How to Make a Gorgeous Watercolor Cake for Summer Special Occasions

This watercolor cake is a treat for the eyes and the mouth! The beautiful colors are perfect for spring and summer, especially special occasions like Mother’s Day, birthdays, or baby or bridal showers. Plus, you can customize the colors for any occasion you like–i.e., graduation parties. I used light pastel pinks, purples, and blues to create this watercolor effect on my cake. It’s an incredibly simple technique that I know you can pull off, even if you consider yourself a cake-decorating novice like I do!

The process is as simple as frosting a cake with a base layer called the crumb coat, chilling that, and then adding food color-dyed frosting in small dollops around the rest of the cake. The secret is to use an inexpensive tool called a cake smoother or scraper to smooth out the colored dollops, creating the watercolor effect.

For this cake, use any recipe you love that makes a 3-layer white or vanilla cake. Or, use your favorite cake mix. I wanted to focus on sharing the frosting technique with you for this recipe, so I’m leaving it up to you to pick whatever is easiest for the cake portion!

For an extra pop of flavor, I like using some fruit preserves in the center of the cake layers. It’s a fun and unexpected little burst of flavor and color that you’ll love seeing when you cut into the cake.

The tools (listed below) are essential for the success of this cake. The one thing you can get away without is possibly the offset spatula, but it really does make things easier. Gel food coloring provides much better color than regular food coloring, and you can find it online or at places like craft/hobby stores. You can find a cake smoother or scraper online or at craft/hobby stores too. I hope you enjoy decorating your own watercolor cake, and Happy Mother’s Day–or whatever you’re celebrating this season. Scroll on for the complete instructions!

Did you try this technique? Show us your watercolor cake on Instagram @Lulus using #lovelulus–and shop Dresses and more for every Special Occasion this Summer! If you’re looking to give the perfect present this celebration season, don’t forget to check out our selection of Gift Cards!

This recipe comes from our food contributor, Stephanie Simmons, of Blue Bowl. Her goal with her kitchen-tested recipes is to get you excited about cooking, show you how good food can taste, and prove that you don’t need to spend hours in the kitchen to make a good meal.