If you’re looking for a super soft cake that screams fun and flavor, this funfetti cake is it! This from-scratch funfetti cake recipe is a celebration in every bite, boasting a fluffy vanilla white cake with the most tender crumb, packed with a carnival of colorful sprinkles. It’s not just a cake – it’s a party for your taste buds!
What is a Funfetti Cake?
A Funfetti cake (sometimes called a confetti cake) is a type of cake that is characterized by its colorful sprinkles mixed into the batter, giving it a festive and fun appearance. The term “Funfetti” is often associated with a specific brand of boxed cake mix produced by Pillsbury, but it has become a popular term for any cake featuring colorful sprinkles.
The base of a Funfetti cake is typically a vanilla-flavored cake (in my case I’ve adapted my white cake recipe as the base for this recipe), with rainbow sprinkles mixed into the cake batter. Once baked, the cake should have a moist and fluffy texture with bursts of color from the sprinkles.
Funfetti cakes are often used for celebrations, birthdays, or any occasion where a touch of whimsy and joy is desired. They are usually frosted with a vanilla or buttercream frosting and can be further decorated with more sprinkles on top, because why not?!
So yes, a funfetti cake is basically just a vanilla cake with sprinkles added into the batter. BUT, you have to admit.. it’s a gorgeous, fun cake to look at! I promise it tastes great too 🙂
How to Make Funfetti Cake
Funfetti Cake Layers
First we’re going to make the funfetti cake layers.
Begin by preheating your oven to 180 °C (350°F) and grease and line two 8-inch round cake pans. I use my homemade cake release to grease my tins, and I line the bottoms with parchment paper. If you’re using a fan function (convection mode) to bake your cakes, reduce the baking temperature to 160C (320F).
In a bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
Combine milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Vinegar is great for providing a tender crumb – check out this blog post for more information. Mix and set aside.
Next separate the yolks and whites from 6 large egg whites. This recipe only uses the egg whites. Don’t throw the egg yolks away 🙂 simply place them into an airtight container and pop them into the fridge to use for something else (like lemon curd or French buttercream). Set aside for now.
In another bowl, add in your butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer are both fine), cream together for 3 minutes until light and creamy.
Add in egg whites in 4 batches on a low speed, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between each batch).
Add in vanilla extract or essence, and half of the milk/vinegar mixture and mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
Add in half of your premixed flour mixture to your wet mixture, and gently fold with a spatula until just combined. Then add in the remaining milk/vinegar mixture, and fold until just combined. Lastly, add in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold until just combined. Do not overmix.
Finish off by folding in the sprinkles until just combined. Do not overmix.
Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool before frosting with the vanilla buttercream recipe below.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
This buttercream recipe is one of my favorite frosting recipes of all time! It’s so easy to make, not too sweet, and has the most gorgeous smooth texture.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (you can use a hand mixer too), add in the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and cream.
Using the paddle attachment, mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are combined (about a minute), and then mix on a medium-high speed for a full 10 minutes. Scrape the bowl down half way through. Once the frosting is light and fluffy, it’s ready to use. See note 6 if buttercream is curdling or very firm.
How to Decorate a Funfetti Cake
If your cakes have a dome on the top, begin by levelling the tops so that the layers are nice and flat.
Place your first cake layer onto your cake stand, and spread out a generous amount of the frosting on top. I like to use my offset spatula to do this.
Place the next cake layer on top and cover the top and sides with more frosting. If you have a cake scraper, you can use it to smooth out the sides. I like to do a little bit of piping on the top (I used a 1M piping tip for this cake), and piped little swirls on the top.
Finish by sprinkling some rainbow sprinkles onto each swirl, and then use the palm of your hands to gently press some of the sprinkles up against the side of the cake (see video for demonstration).
Commonly Asked Questions
How do you store funfetti cake?
This cake can be left at room temperature for a day, after which it should be placed into the refrigerator. To prevent the cake from drying out, place it into an air tight container before placing into the fridge.
