Funfetti Cake
Updated March 26, 2019
Funfetti Cake-white layer cake with colorful sprinkles and vanilla buttercream frosting. This is the perfect cake for any celebration!
Birthday Funfetti
Tomorrow is Caleb’s fifth birthday! How did that happen? I can’t believe we are going to have a five year old. I am trying not to think about it. In my eyes, he is still my little baby. He was so little! I love his baby pictures and remember that day like it was yesterday.
We are celebrating today with Funfetti Cake. I let Caleb pick his birthday treat and he insisted on having a white cake with lots and lots of sprinkles. He said no chocolate. WHAT? Who’s kid is this? ☺
I granted Caleb his birthday wish and made him a Funfetti Layer Cake with lots of sprinkles. We celebrated early with cake and tomorrow we are having a fun popsicle party with friends. Again, Caleb’s choice, this kid picks all of the fun treats.
How To Make “Confetti” Cake
I love this white cake because it is easy to make and is a good white cake recipe to have in your back pocket. It has a nice crumb, is moist, sturdy, and is good plain or jazzed up. I added sprinkles to make the birthday boy happy, but a plain white cake would be good too! I also used a simple white buttercream to frost the cake, but you could use chocolate frosting, lemon frosting, cookies and cream frosting, strawberry frosting, or whatever frosting your heart desires.
I added sprinkles to the batter, in the center of the cake, and on top of the cake because it is a FUNfetti cake. This cake is all about the fun! I used Sweetopolita’s sprinkles because they are the BEST! All of the sprinkles make me so happy! I want them all.
If you are looking for a fun cake to make, give this Funfetti Cake a whirl. It is the perfect party cake and is great for any celebration, especially birthdays. Caleb loved his special cake. He said it was the best birthday cake ever. That is a pretty good compliment coming from a FIVE year old.
Happy birthday Caleb! We love you buddy!
Funfetti Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 1/4 cups cake flour plus more for dusting the pans
- 1 cup whole milk at room temperature
- 6 large egg whites at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- Sprinkles rainbow jimmies
For the Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
- 5 cups confectioners sugar sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3-4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
- Sprinkles for decorating
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds, dust the pans with flour, and invert pans and tap to remove excess flour. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine milk, egg whites, and vanilla. Whisk together until well blended.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low with the beater blade. Add the butter and continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs. Add all but ½ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed 1 ½ minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium speed and beat 20 seconds longer. Fold in the sprinkles.
- Divide batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the preheated oven on the middle rack. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cakes rest in pans for 3-5 minutes. Loosen the cake from the sides of the pans with a knife and invert onto wire cooling racks. Let cakes cool completely.
- While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the softened butter. With the beater blade, cream the butter until smooth, using the beater blade. This will take about 3 minutes on medium speed. Add confectioner's sugar, ½ a cup at a time. Add vanilla and a pinch of salt and combine until well-incorporated. Add heavy cream or milk until the frosting has reached the preferred consistency. For a thicker frosting, you can add more confectioner's sugar, a ¼ cup at a time. For a thinner frosting, you can add more heavy cream or milk, 1 tablespoon at time.
- Using a serrated knife, trim a very thin layer from the top of each cake, just enough to even out the surface; set scraps aside. Place one cake on a cake stand or plate. Evenly spread vanilla buttercream over the top of the cake. Decorate with sprinkles. Carefully place the second cake on top, cut-side down, so you have a really smooth, even surface to frost. Frost the top and sides of the cake with remaining vanilla buttercream, using an offset spatula or thin knife. Decorate the top with more sprinkles. Cut into pieces and serve!
- Note-The cake layers can be made in advance. Bake, cool, and cover tightly with plastic wrap the day before. Store at room temperature. You can also make the frosting the day before. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Let come to room temperature and beat again. Assemble the cake right before you are ready to serve. You can also keep the cake covered with plastic wrap on the counter for up to 2 days. It is best the day it is made though!
Have you tried this recipe?
Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod
Too cute Maria! Love all of those fun colors!
How is that sweet boy so big already?! It seems like he was a baby just yesterday. Happy birthday, precious Caleb!!
I love this cake — it looks So perfect and happy! Rosie’s sprinkles really are the best.
My all time favorite layer cake!!
Very cute cake and great picture of Caleb eating his cake! Can’t believe how fast time flies –
What a fun cake!!
Happy birthday Caleb!
Maria, my son requested no chocolate cake but white with lots of sprinkles in August. Your cake looks delicious and I know my boy will love it!
Loving this cake! I gotta go with Caleb – I do love chocolate, but I’m not so much for chocolate cake. I kind of want one of these cakes for my birthday, too! 🙂 The sprinkles are totally fun; love the combination with the candy beads. I will have to check out Sweetapolita’s site.
You will love her sprinkles!
What altitude are you at? I’m in Denver and wondering if I need to adjust for high altitude. I make your recipes all the time and don’t adjust and they all turn out great, however I’ve never made one of your cakes or cupcakes.
We are around 4500 feet.
Hey girl This cake looks so tasty! Happy Birthday Caleb!
Happy Birthday to Caleb and I love this Cake!!
Happy Birthday Caleb, your cake looks awesome!
This cake looks incredible! I’m definitely making this for my husband’s birthday in a couple weeks!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
The cake looks some good, my granddaughters Birthday is today the 27th,she is 4.
GAH! Funfetti! Love this! This is the perfect cake for a celebration!
What a fun & festive cake!
This cake looks so absolutely delicious! Happy Birthday Caleb!
