread the blue frosting over half of the cake (or 1/3 . . . it's really up to you). Then spread the green frosting over the remainder of the cake. You could get fancy and make some hills if you like. But I wouldn't do too much since we want the rainbow to be the focus.

Step Six: With a knife, draw the top bow of the rainbow. This really helps little ones keep the M & M's on track and not create a wonky rainbow.

Step Seven: Complete this step fairly close to serving time (we did this 3 hours before and kept the cake in the fridge and everything was fine (I'd be afraid to prepare the cake any earlier than that). You want to avoid adding the M & M's too far in advance as the color bleeds and doesn't look very pretty).

Start placing M & M's along the line you drew. Place the side with the “M” down.

Repeat with each color until the rainbow is complete. No need to draw another line with the knife though. Just line the M & M's up underneath the previous band.

Refrigerate until serving time.

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

– Genesis 9:12-17