Soft, light, and fluffy, these sweet confetti cupcakes are modified from my popular funfetti cake recipe! These cupcakes are packed full of colorful sprinkles and made with a simple white cake base, then topped off with a sweet vanilla buttercream (and, of course, sprinkles!).
Taking a quick break from all of the Christmas Cookie recipes I’ve been sharing recently to share these fun confetti cupcakes!
Tomorrow is my birthday (I’ll be 28!) and while I’m definitely not making my own birthday cake (Zach’s making me a cake completely from scratch, I can’t wait to see how it turns out and tell you about it), I still thought celebrating a little bit early with some cupcakes and sprinkles wouldn’t be a bad idea.
I really don’t share nearly as many cake/cupcake recipes on this page as I do cookies, because cakes take me so, so much time to get right (but when they’re right, they’re perfect — have you tried my favorite chocolate cake or my pineapple upside-down cake?)
This recipe is a slightly modified, scaled-down version of my very popular funfetti cake, and the recipe makes about 15 cupcakes. Since traditional muffin tins only have room for 12 cupcakes, I like to make 12 regular-sized cupcakes and then use the remaining batter to make adorable mini cupcakes — you’ll be able to get about 8-10 mini cupcakes out of the leftovers, and I included baking instructions in the recipe notes.
This confetti cupcake recipe requires an extra step of whipping your egg whites to stiff peaks before folding them into your cupcake batter. This step is so important, and it is going to give you the lightest and fluffiest cupcakes possible.
Whipping egg whites isn’t hard, just make sure that you have a completely grease-free bowl (don’t use a plastic one) and beaters before you begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. If you’ve made my whipped cream recipe before, you’re already familiar with stiff peaks, but if not, it just means that when you pull the beater out of the egg white mixture, the egg whites hold a stiff “peak” and don’t fold or recede back into themselves.
I’m typically not a huge fan of vanilla buttercream frosting because I find it to be a little too sweet for me, so I just topped off these cupcakes with a short, simple rosette decoration (I used my Wilton 2D tip for these). Usually I prefer to pile the frosting on (ahem, like with these chocolate cupcakes) but for these confetti cupcakes, this seemed to be the perfect amount to complement the cupcake without making it too sweet.
Oh, and don’t forget to top everything off with sprinkles!
I just used a mix of quins and nonpareils that I had on hand, as well as some edible gold stars (affiliate). Since Colt got into my stash of traditional sprinkles and ruined all of them (while managing to eat approximately 3 lbs of them… a story for a different day 😫) I had to improvise, but I actually loved how these decorations looked on top!
Just look at those soft, colorful, centers!!
Enjoy!
Confetti Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ⅓ cup canola oil or vegetable oil (43g)
- 1 cup sugar (200g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cup + 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour (172g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup buttermilk room temperature preferred (118ml)
- 3 large egg whites room temperature
- ⅓ cup sprinkles Use jimmies or quins, do not use nonpareils as they will bleed through the batter
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups powdered sugar (375g)
- 3 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sprinkles, for decorating optional
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and prepare a 12 count muffin tin* (see recipe note) with paper liners. Set aside.
- Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer (or you may use a large bowl and an electric hand mixer) and beat until smooth and creamy.
- Add sugar and oil and beat again until ingredients are very well-combined, smooth, and creamy.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then stir in your vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt.
- With mixer on low speed, gradually alternate between adding the flour mixture and your buttermilk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until each one is almost completely combined before adding the next. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so that all ingredients are combined.
- In separate, completely clean and grease-free bowl, combine your egg whites and, with a hand-mixer on high-speed, beat until stiff peaks form.
- Using a spatula, gently fold your egg whites and sprinkles into your batter. Take care to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so that ingredients are well-combined, and take care not to over-mix.
- Divide batter into prepared cupcake tin, filling each liner ¾ of the way full.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with moist crumbs (not wet batter). For mini cupcakes, bake 14-15 minutes.
- Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream
- Beat butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Sprinkle salt over butter and stir again to combine.
- Gradually, about ½ cup at a time, add powdered sugar, waiting until each cup is completely mixed before adding more.
- With mixer on medium-low speed, add the heavy cream one Tablespoon at a time. Once ingredients are well incorporated, gradually increase speed to high and beat for about 30 seconds.
- Add vanilla extract and stir well.
- Pipe or spread frosting over cooled cupcakes (I used a Wilton 2D tip for the rosette decorations). Top with sprinkles, if desired. Cupcakes keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for several days, or refrigerated in an airtight container for a week.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything through these links I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please view the disclosure policy for more information.
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Michelle
This recipe does NOT say to put the egg yolks in as well – it only says to whip the egg whites and fold them in. Very confusing, and our cupcakes completely sunk in.
