My light and fluffy, completely from scratch Funfetti cake recipe has over 600 five-star reviews and has even been featured on TV! ⭐️ It’s a soft white cake speckled with sprinkles and iced with buttercream frosting, perfect for beginners and advanced bakers alike. Makes the perfect homemade birthday cake! Recipe includes a how-to video!
Homemade Funfetti Cake Recipe
My fluffy Funfetti cake (also known as confetti cake) has been one of my most popular recipes for years (right up there with my “worst” chocolate chip cookies). Flecked with sprinkles, a plush, super soft texture, and a buttery, caramelized vanilla flavor–what’s not to love?
Developing this cake took me weeks and is still one of my proudest accomplishments (right there with my French macaron recipe). When I finally nailed it, I found that there were a few key ingredients that really made a difference, namely, whipped egg whites.
For maximum, fluffy softness (and snow-white color), this recipe calls for plenty of egg whites (and no egg yolks–save those for your tiramisu!). You’ll whip these separately with an electric mixer until they reach stiff peaks and then fold them (gently!) into the cake batter. This is easy and quick to do, and it’s critical for a light and fluffy white cake (don’t get me started on yellow Funfetti cakes–there should be no such thing!).
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Perfect taste, perfect texture. Largely thanks to the afore-mentioned whipped egg whites and a combo of butter and oil in the cake batter. Oil adds moisture, while butter adds flavor, so by mixing the two you achieve perfect balance. This is how I’ve designed so many of my cake recipes, and once you try it you’ll see why.
- Bright white color. This serves as the perfect backdrop to colorful sprinkles. This Funfetti cake gets its pristine color from using egg whites only, clear vanilla (instead of regular vanilla), and a neutral oil.
- So soft and fluffy. This gorgeous texture comes from a critical ingredient: whipped egg whites. I’ve repeated this technique in several recipes since, including my lemon cake, strawberry cake, and Oreo cake. All have a plush, light-as-air texture!
- Frosted with an easy peasy classic buttercream, though you could technically use any frosting you like. Fruity pebbles frosting, strawberry frosting, and cream cheese frosting are all nice alternatives!
What You Need
For the Cake Layers
- Flour. Back when I was first developing this recipe, cake flour was difficult for me to find and when I could, it was pricey. I developed this recipe specifically with the intention of achieving a light fluffy texture with regular ol’ all-purpose flour (and it worked *perfectly* if I do say so).
- Egg whites. It’s important that you separate your own eggs (do not use eggs from a carton) and make sure not to get even a drop of yolk in the whites. Room temperature eggs work best, so try to remember to set yours out ahead of time if you can. If you forget, use my trick to quickly bring eggs to room temperature (just make sure to thoroughly dry the eggs before cracking them).
- Milk. Whole milk is my preference, but I suspect a milk substitute (like almond milk) would work just fine. Whatever you use, ideally let it come to room temperature before adding it.
- Butter & oil. As mentioned above and used in my white cake and vanilla cake, a blend of the two balances flavor and texture of this Funfetti cake perfectly. For the oil, opt for a neutral cooking oil like canola, vegetable, or avocado oil (I like avocado oil, but it’s a bit more yellow and so colors the cake slightly). Using a particularly yellow butter or oil can affect the color of your cake.
- Baking powder. Not baking soda! It will seem like a lot, but it’s not (we’re making a big cake!). There is no baking soda in my Funfetti cake recipe, and that’s intentional. While this isn’t the main reason I don’t use baking soda, baking soda encourages browning and adding it would actually make the cake more golden inside.
- Vanilla. To maintain that pristine white color, I use clear vanilla in the cake layers. If you would rather opt for natural vanilla flavoring it will work perfectly well, just know your cake may be tinted a bit more golden.
- Sprinkles. Your sprinkle choice matters! Nonpareils can bleed into your batter and ruin that pristine white color. Stick with jimmies or quins–they add color without any bleeding.
SAM’S TIP: If you want to use cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, you must substitute properly. If you are using weights, the weight is the same; if you are using cups, you will need 4 ½ cups of cake flour.
Frosting
This is a big three-layer cake, so you will need quite a bit of frosting to cover and decorate it. Just giving you a fair warning before anyone is alarmed by the amount of butter you’re about to see 😉.
