Tie Dye Cake Decorating Ideas

Although tie-dye reached its popularity peak in the 1970s, it is still useful today as a retro style. When you host a party that is '70s inspired, has a hippie theme, or is for a birthday, decorate the cake in the bright and colorful patterns of tie-dye style. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Tie-Dyed Batter

A tie-dyed cake should be decorated on both the outside and inside. Although guests will not see it right away, a colorful interior will appear as soon as you start slicing the cake. One easy way to add color to a white or yellow cake batter is to mix in about 2/3 cup of colorful candy sprinkles just before pouring the batter into the pan. For a bold tie-dyed interior, create a marbled cake with bright colors of cake batter. Separate white or yellow batter into multiple bowls and dye each with food coloring before pouring them into the cake pan. Swirl the batter a few times with the back of the spoon.

Frosting

Bakers have a few options for how to use frosting for the tie-dyed exterior of the cake. One technique is to use white frosting, then airbrush tie-dye bullseye patterns using a few colors of commercially prepared decorating spray. Another option is to spread a few colors of icing on the cake in a bullseye pattern and drag the back of a spoon to the edge from the center. If you are experienced with homemade fondant, prepare a few colors, twist ropes of fondant together, and roll them out to make colorful swirled fondant to cover the cake.

Symbols

Add symbols related to hippie tie-dye culture to the top of the frosted cake. Make a large peace sign on a round cake by piping frosting around the outside edge and lines through the center for the inside. Yellow smiley faces are also related to the hippie culture, so you could cut circles of yellow fondant, draw faces with black decorating gel, and place them all over the cake. You can also use fondant to make flowers in bright colors.

Shaped Cakes

Make a tie-dyed cake even more unique and bold by cutting it into a relevant shape before adding the frosting and decorations. Choose a shape relevant to tie-dye's popularity. For example, for a child who likes tie-dye T-shirts, cut a cake into that shape by trimming the sides and placing the scraps next to the top to make sleeves. If you are just going for the tie-dye pattern without reference to what it's on, make a starburst-shaped tie-dye cake by cutting reverse scallops around the edges of a round cake.