Watermelon Cake Is Summer In A Slice (2024)

How To Make Watermelon Cake

Ingredients

• Cake Mix: The best part of this cake? I use boxed white cake mix to make this recipe as easy as ever. Make sure to get two boxes! And, of course, if you want to make this homemade, checkout our white cake recipe.
• Chocolate Chips: Chocolate chips = our watermelon seeds. I suggest using mini so that they appear as seed-like as possible, but full-size will work in a pinch. Dark chocolate chips will give the best color for the cake, so I recommend opting for that (or semi-sweet if necessary).
• Frosting: A simple buttercream frosting (divided and colored) is what decorates our cake. It’s not only easy to make, but very easy to decorate a cake with.
• Food Coloring: You’ll need 3 tubes of gel food coloring for this recipe: red for the cake and frosting, and green and yellow for decorating your cake. Make sure to get gel food coloring instead of liquid, and add a bit of food coloring then adjust as needed. If you add too much, you could risk your colors becoming too dark.
• Vodka: To decorate the outside of the cake, you’ll mix vodka with the food coloring. This turns the food coloring into a paint-like substance, making it easier to decorate the outside of the cake.
• Jelly Beans: While chocolate chips create the seeds on the inside of the cake, mini black jelly beans create the seeds on the top of our cake. I prefer how eye-catching these look, but you can use regular-sized jelly beans or chocolate chips if you prefer.

Step-By-Step Instructions

The first step in creating this masterpiece is to create and bake your cakes. Line cake pans with parchment paper and spray liberally with cooking spray, then get your boxed mixes out. Prepare your cake mixes according to the instructions, then get out the food coloring. Add around 4 teaspoons of the red gel food coloring to the cake, mixing well. This creates the perfect watermelon color in my eyes, but feel free to adjust as needed! Use a light hand to avoid overdoing it.

Once your batter is your desired color, grab a separate bowl, and pour in your chocolate chips. Toss your chocolate chips with flour—this will stop them from all sinking to the bottom of your cake. Once they are all well mixed, add them into your batter and mix well.

Once your chocolate chips are folded in, divide your cake batter between your pans, and bake according to the package instructions. You can use the toothpick test as well: Inserting a toothpick into the cake, and removing when the toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool completely before attempting to remove them from their pan (don't rush this!), then invert them onto wire racks to cool completley.

Now, we can move onto our frosting. With a hand mixer, make your buttercream frosting. If the frosting is too stiff after beating everything together, then add a little bit more milk at a time until you reach your desired texture. Then, divide the frosting between two separate bowls, and add the remaining 1 teaspoon of food coloring to one of the bowls, leaving the other white. Again, adjust the food coloring here as needed.

Now, let's get to assembling! Before layering your cakes, level your cakes to create even layers. Need help with this? Checkout how Senior Food Editor Makinze Gore does it in her chocolate cake video. Add some red frosting to the bottom of the cake plate to keep the entire cake in place, then place down one cake. Spread on some of the red frosting, then top with the second cake. Repeat this process, until you finish with the fourth layer of cake. Place the remaining white frosting in a pastry bag, and pipe a circle around the edge of the top of the cake. Then, spread a crumb coat around the outside of the cake. What's a crumb coat? A thin layer of frosting applied to the cake before the final coat of frosting is added. Once that's done, transfer it to the refrigerator until the frosting is fully hardened. This should take around 1 hour.

After the crumb coat has hardened, spread the rest of the white frosting on the outside of the cake until fully coated. Then, fill in the top circle of the cake with red frosting. Be careful here not to combine the red frosting with the outer circle of white frosting. Then, get out the rest of your food coloring! In two small bowls, add your food coloring and vodka. Using separate sponges, blot the colors in vertical lines up the sides of the white frosting. Keep going, slightly layering your colors, until you create the desired rind pattern. Need more help? Refer to the video above!

Once your rind pattern is complete, finish the cake off by pressing in jelly beans into the top of the cake in the red icing. There are no rules here—press as many as you'd like.

Once your cake is ready, slice in to reveal the beautiful inside, then serve!

Storage

If you have any leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 4 to 5 days.

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Made This?

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