A light and fluffy, made from scratch funfetti cake (sometimes also called confetti cake)! This soft, snow-white cake is speckled with brightly colored sprinkles and iced with a sweet buttercream frosting — it’s the perfect homemade birthday cake!
If this funfetti cake looks familiar, you caught me, I shared it exactly one year ago in celebration of the first unofficial birthday of Sugar Spun Run.
Well, it’s been two years now since I almost completely deleted this whole website. Instead, I dug in full-force and have spent almost every spare second of my time developing and photographing (and now videoing) recipes to share with you.
As a brief review before we get to this favorite layered funfetti cake of mine, I originally bought the name, Sugar Spun Run, in 2012 and published a few posts super casually, photographed via iPhone-only, and focused on… whatever caught my attention that particular day. It was maintained sporadically, sloppily, and definitely without intention.
So in April of 2015 when I got the bill to renew my website, I almost canceled everything. I was literally one button-click away from doing so… and then decided maybe I’d give it one more shot.
Well, here we are, nearly 250 recipes later with a bright cheerful funfetti cake to show for it.
It’s now been two years of late, powdered-sugar filled nights, of re-making recipes over and over again (often only to decide that they really were just right the first time), of website code-induced headaches, and of desperately attempting to solve the Rubik’s cube that is my camera. Well over 200 lbs of butter have made their way through my kitchen, and my KitchenAid has become my near-constant companion.
And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
So, while today can’t rightly be called my blog’s “birthday”, I wanted to commemorate this two year anniversary anyway. Today I’m celebrating Sugar Spun Run’s Unbirthday, and slicing up this confetti-colored, sprinkle stuffed, 3-layer, from-scratch Funfetti cake just for the occasion. So let’s get down to it.
How do you make Funfetti cake?
Funfetti cake is typically a fluffy white cake with sprinkles mixed into the batter.
Light and fluffy, this cake is made with a combination of butter (for flavor) and oil (for texture and moisture). Developing this recipe took weeks, and the ingredients and their ratios were calculated very precisely and carefully.
For maximum fluffy softness, this recipe calls for plenty of egg whites (no egg yolks). You’ll whip these separately with an electric hand mixer until they reach stiff peaks (that just means that when you lift a whisk straight out of the whites, the peaks stay and don’t recede back into themselves) and then fold them with a spatula into the cake batter. This is easy to do– it takes only about 5 minutes– and is critical for a light and fluffy white cake (don’t get me started on yellow funfetti cakes — there should be no such thing).
I used a buttercream that I flavored with a new emulsion that I found at my local cake shop (see notes in recipe), which accented the frosting with notes of citrus and almond. This kept the buttercream from being overbearingly sweet, but didn’t go over as well with Zach, who loathes lemon.
Vanilla extract (or any other that you prefer) can also be used, of course, and I included notes in the recipe.
Today, I’m cutting up this carefully-crafted funfetti cake into thick slices in an Unbirthday celebration, and I’m so glad that you are here to join me.
Thank you so much for following along, for taking the time to read my posts (or just look at the pictures, that’s OK too), comment, e-mail, and follow me on social media (your support as I tackle video on Facebook has been so helpful).
This space would be nothing without you coming back day after day, and I know I wouldn’t have made it this far without so many kind, encouraging comments (when I get a comment telling me that you tried a recipe and loved it, it makes my whole day).
Sugar Spun Run is here to stay.
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. –Earl Nightingale
Funfetti Cake from Scratch (and an UnBirthday)
A fluffy white funfetti cake made from completely scratch. Please note that if you do not want a three layer cake, you can divide the batter into just two pans and use the rest to make cupcakes!
Ingredients
- 9 Tbsp butter softened
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 cup canola oil vegetable oil would also work
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 cups+ 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 4 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- 9 egg whites room temperature preferred
- 1/2 cup sprinkles
Buttercream
- 1 lb unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 6 Tbsp heavy cream
- 2 tsp LorAnn Princess emulsion or vanilla extract
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350F and prepare 3 8-inch round cake pans by generously greasing and flouring. Be sure to shake out excess flour.
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In stand mixer, beat butter on medium-low speed until creamy.
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Add sugar and oil and beat until all ingredients are well-combined and creamy.
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Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then stir in your vanilla.
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In separate bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt.
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Measure out your milk.
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With mixer on medium speed, gradually alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until each one is almost completely combined before adding the next.
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Pause occasionally to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
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In separate bowl, combine your egg whites and, with a hand-mixer on high-speed, beat until stiff peaks form.
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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.
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Evenly divide cake batter into prepared pans.
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Bake on 350F for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean or with few crumbs (should not be wet). For best results, rotate your cake pans halfway through baking to ensure even baking.
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Cakes will be a light golden brown when done baking.
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Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Run a butterknife around the inside rim of each pan and invert each onto a cooling rack.
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Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
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I used this technique from I Am Baker to frost my cake. If you intend to use this technique as well it requires a lot of icing for the top and I recommend increasing this recipe by 50%. If you are just doing a plain covering that will not be needed.
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In stand mixer, beat butter on medium-speed until creamy.
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Add salt and beat again for about 20 seconds.
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Gradually, about 1 cup at a time, add powdered sugar, waiting until each cup is completely mixed before adding the next cup.
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Tbsp at a time, add the heavy cream on medium-high speed, waiting until each addition is well-combined before adding the next 2 Tbsp.
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Add flavoring (vanilla extract or emulsion). and stir on medium-high for 30 seconds.
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Transfer one layer of your cooled cake to serving platter. Use frosting to ice the top. Add the next layer, ice the top of that. Add your third layer on top and ice the top, and then do a thin "crumb coating" around the entire cake.
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Transfer to freezer for 10-15 minutes, then remove and apply a clean, thick coat of frosting around the entire cake.