Oh gracious. I made this cake today and the centers didn’t rise. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what went wrong. Checked my baking powder…yes, still good. Was it my oven? (Looking for an excuse to get a new one…haha). After a couple hours it dawned on me. I thought I had followed your instructions exactly. I struggle with the principle “read the whole recipe before making something” but I did for this recipe! But looking back through it post-failure, I saw I had added 3/4 cup of sprinkles. Not just a nice light sprinkle of sprinkles. A ton! They must have weighed down the poor white cake. So I have two flop cakes in front of me…they look like the place where fruity pebbles meet cake. Since the show must go on, I made another white cake with only a few sprinkles to make that pretty “funfetti” look. I think the fruity pebble flop will turn into those cake jars, you know those desserts made from crumbled up cake with icing. For the record, the flop tastes delicious, but not quite right for a double layer birthday cake. Sigh. The line from ‘What About Bob?’ kept running through my head–“It’s a disaster, Faye!”
What is it about baking failures that seem so serious? I take it very personally. Anyway, don’t add too many sprinkles. The End!
Is the batter supposed to be kind of thin? I live in Hawaii so I live in a low altitude. I also made this on a very humid day. Thx! 🙂
I’m hoping to bake this tonight for my daughter’s bday. A couple questions…we’re doing the cake as cupcakes – how long would I bake them? And, we’re in Atlanta (1k feet)…do i need to adjust for altitude? Thx!!
I made this cake yesterday for my hubbie’s birthday. It was absolutely delicious! I feel like it is just as good if not better than my favorite grocery store cake from their bakery. The frosting is amazing!
I am so happy you liked it. Happy birthday to your husband!
Followed directions exactly. Cake did not rise hardly at all. And somewhat sunken. Very disappointed. Now I have to start all over and make new cakes. A huge waste of ingredients
This cake was so good my daughters loved it
You don’t give an amount of sprinkles to use. Why?
Start with 1/2 cup, you can always add more if you want it really colorful:)
Was so excited for this cake and tried it twice, sunken centers both tries 🙁 totally bummed, not sure where I went wrong! Anyone have any ideas for the next try?
I’m not typically the type to leave reviews on anything, but I must say that this recipe has changed my ways. I’ve been searching for a great white cake recipe that is similar to a boxed cake mix for years with no luck until I stumbled upon this one. I’ve always had issues in the past with cakes being too dense, heavy, or just not the right texture compared to the cakes you find from bakeries or grocery stores. This cake hit it out of the part though. I ended up adding 2 tsps of lemon extract and a few drops of yellow food coloring to make a light lemon cake, and it’s hands down the best lemon cake I’ve had. Period. The crumb structure is very very light and moist, yet still holds itself without crumbling. This is most definitely going in my recipe book as a wonderful base recipe for any cake in the future. I was a little nervous after reading other reviews in regards to having issues with rising, but I didn’t experience any of that after following the recipe exactly (besides my flavoring additions). Side note for anyone experimenting with different flavors: I still put in the vanilla alongside the other flavoring. Thank you so much for this gem!
I am so happy you love our cake so much! Thanks for sharing!
There is tio much butter in this recipe, ingredients are in the wrong order. I am an experienced baker so I followed the instructions. I do not recommend this. The flavor is great but the end product needs help!
Beautiful cake, followed the recipe exactly but it did have to bake around 30 minutes. Love it!
I just made this cake (not tasted it yet) and it was super easy to make but I had to make it twice. The first time i put in about 1/2 cup of sprinkles then folded them in, I think they overwhelmed the cake and it came out looking more like a rainbow cake and they dipped in the middle (not sure if altitude had anything to do with it as I live at 3,600ft). The second time, i poured the batter into the pans then sprinkled 1/2 tbsp into each pan and they came out looking much better – they still dipped in the middle but it wasn’t as noticeable.
So excited to bite into this at my 3yo’s birthday party tomorrow!
I made this cake last year and it was so moist so fluffy everyone loved it! Wondering if you have ever made them into cupcakes and if they would work as cupcakes. TIA.
Sure, just adjust the baking time.
Thank you for posting this! I trust your recipes and my 5 year old requested white cake! I am a chocolate girl so I was at a loss for a good one to try. Yay!
Is the frosting supposed to be creamy or like a regular frosting that’s more firm?
What size pans did you use?
I followed the recipe to a T but both cakes ended up sinking in the middle. What might have happened?
The recipe says combine the milk (recipe states 1 cup of whole milk) with the egg whites – does that mean the whole 1 cup ? As it then says to add a cup of milk (half at a time) to the crumb mixture – bit confused as to how much milk then added to the egg whites if the whole cup is put into the crumb mixture ? Thanks
You combine milk, egg whites, and vanilla. Whisk together until well blended. And then you add this mixture to the dry ingredients/butter mixture. I call it the milk mixture, but you aren’t adding new milk. You only need 1 cup of milk.
Add half of the milk mixture (liquid ingredients), mix, and then add the rest. I hope that helps!
I am.keen on making this, but not sure where the extra milk comes from in the recipe, as the whole cup is put into the crumb mixture could you tell me how much milk goes in with the egg whites – thanks
Lynda
I don’t have cake flour…can I use regular white/all purpose flour
My cake layers turned out much thinner than yours. Thinking an 8inch round would be better. The frosting was sweet but that’s what you get when using confectioner sugar. Also my cake was more yellow than white. I used egg whites. Did you use clear, imitation vanilla vs extract?