Sam
Hi Michelle! That is correct, there are no egg yolks in this recipe.
Samantha Olsen
They are delicious but all of mine sunk a bit 🙁 I followed the recipe perfectly and all of my ingredients are super fresh. Any ideas?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Oh no! 😞 This usually means they were either overmixed or underbaked. We’re glad they still tasted great though!
Lynne
Although I usually prefer more chocolatey baked goods, I’ve made this recipe multiple times because these are some of the softest & most delicately delicious cupcakes I’ve ever had!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cupcakes so much, Lynne! 🙂
Nelson
Good Morning, I made your confetti cake, and it was such a hit, now I need to make 25 confetti cupcakes, can I just double this recipe? will the cupcakes come out to heavy or dense? I want that lite and fluffy texture.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Nelson! This recipe will double just fine. Enjoy 🙂
Zofia
Hi Sam! Is it possible to freeze cupcakes without icing like you would cheesecakes?
Thanks!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! Wrap them tightly and plastic wrap and foil, then store in an airtight container in the freezer 😊
Zofia
Thank you! And what about freezing the butter cream frosting?
I made a 2 layer funfetti cake and cupcakes with rest of batter- but will be making all the frosting.
Sam
The buttercream frosting should hold up just fine in the freezer. 🙂
Blair Guilbeau
Hello there, ma’am! Your cupcakes were quite beautiful to look at, but I want to try and make them as a gift for Mother’s Day! I have one question: is there a way to remove the egg YOLKS entirely from the batter? I want to color these cupcakes purple and don’t want the yellow tint from the egg yolks to make them look brown.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Blair! Our white cake recipe uses no egg yolks and can easily be made into cupcakes. We suggest you use that recipe instead 😊
nayel
cant wait to try this recipe this weekend they look so good
Adele Esposito
They are perfect cupcakes
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you think so, Adele! Thanks so much for trying our recipe and coming back to leave a review 😊
Sara
Hi dear Sam❤️
I have 3 questions.
1.Can I use cake flour to have lighter cupcakes or it’s not really necessary?
2.There is buttermilk in your recipe.But you don’t use any baking soda.Isnt it necessary to activate the buttermilk?
3.And my last question,can I substitute sour cream for buttermilk?does it also work for this recipe?
Thank you so much
Always love your recipes ❤️
Sam
Hi Sara!
1) I don’t think it’s necessary here, though you could if you substitute properly.
2) Correct, I do not use baking soda as the buttermilk is primarily for texture and flavor rather than to work with the leaveners.
3) Unfortunately I am not sure how that would work as I haven’t tried it.
I am so glad to hear you have been enjoying the recipes, thank you so much for commenting!
Cian Eckford
I have been testing out a lot of cupcake recipes in preparation for my daughters 3rd birthday at the end of the year. These are by far the best I have tried, I ate 3 within 5 mins.
Thank you for such an amazing recipe I’m going to attempt a double batch over the weekend to take into work!
Sam
I’m so glad you have enjoyed them so much, Cian! 🙂
Marilyn
Hi! I made these cupcakes and they were a hit. Thank you so much!
Now I was wondering if this recipe can be used for cake too ?
Sam
Hi Marilyn! I actually have a funfetti cake that is very similar to this. 🙂
Marilyn
Thank you so very much ! I can’t wait to try this next week! ❤️
Faye
I made these for my mom’s birthday. We were doing a nailed it home edition. The recipe was great except for when you mix the eggs, not really described well. Other than that, it was delicious!
Stefanie
Recipe says 1/3 of a cup or 43 g. For me, when measuring, 43 g is 1/4 of a cup.
Now I am not sure which measurement to go by, the gram weight or the liquid cup measurement?
Sam
Always go by weights when possible 🙂
Miranda
Beautiful and tasty! I made a double recipe and it wasn’t too much batter to handle. I frosted with the recommended buttercream frosting, which was tasty. I divided it into seven colors in order to form stripes within the icing piping bag, which made a delightful rainbow swirl on top.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Miranda! 🙂
Judi
Just made these and everyone loved them, including my picky funfetti expert son……loved them even though they were made from scratch!😋
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Judi! 🙂
Jada
Hi, I will be making this recipe soon. It will be my first time making confetti cupcakes, I’ve noticed there isn’t a viedo. I’m more of a visual learner. I was wondering if you ever planned on making a video step by step on making confetti cupcakes?
Sam
Hi Jada! Unfortunately I don’t have a video for these yet. I do plan on getting videos on all of my posts eventually, but there are a lot to do. I’m sorry. 🙁 I hope you love the cupcakes. 🙂