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Funfetti Cake
A fluffy homemade funfetti birthday cake with rainbow sprinkles topped with a light cream cheese buttercream frosting and an array of sprinkles. The perfect birthday cake!
I am pretty sure every kid loves their birthday. I am also pretty convinced every kid loves sprinkles. This means kids will love this Homemade Funfetti Birthday Cake.
As I have shared before in many of my homemade cake posts, we take cake baking pretty seriously around here. Since my kids could talk and form sentences, I let them choose their birthday cake flavor. This has led to a lot of experimenting in the kitchen! Of course, since sprinkles are always a favorite, eventually one of my kids asked for a birthday cake with a TON of SPRINKLES. Basically…the more sprinkles, the better.
This is when the Sprinkles cake was born. If I ever want to really impress kids, I bake this cake. Hey, it impresses adults at the same time which is a WIN-WIN. I am not wasting my precious calories on some not-so-great birthday cake.
I am big on frosting…but it has to be homemade frosting made with all-natural ingredients I can pronounce. This simple vanilla frosting is made with softened butter, a touch of cream cheese for creamy richness, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a touch of milk or cream. The touch of cream cheese cuts the sweetness and adds a subtle tang. It’s a game-changing ingredient!
Some of my favorite cake pans are these USA 8-inch cake pans. They make it easy to remove the cake from the pans! I also love this angled spatulafor frosting. This coconut cooking spray doesn’t have all of the unnecessary fillers and I use it all of the time.
How to make Homemade Funfetti Cake:
- Start off by mixing the dry ingredients together. Beat the butter into the flour mixture, one cube of butter at a time. Continue to beat until it resembles coarse crumbs (this is a unique technique since but it creates a perfect texture).
- In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients — eggs, milk, vanilla, and oil. Pour only 1/2 of the mixture into the flour-butter mixture and beat until fluffy. Add the secret ingredient — DRY INSTANT VANILLA PUDDING MIX. This creates such a moist, tender crumb.
- Bake just until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. Don’t overbake your cake! Use a cake tester or toothpick close to the end of the baking time.
- Let cake layers cool before frosting. If you want to make frosting the cake extra easy, place the cake layers in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. This helps to seal in the crumb coat and make it easier to frost.
If you LOVE CAKE, here are some of the most popular CAKE RECIPES:
- Yellow Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting
- Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake
- Red Velvet Cake
- Coconut Cake
- Orange Cake
- Lemon Olive Oil Cake
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Funfetti Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 3/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Butter (softened, cut into cubes)
- 2/3 cup Buttermilk
- 3 large Eggs
- 1 large Egg White
- 2 Tablespoons Oil
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 1/3 cup Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix (dry)
- 3/4 cup Rainbow Sprinkles
Vanilla Frosting:
- 1 cup Butter (softened)
- 4 ounces Cream Cheese (softened)
- 3 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar (may add 1/2 cup more for stiffer frosting)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream or Milk (optional)
- 1 cup Rainbow Sprinkles (on top of the cake)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat the butter into the flour mixture, one cube at a time. Continue to beat until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Add the 1/2 of the egg-milk mixture and oil and beat the batter is light and fluffy. Add remaining egg-milk mixture and vanilla pudding and mix just until combined. Take a spatula and scrape the sides of the bowl. Add rainbow sprinkles and fold into batter.
- Spread into greased (with non-stick cooking spray or butter/flour) 8 or 9-inch cake pans and smooth tops with a spatula. Bake for 16-22 minutes, depending on the depth of pans. If the cake layers are thin, they will cook for less time than the thicker layers.
- Let cakes cool. Run a knife around edge of cake pan and flip over. Frost with vanilla frosting.
Vanilla Frosting:
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and softened cream cheese for 2-3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and cream together for several minutes. Add cream or milk, if needed.
- Frost the cake and top with rainbow sprinkles.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Happy Baking, my friends!
Love making this cake for my friends that are having their second baby – I bring it to their “Baby Sprinkle” (vs. a baby ‘shower’)
I love all your recipes!! Question, I plan on making this Funfetti cake per his request. Will this recipe work using a sheet pan or a 9X13 dish? My son isn’t a fan of frosting and doesn’t like frosting between cake layers.
Thank you!
how many layers using 8″ pans?
Hi Melissa!
I just came back from military culinary competition in Virginia. I was competing for Pastry Chef of the Year. We did a decorated cake and the theme was Dr. Seuss Celebration. I made the Funfetti Cake and decorated it with buttercream frosting. When the judges tasted my cake, it was densed and a little dry. I wonder what happened with my cake. I always go to your website because I know your cake is always moist. So the thing I did was, baked the cake overnight and used it the next morning. Prior to that, I covered the cake and put it in the fridge. I should have let it sit on the table instead of putting them in the fridge. Any advice in the future on how to store your cake?
If you put your cake in the fridge it will dry it out unless it is covered in frosting. If you baked it the night before you could have left it out in a air tight container or saran wrapped them and placed in the freezer. Hope this helps.
Can you make this in a 9×13 pan?
I made this as cupcakes and they were a huge hit! I baked them for 16mins and they were perfect. Thanks again for another wonderful recipe!
Can these be made as cupcakes?