Polka Dot Cake

Here are some helpful tips and tricks for constructing a rainbow polka dot cake, decorated on the outside with the petal cake style.  

In this post, I'll focus on tips & tricks for execution rather than sharing a full recipe. Since you can find recipes for both of these types of cakes online already, I've linked to some recipes at the end of this post. 

For Talia's 8th birthday party, she wanted a polka dot birthday party. I knew that I wanted to make a cake surprise for her with a rainbow polka dot cake. I wasn't sure how I would decorate it on the outside until I came across what is called a petal cake which is the technique I used to frost the exterior- I love the effect!


Rainbow Polka Dot Cake
Rainbow Polka Dot Cake





How to Make a Polka Dot Cake


I used store bought cream cheese frosting for between the layers and a crumb coat (because I was worried that I would run out of the homemade cream cheese frosting that I used for the rainbow part). 


Frosting a Rainbow Petal Cake


If I were to make the cake again, I would probably use store bought icing bags & just cut off the ends so that they would all be equal (when I made this one I didn't have 6 of the same size icing tip or bag, so I had a mixture of sizes to work with and try to make them look even). 

Cake Surprise

Because I wasn't sure if I'd have enough icing and it was my first time frosting a cake this way, I was a bit stingy with my icing "squirts" and that meant that I had some white icing showing through at the end. I would do that differently next time. (and with the recipe I used (linked below), I would've had plenty of icing to do that- although I'm not SURE if I would've had enough to do between the layers & the crumb coat)

Rainbow Petal Cake

Below, you can see how I decorated the top:

Surprise Cakes


Creating Polka Dots Inside Cake


I was very happy with the polka dot interior of the cake! I made a lot of cake balls with one of these. I baked them for the recommended time (recommended by the information that came with the cake pop maker) which was fine, but I think I would do it for less time if I did it again, to avoid the brown edges of the cake pops (and polka dots). 

I used a whole cake mix for my cake balls and used the whole thing. I froze my cake pops because I made them a day early. I didn't quite use all of them, but I did completely fill my cake pans with cake pops before adding the white cake batter. This was a good move because we always had polka dots- wherever we cut the cake. I have seen other cakes like this where the cake pops were more sparse (and therefore there weren't always polka dots, depending on where you cut the cake).

I have read about people using different cake recipes for the cake balls than the rest of the cake- trying to make the cake balls more dense so that they don't float.. something like that. I didn't bother doing that and I think it turned out just fine! So, I would say don't worry about using different types of cake!

I made 3 6" layers, so it was a small diameter but the cake was tall, so I could cut thin pieces and we had more than enough cake to go around! So a total of 3 white cake mixes: one cake mix for the cake balls, and two cake mixes for the cake layers (divided into 3).

I only had one cake pan to work with. It would've been ideal if I had three 6" cake pans because I could've baked them all at once. But it worked fine with just one.

I was excited to see how it would look when I cut it and very happy with the result!




Polka Dot Cake

There are some other tips included with the polka dot cake tutorial that I will link to below that I used and worked well for me, but there were some that I didn't bother to do and it worked out just fine for me. For example, I didn't add anything unique to my cake mixes- I just followed the box instructions (using only egg white so that the colours would turn out well, but not adding pudding mixes or anything). 

But I did follow her instructions about covering the bottom of the pan just a bit with cake batter before placing the cake balls. And I tried to get batter in between each of the cake balls and cover them all. That was a bit tricky with how full my pans were with cake balls, but it worked fine.

Can You Freeze Cake With Icing?


ALSO, one more tip: Freezing a cake that's already decorated: The morning of Talia's party, there had been a TON of snow, and the plows didn't get out in time to make the drive safe for everyone to get here. Ken had been outside shoveling the driveway and had to push a couple of people out of our street! So, we had to postpone Talia's party (from a Saturday to a Friday) and I had just finished decorating the cake when we made that decision! (This cake was a fair bit of work, so I was not about to make another one a few days later! ;) So, I quickly started researching how to freeze frosted cake and decided to put the cake (cake plate and all!) in the freezer for several hours (5 or 6 maybe- but I think I read that 4 is enough) so that the icing would be very hard. Then I took it out and covered it with a couple of layers of plastic wrap. I left it in the freezer like that for almost a week and took it out the morning of the party (which would take place in the afternoon). I left it in the fridge for a couple of hours (still covered) then uncovered it and left it in the fridge until an hour or two before the party (I forget exactly) and it was in perfect shape! I was very happy with how well the freezing/thawing process went so I couldn't leave out this tip for how to freeze a decorated cake!


The elements of this cake were not my original ideas. I found both ideas (polka dot cakes and petal cakes) through Pinterest and decided to combine them - I found and followed this tutorial & frosting recipe to decorate the outside and this tutorial for the inside of the cake. I used this cake plate from Minted.com (was provided as part of an exchange for a previous sponsored post).

