This fun and festive Tie Dye 4th of July Cake is so easy to make and the perfect patriotic party food to enjoy this holiday season. Tasty, colorful and super kid-friendly!
Transform your simple vanilla cake mix into a beautiful 4th of July Tie Dye Cake with this wonderful dessert recipe. This is such a fun and easy recipe that everyone will be wanting a slice.
I’ve been making this easy patriotic dessert recipe for years, every 4th of July, and it’s always well received. It brings a pretty pop of color to your dessert table.
Plus as the kids get older, it’s a cake recipe I can pass off to them to make because it’s that simple to put together. I don’t have to worry about the kids getting it wrong either, that’s the beauty of decorating with tie dye.
I’m a huge cake fan and you know that, and I’m not opposed to semi-homemade recipes. Some of the best recipes are semi-homemade or just a a boxed cake mix dressed up.
Seriously you can have so much fun with mixes and creating colors and flavors that you are missing out if you just rely on solely homemade recipes.
If you bring this to any gathering, trust me it will be one of the first recipes gone! People are somehow drawn to color and this Tie Die 4th of July Cake absolutely “takes the cake”.
Some of our other favorite cake recipes we have on our site include: Strawberry Coffee Cake, Marble Cake, and Rainbow Jello Poke Cake.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- Made with only 5 ingredients, food coloring and fresh berries for garnish.
- Adds an element of beauty to an everyday cake mix.
- Easy enough for kids to make.
- Fantastic dessert in under an hour.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM)
White cake mix
Water
Vegetable oil
Egg whites
Blue food coloring
Red food coloring
Whipped topping
Berries
HOW TO MAKE A TIE DYE 4TH OF JULY CAKE, STEP BY STEP:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with baking spray and set it aside.
- Add the cake mix, water, oil, and egg whites to a large mixing bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, mix ingredients together on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase the mixing speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.
- Put ¾ cup of the batter into a small mixing bowl and repeat using another bowl.
- Add blue food coloring to one of the bowls until you reach your desired shade of blue. Repeat the same thing with the second small bowl using red food coloring this time.
- Carefully, dollop each of the colored batters into the prepared baking dish. Evenly distribute the colors throughout the whole cake, be sure not to put too much of one color next to each other.
- Use a toothpick to swirl the colors together.
- Bake the cake for 29-34 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted into the center and comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely in the pan on top of a wire rack.
- Once the cake is completely cool, add the whipped topping and garnish with berries if desired before slicing and serving.
CAN I CREATE OTHER COLORS WITH THIS CAKE?
Absolutely, this is one of our go-to cakes for various different holidays and occasions because you can switch out the colors to fit pretty much anything.
So certainly switch out your food coloring to fit holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween and more. Kids absolutely love it!
DO I HAVE TO USE WHIPPED TOPPING?
If you don’t want to use whipped topping, or Cool Whip, for the frosting layer of the cake, some other options would be fresh homemade whipped cream, vanilla buttercream, or white chocolate frosting.
But if you do decide to swap out the whipped topping, I do suggest making whatever frosting you choose as white as possible to keep with the Patriotic theme.
WHAT KIND OF FOOD DYE DO YOU USE?
With a handful of different food dye options out there, sometimes it can be hard to know which one you should use.
For this Tie Dye 4th of July Cake, I always use gel food coloring instead of the liquid stuff because it saturates more evenly and brighter into the cake batter.
Just in case you want to know, I used Americolor in Super Red and Royal Blue to bring these beautiful, vibrant red and blue hues to the white cake mix.
HOW TO STORE:
Wrap any leftover slices of this 4th of July Tie Dye Swirl Cake with plastic wrap tightly before storing it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
This Tie Dye Cake is best eaten at room temperature so when you want any leftovers just let them sit out at room temp to warm up before diving in.
If you want, you can freeze, wrap in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil overtop the baking dish. It will keep for 3 months in the freezer.
To defrost, remove to the refrigerator overnight and then set up to come to room temperature.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- Switch up the colors for different holidays. This base recipe is perfect for so many holidays- just swap the red and blue with any colors you like! Rainbow tie-dye would also be super fun.
- I like to use a mix of strawberries and blueberries for the topping. But, you can really just leave them off and add some patriotic sprinkles on top if you want. Or, use any blue or red berries you like. I suggest only using fresh fruit, if it is frozen it will make the frosting watery.
- Wait to add the berries to each slice of cake until you’re serving.
- Use a clean knife to cut the cake. After each cut, wipe the blade clean so you can get nice clean slices of this Tie Dye Cake.
- You can freeze this cake, see above on how to do that.
- You can add melted chocolate wafers in patriotic colors drizzled on the top of an extra special touch.
Making this Tie Dye 4th of July Cake recipe is incredibly easy and absolutely stunning when you go to serve it up. Be sure to add it to your 4th of July dessert table this year.
IF YOU LIKE THIS RECIPE YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
If you’ve tried this TIE DYE 4TH OF JULY CAKE or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Tie Dye 4th of July Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large egg whites
- blue food coloring
- red food coloring
- 8 ounce container whipped topping
- berries for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with baking spray and set it aside.
- Add the cake mix, water, oil, and egg whites to a large mixing bowl. Using an electric hand mixer, mix ingredients together on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase the mixing speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.
- Put ¾ cup of the batter into a small mixing bowl and repeat using another bowl.
- Add blue food coloring to one of the bowls until you reach your desired shade of blue. Repeat the same thing with the second small bowl using red food coloring this time.
- Carefully, dollop each of the colored batters into the prepared baking dish. Evenly distribute the colors throughout the whole cake, be sure not to put too much of one color next to each other.
- Use a toothpick to swirl the colors together.
- Bake the cake for 29-34 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted into the center and comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely in the pan on top of a wire rack.
- Once the cake is completely cool, add the whipped topping and garnish with berries if desired before slicing and serving.
Notes
- Switch up the colors for different holidays. This base recipe is perfect for so many holidays- just swap the red and blue with any colors you like! Rainbow tie-dye would also be super fun.
- I like to use a mix of strawberries and blueberries for the topping. But, you can really just leave them off and add some patriotic sprinkles on top if you want. Or, use any blue or red berries you like. I suggest only using fresh fruit, if it is frozen it will make the frosting watery.
- Wait to add the berries to each slice of cake until you're serving.
- Use a clean knife to cut the cake. After each cut, wipe the blade clean so you can get nice clean slices of this Tie Dye Cake.
- You can freeze this cake, see above on how to do that.
- You can add melted chocolate wafers in patriotic colors drizzled on the top of an extra special touch.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
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