Moist Funfetti Cake
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
Funfetti Cake
- 2⅓ cups (300 g) flour - regular all purpose (see note 1 if you want to use cake flour)
- ¼ cup (25 g) cornstarch
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt - omit if using salted butter
- 1 cup (240 g) milk - room temperature
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 6 large (225 g) egg whites - room temperature, size 7 eggs
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- ½ cup (110 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola
- 1⅔ cups (333 g) white granulated sugar
- 1¼ tbsp vanilla essence/extract
- ½ cup (60 g) rainbow sprinkles - use the thin long sprinkles, not the round nonpareil sprinkles (see note 5)
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1½ cups (340 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- 3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar - also known as icing/confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla essence/extract
- ½ cup (120 g) cream - room temperature heavy or whipping cream, minimum fat percentage of 34%
Extra for decorating
- ½ cup (60 g) rainbow sprinkles - you can use more or less for decorating
Instructions
Funfetti Cake
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) (see note 4 if using a fan function) and grease and line two 8 inch cake tins. I use my homemade cake release to grease my tins, and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, sift together your flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
- Combine the milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Mix and set aside.
- Separate the yolks and whites from 6 large egg whites. You should end up with 225g of egg whites. Set aside for now.
- In another bowl, add in your butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer are both fine - see note 2), cream together for 3 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in egg whites in 4 batches on a low-medium speed, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between each batch).
- Add in your vanilla flavoring, and half of the milk/vinegar mixture and mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
- Add in half of your premixed dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and gently fold with a spatula until just combined. Then add in the remaining milk/vinegar mixture, and fold until just combined. Lastly, add in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold until just combined. Do not overmix (see note 3).
- Finish off by folding in the sprinkles until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool before frosting with the vanilla buttercream recipe below.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (you can use a hand mixer too), add in the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and cream.
- Using the paddle attachment, mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are combined (about a minute), and then turn up the speed to a medium high and mix for a full 10 minutes. Scrape the bowl down half way through.
- Once the frosting is light and fluffy, it's ready to use. See note 6 if buttercream is curdling or very firm.
Decorating
- If your cakes have a dome on the top, begin by levelling the tops so that the layers are nice and flat. These funfetti cake layers bake up relatively flat, so I usually skip this step for this cake.
- Place your first cake layer onto your cake stand, and spread out a generous amount of the frosting on top.
- Place the next cake layer on top and cover the top and sides with more frosting. If you have a cake scraper, you can use it to smooth out the sides. I like to do a little bit of piping on the top (I used a 1M piping tip for this cake), and piped little swirls on the top.
- Finish by sprinkling some rainbow sprinkles onto each swirl, and then use the palm of your hands to gently press some of the sprinkles up against the side of the cake (see video for demonstration).
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
53 Comments
Hi Maryam, this recipe looks great. Is there are reason you don’t beat the egg whites before folding them into the batter? I’m sure this method makes for a better cake, so want to know your rationale. Thanks!
This cake looks amazingly moist. What affect would gluten free flour have on this?
Thanks so much Erin! 🙂
I haven’t tried with gluten free flour myself, though many readers have tried my recipes uses a gluten free flour thats meant to act as a 1:1 replacement with all purpose flour (like Bob’s red mill) and it seems to work well! Would love to hear how it goes if you decide to try it out 🙂
I’m dying to try this recipe but I’m wondering if I use the entire egg or just the white ?
Hi Amelia 🙂 So glad you’re wanting to try this recipe!
You’ll only need the egg whites for this recipe. Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the cake 🙂
Can you use box pasteurized egg whites?
Hi Jose! 🙂
I haven’t tried box egg whites myself, but I think it shiould work fine for this cake 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
I would love to make this beautiful cake for my granddaughter birthday! How do I storage it, can it be left out on the countertop, or do it need to be stored in the refrigerator? thanks for sharing 🤗
Hi Everline! So happy to hear you’re wanting to make this cake for your granddaughters birthday 😀
If made the day before it’s fine to leave on the counter if it isn’t too humid/hot where you live as long as the cake layers are completely covered in frosting so they don’t dry out 🙂
Alternatively, you can pop the frosted cake into the fridge and then bring it out a few hours before it’s going to be served to allow it to come to room temp so the cake layers are nice and soft.
Hope that helps and hope your granddaughter has a wonderful birthday 🙂
Hi Maryam you added something else at the end of your icing and you didnt mwntion it in the video or ingredients list, what is it please? Its in a little glass jar? It might make all the difference to the icing
Hi Stacey! 🙂 I just had a quick look through the video and everything I use is in the ingredients list 🙂 I think you might mean the heavy cream?
I used unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and heavy cream in the frosting 🙂
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!
omg omg I made the cake for my grandson birthday and my goodness it was beyond good, everyone ,enjoyed it many thanks for the recipe
Aww yay! So glad everyone loved the recipe Irene 😀
Really appreciate the wonderful feedback and happy birthday to your grandson 🙂