Colourful Rainbow Cookies. Did you know this week is World Baking Day? However, there seems to be some confusion about the exact date. It could be the seventeenth or the twentieth. But the girls and I don’t need an excuse to bake on any day. They have been asking for a while for us to make rainbow cookies. We made them previously for a birthday and they are a firm favourite.

World Baking Day – Colourful Rainbow Cookies
Baking is almost as old as humanity. The first recipes were probably simple flat breads cooked on hot stones. The Romans ( surprisingly! ) commercialised baking and cake making was a respected profession. In Pompeii there are the ruins of over thirty commercial bakeries. The bread was a form of what we would now call sourdough.
By the Middle Ages the English had a system of complex laws regulating what could be baked and when. Bakers Guilds were established to protect members interests. Medieval recipes included tarts, puddings, and almond cakes. By the Victorian era baking was becoming heavily industrialised but flour was often bulked out with chalk, bone dust and chemicals such as alum. Fortunately, today we are lucky to have access to amazing ingredients and everyone can bake. From the simplest biscuit to elaborate cakes and desserts.
Making Colourful Rainbow Cookies
The recipe is quite easy, but you will need a few extra ingredients as well as a roll of food wrap or clingfilm. You can find food colouring in any large supermarket or specialist baking shop. I like to use a gel-based colour as you use less, and your biscuit mix is unlikely to become sticky. You will need the colours of the rainbow. However, you can mix red and yellow for orange and blue and red for purple. We cheated slightly and omitted one colour in our rainbow.
When you have made the cookie mix you need to divide it into six bowls. Start with a couple of dessert spoons in the first bowl and roughly double up in each bowl. Then mix each bowl with your food colouring.

Chill the coloured dough in the fridge for fifteen minutes and then roll the purple into a sausage shape. Roll the remaining colours out between sheets of cling film. Working in reverse order wrap the colours around the purple cookie cylinder.

You will then end up with a large rainbow cookie roll. Trim off the ends and use to make multi coloured cookies and thoroughly chill.

Carefully cut in half then slice into semi circles about 3/4 centimetre in thickness.

Spread out onto a tray with baking parchment or a silicon baking mat. Bake, as per the recipe. If you prefer a crunchy biscuit style cookie cook a little longer. Allow to cool slightly on the tray. Before transferring to a wire baking rack to cool completely.
Colourful Rainbow Cookies
Equipment
- Baking Parchment
- Plastic wrap or cling film
- A large mixing bowl
- 6 smaller bowls
- A Rolling pin
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 400 gram Self-raising Flour sifted
- 250 gram Jersey Butter at room temperature
- 300 gram Golden Caster Sugar
- 2 free-range Eggs
- 2 Vanilla Pods opened and seeds removed
- Food Colourings
Instructions
For the Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 375 F / 190 C / Gas Mark 5 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
- Rub the butter, flour and sugar together in a bowl until it makes a sandy textured crumb.
- Mix the eggs and vanilla together before combining with the flour, sugar and butter mix.
- Divide the cookie mix as follows, divide it into six bowls. Start with a couple of dessert spoons in the first bowl and roughly double up in each bowl. Then mix each bowl with your food colouring. ( See pictures in the post ).
- Chill the coloured dough in the fridge for fifteen minutes and then roll the purple into a sausage shape. Roll the remaining colours out between sheets of cling film. Working in reverse order wrap the colours around the purple cookie cylinder.
- You will then end up with a large rainbow cookie roll. Trim off the ends and use to make multi coloured cookies and thoroughly chill.
- Carefully cut in half then slice into semi circles about 3/4 centimetre in thickness.
- Spread out onto a tray with baking parchment or a silicon baking mat. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Ten for a softer, chewy cookie, twelve for a more crisp biscuit.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes then transfer onto wire rack.
Amazing
These colourful rainbow cookies look absolutely delicious! I love how you shared the history of baking and how it has evolved over time. My logical question is, what inspired you to try making rainbow cookies for the first time and how did you come up with this recipe? These colourful rainbow cookies look absolutely delicious! I love how you shared the history of baking and how it has evolved over time. My logical question is, what inspired you to try making rainbow cookies for the first time and how did you come up with this recipe?
Jessica
http://www.befitandhealthy.net/
Hi thank you for your lovely message.
I always like to add something interesting about history or culture because I find it fascinating and it’s a blog from my heart.
We first made rainbow cookies a few years ago with different colours in segments but these are the first rainbow shape.