Recipe Notes
This cake may also be made in 3 9" pans, just decrease the baking time. Start checking the cakes for doneness at 25 minutes.
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Recipe originally published 4/13/16 — text updated 4/13/17
Jen says
Hi! I’m making this cake for my husbands birthday tonigt and I wanted to try and make half the recipe as regular funfetti and the other half a chocolate funfetti. Do you think adding plain cocoa powder would work or do you suggest something else?
Thanks!
Sam says
Hi Jen! Honestly it’s hard for me to answer for sure as I haven’t tried it myself, cocoa powder might do the trick, but generally I like to bloom my cocoa powder with a hot liquid (hot water or coffee) to really bring out the chocolate flavor, which this recipe doesn’t have so I’m not sure you’d get the best chocolate flavor, and I’m hesitant to suggest adding melted chocolate since I haven’t tried it myself and it may weigh down the egg whites and the batter too much.
If you’re just going for appearances then I think adding some cocoa powder would be fine, those layers may just be a bit dryer from the extra powder and from the extra mixing required to incorporate it at the end.
I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful with this! It’s just tricky for me to say for certain without having tried it out myself. Alternatively I do have a chocolate cake recipe and you could halve that recipe and add sprinkles for a chocolate layer.
Yannet Soto says
I made these in to cupcakes and 52 cupcakes came out of this recipe!
I will definitely be using this cake recipe again!
HOWEVER the buttercream frosting didn’t work out for me 🙁
Sam says
So glad you liked the cupcakes! What went wrong with the buttercream, maybe I can help!
Jacy says
Do you think the buttercream could be substituted with whip cream frosting without changing the cake too much? I’d like to make this for my boyfriend’s graduation but he doesn’t like buttercream. 😫
Sam says
It depends on how stable the whipped cream frosting is, since it’s a 3 layer cake I’d worry a bit about the layers sliding. Another option would be either this chocolate frosting or my cream cheese frosting (you would have to double or triple the recipe), I also don’t like buttercream very much (too sweet!) but love those other two.
Lily says
Hi, I was just wondering if I would be able to cut the sugar down to 2 cups or even 1 1/2 cups? I want to be able to add chocolate chips instead of the sprinkles, and I’m worried the cake will be too sweet. Thanks!
Sam says
Hi Lily! I haven’t tried it so I’m afraid I can’t recommend it, I’m worried that reducing the sugar by a full cup may be too much. That being said, if you use semisweet chocolate chips instead of the sprinkles I don’t think it would be too sweet, the semisweet chocolate can actually help to temper the sweetness of the cake.
Ashley says
Quick question, did you use salted or unsalted butter for the cake?
Sam says
Unsalted 🙂
Monica says
Hi!! I want to make this cake soon but am wondering if there is a sub for the vegetable oil? Thank you 😊
Sam says
Canola oil is my preference 🙂
Rachel Ernest says
Does the type of sprinkle matter? I was hoping to use the little round ones but I am afraid the cake will end up crunchy.
Sam says
I wouldn’t use the little round ones (non pareils) as they will probably bleed color through the cake. I recommend using “jimmies” or traditional sprinkles.
Rachel Ernest says
Oh, I meant more like confetti sprinkles.
Jennifer says
I wish you had listed jimmies in the recipe. I bought regular sprinkles and as soon as they hit the batter the colors started to bleed. My cake is grey. 🙁
Sam says
Hi Jennifer, I did use regular sprinkles. Did you by chance buy nonpareils? They would bleed into the cake and I don’t recommend using those, it sounds like those may have been what you bought?
Sarah says
Do I have to use clear vanilla to keep the cake white enough? Also does it have to be pure extract, or can you use imitation? I’m not a baker and have always wondered that 😉
Sam says
I just used regular (caramel colored) vanilla extract for the cake in these photos. The outside will brown regardless of whether you use clear or not but the inside will still be nice and white. I usually recommend pure vanilla for best taste but you could get away with using imitation. I hope that helps! 🙂
Manasi Coueey says
Hi, thanks for sharing the recipe. What’s the safest way to reduce the serving size to half? Should I suggest reduce all ingredients to half?
Thanks
Manasi
Sam says
Hi Manasi, yes this recipe can be cut in half without a problem. I hope you love it! 🙂
Iris says
Hello! I am going to try this recipe for a sex reveal party but I have a couple of questions. Do you mix the sprinkles with flour before adding them to the mix so they don’t sink? And do you add them along with the egg whites to avoid over mixing or first the sprinkles and then the eggs? Oh and one more, if instead of vanilla you want to use almond do you think it would be the same amount? Have you tried 2 tsp vanilla and 2 almond? I guess those were more than a couple of questions 🙃. Thanks in advance.
Sam says
Hi Iris! No need to mix the sprinkles with flour, I usually add the egg whites and sprinkles at the same time.
I wouldn’t do a 1:1 exchange for almond extract as I think almond tends to be much more potent. I’m more inclined to say 3 vanilla and 1 almond, but I don’t like a strong almond flavor so you may be able to get away with more almond! I hope that helps! 🙂
Katie says
I only have one cake pan. Will the batter be okay if half of it sits while the other half bakes/cools? Or should I just make half the cake mix, and then the other half when my cake pan is free?
Sam says
I think this would be fine to let half of it sit while the other half bakes 🙂
Kelly Briter says
Do you think I could make this in a 2 layer cake size Wilton mould? Would I need to bake it longer to cook the center?
Thanks for the help,
Kelly
Sam says
Hmm I’m not familiar with this mold, is it like just the size of two cake layers but just one tin? If so, this cake will make more than enough batter for the mold (so don’t over-fill), and yes it would need to bake longer, probably quite a bit longer, but I’m not sure exactly how much time it would take as I haven’t tried it myself.