- Butter. Yes, we are using a full pound (or four sticks) of butter here. Remember, this is a big Funfetti cake! I use unsalted butter and add salt separately, but if you use salted butter you likely won’t need to add any salt (taste-test the frosting and add a inch if needed — salt helps cut the sweetness and deepen the flavor).
- Powdered sugar. I highly recommend measuring your ingredients with a kitchen scale for the most accurate results (I link to the one I use in the recipe card, it’s inexpensive). It can be very easy to over-measure powdered sugar, much like measuring flour!
- Heavy cream. We’ll whip this into the frosting for a light and fluffy texture. Whipping cream or double cream would also work.
- Flavoring. For the frosting, I sometimes like to use Princess emulsion instead of vanilla (I also use this in my frosted animal cookies–another fun recipe). It accents the buttercream with notes of citrus and almond and keeps it from being overbearingly sweet. If you don’t have any or can’t find it, regular vanilla extract works perfectly.
SAM’S TIP: For that popular Milk Bar birthday cake look, frost your funfetti cake scantly on the outside and top with my confetti crumbs!
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Funfetti Cake
Make the batter
When making the batter, you’ll want to start with an electric mixer or a stand mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment) to combine all of your ingredients thoroughly and properly. Creaming the butter in the beginning is actually important for the best texture.
You want to make sure everything is well-combined, but also be careful not to over-mix (this comes into play when adding the milk and then again adding the egg-whites). Over-mixing the batter can cause dense, dry, or sunken results.
Whip the egg whites
Before you begin, make sure your bowl and beaters are completely clean, dry, and grease-free. Even a tiny bit of grease can prevent your egg whites from whipping properly!
Stiff peaks are our aim here! This means your egg whites will have greatly increased in volume, they’ll be bright white in color, and they’ll be fluffy. To test that you’ve reached stiff peaks, lift your beaters straight out of the whites. The peaks should hold firm without folding over or falling back in on themselves.
Fold in the egg whites and sprinkles
Gently is the way to go! Gently stir in all of the egg whites at once along with your sprinkles.
Use a spatula for this step and not your mixer. Your aim is to NOT over-mix. Instead, the goal is to combine everything without deflating those egg whites we just spent all that time whipping. Make sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure everything is well combined.
You will lose some of the volume as you fold the batter, but try your hardest to incorporate the egg whites gently without totally deflating them.
Bake
Use the toothpick to test your cakes for doneness; a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake should come out clean or have a few crumbs when inserted in the center of each cake.
It’s important to keep a close eye on your Funfetti cakes as they near the end of the bake time; underbaking your cake can cause it to sink, while over-baking can dry it out (even just a minute or two too long can do this).
The outsides of the cake bake into a pretty golden color, but don’t panic! The insides will still be snow white.
Decorate
Let the cake layers cool completely before you decorate the cakes. I recommend using my buttercream frosting (in the recipe card below) as it’s a classic Funfetti cake pairing, but I have a whole catalog of frosting recipes that would work well here. Just note that most of those recipes are for 2 layer cakes so you will have to scale up by at least 50%.
I also recommend doing a crumb coating on the cake before decorating. This mean applying a thin layer to the outside of the cake then freezing it for 15 minutes before continuing to decorate. This will catch any crumbs and help your frosting apply more smoothly.
SAM’S TIP: New to cake decorating? I have a guide on how to decorate a cake that’s perfect for for beginner cake decorators! You’ll learn everything from what equipment you need to how to do crumb coat.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe makes about 12 cups of batter.
For a two layer Funfetti cake: I recommend you make my white cake recipe and add ⅓ cup of sprinkles. That recipe is actually the same as this one, but scaled down to fit two pans (and doesn’t have sprinkles, obviously!).
For a 9×13″ pan: you would technically need to reduce the recipe by ⅓. This can get tricky, so I usually recommend making the recipe as-is and using the excess batter for cupcakes (though they won’t have nice rounded tops–see below).
If you are looking for a good Funfetti cupcake recipe, I recommend making my confetti cupcakes or white cupcakes (add sprinkles) instead, as those form nice round tops. This recipe makes tasty cupcakes, but they bake up flat.
I do not recommend it, as they provide inconsistent results (and most say they are not meant for whipping). Instead, separate your own eggs and repurpose the yolks in another recipe like my pastry cream, crème brûlée, lemon crumb bars, lemon curd, key lime pie, or chocolate pie.
