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.
64 Comments
Can you use eggs white substitutes for the egg whites?
Hi Tammy! 🙂 I think it depends what kind of egg white substitute. If the substitute is meant to mimic egg whites then it may work fine, but I don’t think substitutes like yoghurt or tofu would work for this recipe 🙂
I made these in cupcake form using half ingredients. Makes exactly 12 cupcakes.
Every time I cream the butter it never turns light and fluffy like yours. The end product isn’t as firm. But they still tasted great and we’re super moist.
So happy to hear the recipe came out great as cupcakes Rob 😀
With creaming the butter, it could be because the butter is a tad too soft, so it isn’t able to hold as much air and therefore the mixture isn’t as firm. Using slightly firmer butter may help 🙂
It could also be the ratio of butter, sugar and oil. For best results, I would recommend using the gram measurements (if you didn’t already) just to make sure there isn’t too much oil which could be making the mixture less firm too. Nonetheless, sounds like they turned out great anyway so awesome job on your end 😀
I am a big fan. I have made chocolate, vanilla, lemon cakes from your channel. They turned out so delicious.
Thank you so much for educating me on baking.
My son’s 3 Rd birthday is coming up. I want to make a dump truck cake. I have few questions,
1. Can I use your cake as the base cake recipe to cover then in fondant. Would it be okay?
2. If I have to bake It on 9*13 inch tray , how much would I need.
I’m an absolute beginner and can’t seem to understand conversions . Could you kindly help. I’d be very grateful.
Lots of love
Aarathy
Yay! So so happy to hear you’ve tried a few recipes from the blog Aarathy and that you loved them all 😀
To answer your questions, yes this recipe should work fine under fondant and for a 9×13 inch tray 1x this recipe will be enough 🙂 usually cake recipes that make two 8 inch cake layers (thick layers) have enough batter for one 9×13 inch cake 🙂
Hope that helps and all the best with the dump truck cake!
I made this for a special birthday celebration and it was so simple to make and absolutely delicious. A big success! I did 3 layers of cake and added freshly cut strawberry pieces in between the layers, which worked well. Thanks for a great recipe!
Awesome!! So so happy to hear the cake turned out lovely 🙂 the addition of strawberries inbetween the cake layers sounds so so good! I’ve never tried that with funfetti cake before so I’ll have to give it a go sometime 🙂
Hi MK, I want to make an eggless funfetti cake. Would it be good to use your eggless vanilla cake recipe with buttercream frosting (used in your funfetti cake recipe).
Thanks!
Hi Pratiksha! 🙂 Yes you could totally do that! Just keep in mind the eggless cake will be a little sweeter due to the funfetti sprinkles in the cake. You could reduce the sugar in the cake by about 2 tbsp to balance the sweetness a little 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Wonderful and moist cake. Dense like an old fashioned donut! Made it in a Bundt pan and it rose tall.
Awesome! So so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Kristina! 🙂
On a side note, when baked as two 8 inch cakes, it is more fluffy as opposed to dense – wondering if the batter may have been a little too delicate for it to have a fluffy texture when baked in a bundt pan maybe? Nonetheless it sounds like it still turned out great which I am so glad about 😀
Hi there,
I thought I posted a comment previously but cant seem to see it now. I am wanting to make a cake that is taller than it is wider, perhaps 7 inch. Can I make 3x 7 inch cakes with the normal 1x recipe or do i need to adjust the recipe.
Thanks,
Abby
Hi Abby! 🙂 Ahh yess sorry about that – if it’s your first time commenting on the blog then your email has to be approved to prevent spam :). I have been on holiday so have been a bit slow to respond, but have approved your first comment which means that any additional comments you make now should show up straight away :). Here is my response to your previous comment: Hi Abby! 🙂 You could use the recipe as is, though the cake layers may just be a little thinner. If you prefer thicker cake layers, then making 1.25x the recipe would be ideal, but for ease you could make 1.5x the recipe and make cupcakes with any leftover batter 🙂
Hope that helps!
Hi there, I was wanting to make a three layer 7 inch cake so its a bit taller than it is wide. Can I use the same recipe or do I need to adjust?
Thanks
Abby
Hi Abby! 🙂 You could use the recipe as is, though the cake layers may just be a little thinner. If you prefer thicker cake layers, then making 1.25x the recipe would be ideal, but for ease you could make 1.5x the recipe and make cupcakes with any leftover batter 🙂
Hope that helps!
Can I use this recipe for cupcakes?
Hello Mk, I wouldlike to know when you write 1/2X, 1X, 2X, does that mean 1/2kg, 1kg, 2kg. I really love your recipes and anytime i use them the result is perfect. Love from Kenya
Hi Gloria! 🙂 So the 1/2X, 1X, 2X, is referring to the amount of batter, for example 1/2x = half the amount of batter which will make one 8 inch cake, 1x = the original recipe which will make two 8 inch cakes, and then 2x = double the recipe which will make four 8 inch cakes. Hope that helps and so happy to hear you’ve been loving the recipes 😀