• Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
    • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Blog

The Domestic Rebel

Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Desserts

  • Recipe Index
    • Browse by Flavor
      • Cake Batter
      • Caramel
      • Cheesecake
      • Coconut
      • Coffee
      • Cookie Dough
      • Lemon
      • Mint
      • Peanut Butter
      • Pumpkin
      • S’mores
      • Snickerdoodle
      • Sweet and Salty
    • Brownies, Blondies & Bars
    • Brownie Bombs
    • Candy, Bark, and Candy Toppers
    • Chocolate
    • Cookies
    • Cupcakes & Cake
    • Donuts & Other Breakfast Fare
    • Drinks
    • Fudge
    • Guilt-Free Treats
    • Holiday Goodies
    • Ice Cream & Frozen Confections
    • No-Bake Treats
    • Pie
    • Miscellaneous Truffles & Treats
  • Cookbooks
  • Work With Me

Amazing Rainbow Poke Cake

May 18, 2020 by thedomesticrebel | 8 Comments

779 shares
  • Share
  • Tweet
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Rainbow Poke Cake on white plate with fabric and pan in background

This Amazing Rainbow Poke Cake is sure to make everyone excited and happy with its delicious flavor and gorgeous presentation! You’ll never guess how surprisingly simple this cake is to whip up!

Poke cakes are one of my favorite types of cakes.

I never had them growing up – we were never big potluck people (or maybe that’s because we were never invited to potlucks) so I didn’t really even know they existed to be honest. I only discovered them as a fresh-faced, brand-new food blogger and was like HOLD UP. Y’all put pudding in your cake?! GENIUS!

What I love about poke cakes are how versatile they are and how they can easily be customized to your flavor preferences. This one is simple – vanilla cake with vanilla pudding – but you could use lemon pudding with strawberry cake mix, coconut pudding with chocolate cake mix, cheesecake pudding with red velvet cake mix – the list goes on and on.

Photo of Rainbow Poke Cake on white lacy plate with forkLest you think vanilla on vanilla is kind of boring, let me remind you this is a rainbow poke cake. I dyed the cake batter in a swirl of rainbow colors to achieve this look and it is surprisingly easy to do, if not a little labor intensive.

Simply divide the cake batter evenly among 5 or 6 bowls and tint each bowl a different shade of the rainbow. I didn’t distribute my batter evenly enough so I skipped the color orange, but I had enough for red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. You could do this in pastels, primary colors, school colors for graduation, etc.

Rainbow Poke Cake slice on white plate with fork in the cake

The key to an amazing Rainbow Poke Cake is to NOT swirl the cake batter colors together. I know it is tempting to get that marble-y effect, but trust me on this – swirling them creates a very muddied color and that’s definitely not what we want! So to achieve the perfect swirl, I like to layer the colors on top of one another at random which creates a cool pattern on its own without color blending or bleeding.

Rainbow Poke Cake batter swirled in metal panBake it up, then wait for it to cool before poking holes all over it and filling the holes with pudding. Super simple! Cover and chill, then frost with whipped cream and voila! Super easy, so delicious and guaranteed to put a smile on everyone’s faces!

Closeup of Rainbow Poke Cake slice on white plate with rainbow fabric in background

Rainbow Poke Cake on white plate with fork
Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Amazing Rainbow Poke Cake

This Amazing Rainbow Poke Cake is absolutely incredible! Super moist, flavorful, easy to make and such a show-stopping, magnificent dessert!
Prep Time2 hrs 20 mins
Cook Time25 mins
Total Time2 hrs 45 mins
Course: Cake, Cakes/Cupcakes, Dessert
Cuisine: American, Dessert

Ingredients

  • One box white or vanilla cake mix
  • 3 large eggs
  • ⅓ cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 cup water or milk
  • Two (3.4 oz each) boxes instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 3 cups milk
  • 1¼ cups heavy whipping cream
  • ¼ cup confectioners' sugar
  • Rainbow sprinkles
  • Assorted food coloring

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350° degrees F. Liberally grease a 13x9 rectangular light metal baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.
  • In a large bowl, beat together the cake mix, eggs, oil, and water with a handheld electric mixer until creamy and incorporated, about 2 minutes. Evenly divide the batter among 5 or 6 smaller bowls and tint each bowl a different color of the rainbow.
  • Spoon the different colored batters randomly into the pan in no particular order until all of the batter has been added to the pan. Resist the urge to swirl with a knife; this will muddy the colors.
  • Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with moist, but not wet, crumbs. Cool completely.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the pudding mix and milk until combined. Poke holes all over the surface of the cake using the handle of a wooden spoon, then pour the pudding mix over the holes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set.
  • Just before serving, make the whipped cream frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the heavy whipping cream and confectioners' sugar together with a whisk attachment on HIGH speed until stiff peaks form, about 5-7 minutes. Frost the cake with the whipped cream, then garnish with the rainbow sprinkles. Store any leftover cake covered in the refrigerator.

Rainbow Poke Cake on a white plate with a fork and a bite missing

You guys are going to love this moist, easy, and flavorful cake!

Craving more poke cake goodness? Check out these recipes!

strawberry banana poke cake on white plate with fork and fresh fruit in backgroundStrawberry Banana Poke Cake

banana pudding poke cake on blue plates with forkBanana Pudding Poke Cake

Tiramisu Poke Cake on white plate with fork and coffeeTiramisu Poke Cake

Amazing Rainbow Poke Cake collage

Have a super sweet day!

xo, Hayley

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments

  1. Bailey says

    May 19, 2020 at 9:12 am

    I NEED THAT FORK… did you buy this somewhere or have it custom made?

    Reply
    • thedomesticrebel says

      May 19, 2020 at 12:49 pm

      Hi Bailey, the fork is a set from Mud Pie!

      Reply
  2. Diana says

    June 10, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    How could Li d we put off these Poke Cskes Without Eggs Honey? I have allergy to them. Ty♡♡♡

    Reply
    • thedomesticrebel says

      June 11, 2020 at 8:23 pm

      Hi Diana, I have heard you can substitute eggs with applesauce, but I would Google what the measurements would be.

      Reply
  3. Paige Henley says

    July 11, 2020 at 4:17 pm

    5 stars
    Made this with my 2.5yo son for a play date. So easy, and turned out perfect. Will definitely be making it again. So fun.

    Reply
    • thedomesticrebel says

      July 11, 2020 at 7:12 pm

      Yay, so happy your son and his friend enjoyed!

      Reply
  4. Jean says

    June 27, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    5 stars
    can you use cool whip instead of frosting? Can you frost the cake sooner then right before serving? I am looking for ideas to frost it as I will be bringing it to a dinner and won’t be able to frost it there, plus it has 1 hour car drive

    Reply
    • thedomesticrebel says

      June 27, 2021 at 5:37 pm

      Hi Jean, you could totally use Cool Whip as frosting and you can probably frost it a few hours ahead of time – just keep it covered in the fridge.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




About me

Welcome to The Domestic Rebel! My name is Hayley and I am the 31-year old writer, photographer, recipe developer, taste-tester and creator of this blog. I’m so glad you’ve stopped by my little slice of sprinkly, butter-laden heaven on the interwebs. If it wasn’t apparent, I like to bake… a lot. Read More…

Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Featured Post

sugar pie squares stacked on a white plate and a green towel

Sugar Pie Squares

More Posts from this Category

Newsletter

Stay up to date with all posts

Order My Cookbooks!

Out of the box Holiday

Archives

Archives

Categories

Search

Visit my Instagram

Copyright © 2023 · Designer Blogs

779 shares