I hope this post will be helpful to anyone who wants to try a petal cake or a polka dot surprise cake sometime in the future! :) (Or if you need to freeze a fully decorated cake for any reason :)





If you're looking for rainbow cake ideas, you might like some of these posts:

Rainbow Cake


Easy DIY Rainbow Layer Cake


Rainbow Swirl Cake


And a couple of other rainbow food ideas:

Rainbow Cookies


Mini Rainbow Pancakes




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57 comments:

  1. So cute ! I always love to think I could do something like this ! Lol good job !

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  2. I've never seen that! SOOOO adorable! I'm going to have to make one! Thanks for the tips!

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    1. Thanks! :) And it is definitely do-able if you've got the time! :)

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  3. I LOVE this! I just started a website, www.realimprints.org, and it's dedicated to sharing the good, the real, and the inspiring! I'd love your story on our blog! It would bless so many other Moms. We would obviously link to your site as well. Check it out! See if it's something you'd be interested in doing. I love your site and will definitely be following you!

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  4. Beautiful cake! I tried the polka dots before and everything overflowed! Yours definitely looks so much better! Its fun to see and I really like the outside. Just might have to try again for my next daughter's baptism. Thanks!

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    1. Thanks Camille! :) If you try it for her baptism, I hope it goes a little better for you! :)

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  5. So awesome. I am going to share this with college age daughter who loves to bake

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  6. Oh my gosh.. I want your talent.. My daughter had a rainbow art party a few years ago and this would have been perfect!

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  7. G'day and WOW you have a lot of patience heather, true!
    Cake looks fun and I want one now for my birthday too! :)
    Sharing the #SITSSharefest love today!
    Cheers! Joanne
    http://whatsonthelist.net

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  8. OMGGGGG so much do this for my girls upcoming bday party!

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  9. Wow, that is one eye catcher! I bet it would get tons of raves at a party!! (I was a cake decorator for 20 years and I've never made one like that!)

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  10. That's a really neat idea! Thanks!

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  11. I am TOTALLY making this for my daughter's bday in May!

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  12. Thank you for the tips. I am making this for my daughter's birthday party and am very nervous. I wish you had done a tutorial because it was so hard to print the recipe from the polka dot blog. But I think I finally got it.

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  13. Gorgeous! Perfect! Love it! Can't wait to try it! Of course, mine would never look as good as yours, but I certainly can try! :)

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  14. Thank you for sharing. This is beautiful!

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  15. You are amazing to care about your children so much to do this for them.

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  16. This is adorable I just had a cookie dough disaster I doubt I could make anything like this.

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  17. im just loving these pretty colors.beautiful !!

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  18. Wow,I just cant get over the job you done,its beautiful

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  19. That is so cool!! Our daughters would love one!! I will have to tackle it as a surprise someday soon :)

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  20. I'm going to try this for my Daughters next birthday. Thanks for the helpful tips.

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  21. Wow! This is amazing! I love all the rainbow colors! How fun!

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  22. Love, love, love this! Thank you for the tips! I never would have thought of putting cake balls into a cake mix! Beautiful frosting! Pinned.

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  23. This is gorgeous! What a cool idea. I need to try this.

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  24. LOVE this! Pinning it to give it a try. Glad I saw it Spring Fever w/ Inspired Bloggers.

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  25. I LOVE this!! So fun and bright and springy! I just have my first little girl 6 weeks ago, but I think I'll be making this for her first birthday!! I'll be featuring you over at Someday Crafts tomorrow morning.

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  26. Super impressive! I want to do this for my girls 3rd birthday!

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  27. this is so beautiful & looks absolutely delicious! you are one talented mama :o)

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  28. Wow! Amazingly artistic and the results are beautiful! Almost too pretty to eat!

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  29. My boys would go crazy for this cake!

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  30. My little girls would love this, you could also serve it at any time

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  31. What a cute cake! Perfect for every occasions!

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  32. What a marvellous job you did of making this cake, I'll bet it went down well with the kids (adults too I'm guessing) :-)

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  33. Beautiful cake. I had to read the post to see how you did it, cake pops! I'd never of guessed. Great job! I have a cake pop pan too, I wonder if it would be fun to make a "rock" cake for a boy? Chocolate cake for soil, and gray or tan colored "rocks" topped with green icing and gummy worms? I'll have to ask him :) Thanks for the idea.

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  34. What a cool cake! Never made on like this. My son is all into rainbows right now. I may make this for him.

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  35. You put so much effort into this and it looks incredible. I see what you mean about the brown around the polka dots, but it looks amazing. Well done.

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  36. I love the frosting. Just beautiful!

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  37. Everytime I see this cake I have to stop and look it really is beautiful,you my friend are very talented and have much patience !

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  38. wow this looks yummy! Love the creativity!

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  39. This is such a pretty cake. Great job!!!

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  40. Thanks would like to make with my grand daughters.

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  41. Beautiful cake! Thank you for the tips and recipe.

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  42. Love this cake, I need to show my daughter this so she can make it for her daughter

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  43. How fun is this? love the colours and design of this cake. so fun for the kiddos!

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  44. What a delicious looking cake...love the colors you used to decorate it!

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  45. I love this cake. My daughter would be excited to have this cake for her birthday as well.

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Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment- I love reading them! :)
~Heather Lynne