Even for special occasions, I would rather look to nature to provide wholesome tints to the desserts I make for my family. For a simple way to create a multicolored cake, I decided to employ my blender and swirl the colors rather than bake separate layers. What resulted was a lovely cake and fewer pans to wash. I hope you’ll enjoy this simplified, more natural approach to making a rainbow cake in just one pan.

Ingredients:

16 ounce (454 g) box vanilla cake mix

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/2 cup melted vegan margarine, butter, or coconut oil

2 to 3 Tbsp. mixed berry juice concentrate or beet juice (for pink tint)

2 to 3 Tbsp. cooked carrots (for orange tint)

2 Tbsp. packed baby spinach leaves (for green tint)

2 Tbsp. blueberries (for blue tint)

5 blackberries (for purple tint)

Directions:

1. Mix together melted butter, milk, and eggs. Add cake mix and ginger; whisk together until combined well. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).

2. Scoop out 1/2 cup batter and whisk in mixed berry or beet juice to tint the batter pink. Pour batter into a greased 8 by 8-inch square baking dish or pan.

3. Transfer another 1/2 cup plain batter to blender and add cooked carrots. Puree carrots with batter until a smooth orange color is achieved. Pour orange batter into baking dish.

4. Pour 1/2 cup plain batter over orange batter layer. Transfer another 1/2 cup plain batter to blender and add spinach leaves. Puree until batter is smooth and green. Pour green batter into baking dish.

5. Transfer 1/2 cup plain batter into blender and add blueberries. Puree until batter is smooth and tinted blue. Pour blue batter into baking dish.

6. Transfer 1/2 cup plain batter into blender and add blackberries. Puree until batter is smooth and tinted purple. Pour purple batter into baking dish.

7. Swirl colored batter briefly with a butter knife. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 C) until cake tests done, about 40 minutes.

8. Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.

Notes:

• I made a simple whipped frosting from chilled coconut cream, powdered sugar to taste, and a couple of drops of pure vanilla extract.
• Next time I would like to try using beet juice for the pink tint; the berry juice concentrate that I had on hand did not show up that well after baking.

Find more healthy recipes at Pennywise Platter this week.