I found the cutest mini cake pans by Wilton’s a few years ago, and ever since, I’ve been inspired to make mini ombré cakes for nearly every birthday party. It’s super easy to do!

My toddler even loves making these mini cakes, and it’s so fun to cut into! When you’re ready for the birthday part, I’ve rounded up some fun candles at the end of this post.

1. Prep the cake mix. It doesn’t matter whether you use a box mix or make your own cake, but you should aim for white, funfetti, or yellow cake to show the color.
2. Get your food coloring ready. (Sidenote: I’m on the lookout for more natural colorings, so comment below if you have any favorites!)
3. You can do multiple or rainbow colors, but I really love choosing one color and just ombre-ing it out (is that a term?!). For this one, I chose red.
4. After your pans are greased and cake is mixed, grab your color and start with the lightest. Get it to where you’d like. I usually like to add one drop of food coloring to start.
5. Pour into your cake pan.
6. Add another drop or two of color, mix, and pour!
7. Keep going until you’ve got all cake pans filled. When I use my mini cake pans, I use five total.

The Cutest Birthday Candles from Amazon