Yes! To do this, stir the food coloring into the batter before adding the egg whites. Gel food coloring is best for most vibrant color.
A big thank you to every one of you who has already tried my Funfetti cake recipe and reviewed it 💕 I appreciate you!
Enjoy!
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Funfetti Cake from Scratch
Ingredients
- 9 Tablespoons (127 g) unsalted butter softened
- 3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (236 ml) neutral cooking oil Use canola, vegetable, or avocado oil
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups+ 2 Tbsp (516 g) all-purpose flour (all of the flour goes into the cake batter, you will also need additional flour for preparing the cake pan)
- 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons table salt
- 1 ½ cup (355 ml) milk
- 9 (315 ml) large egg whites room temperature preferred
- ½ cup (80 g) sprinkles see note
Buttercream
- 1 lb (453 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 cups (750 g) powdered sugar
- 6 Tbsp (89 ml) heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons LorAnn Princess emulsion or vanilla extract
Recommended Equipment
- Kitchen Scale (recommended)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and prepare 3 8-inch round cake pans by generously greasing and flouring (be sure to shake out excess flour) and lining the bottoms of each pan with a round of parchment paper.
- In stand mixer (or using an electric hand mixer), beat butter on medium-low speed until creamy.9 Tablespoons (127 g) unsalted butter
- Add sugar and oil and beat until all ingredients are well-combined and creamy.3 cups (600 g) granulated sugar, 1 cup (236 ml) neutral cooking oil
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then stir in your vanilla extract.4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt.4 cups+ 2 Tbsp (516 g) all-purpose flour, 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder, 1 ½ teaspoons table salt
- Measure out your milk. With mixer on medium speed, gradually alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until each one is almost completely combined before adding the next. Pause occasionally to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.1 ½ cup (355 ml) milk
- In separate mixing bowl (use a clean, dry, and grease-free bowl, use glass or metal), combine your egg whites and stir with an electric mixer, gradually increasing speed from low to high and continuing to beat on high-speed until stiff peaks form.9 (315 ml) large egg whites
- Add egg whites and sprinkles to the batter. 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.½ cup (80 g) sprinkles
- Evenly divide cake batter into prepared pans.
- Bake on 350F (175C) 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. Cakes will be a light golden brown when done baking.
- Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Run a butter knife around the inside rim of each pan and carefully invert each onto a cooling rack.
- Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
- Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Use the paddle attachment or an electric mixer to beat butter on medium-speed until smooth and creamy.1 lb (453 g) unsalted butter
- Add salt and beat again for about 20 seconds.¼ teaspoon salt
- Gradually, about 1 cup at a time, add powdered sugar, waiting until each cup is completely mixed before adding the next cup.6 cups (750 g) powdered sugar
- One Tablespoon at a time, add the heavy cream on medium-high speed, waiting until each addition is well-combined before adding the next 2 Tbsp.6 Tbsp (89 ml) heavy cream
- Add flavoring (vanilla extract or emulsion). and stir on medium-high for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to ensure all ingredients are well-combined.2 teaspoons LorAnn Princess emulsion or vanilla extract
- 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.
- Transfer to freezer for 10-15 minutes, then remove and apply a clean, thick coat of frosting around the entire cake. For more detailed decorating instructions, see my post on how to decorate a cake.
Notes
Sprinkles
Use sprinkles/jimmies or round sequin “quin” sprinkles, do NOT use nonpareils or they may bleed through your batter and ruin the coloring of your cake.Using 9″ pans
This cake may also be made in three 9″ pans, just decrease the baking time. Start checking the cakes for doneness at 25 minutes.Storing
Store this cake tightly covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This cake may also be frozen, tightly wrapped in plastic wrap then foil, for up to 3 months.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.
Recipe originally published 4/13/16 — text and photos updated Feb 2025
Anita Zimmer
I made this cake for the first time on Sunday for my daughter’s 19th birthday. So good!! I liked that it had butter for flavor and oil for texture and egg whites for lightness. Whenever I see egg whites and folding, I Shudder because no matter what I do, it never comes out fluffy. Not sure if I don’t have the right texture of whites, do I over fold and need more fluff showing and stop folding? I would appreciate more pictures along this step to help guide me.
My husband has requested this for his birthday cake in September, so I have another shot! Flavor was awesome, so I will work on my technique!
I used a cream cheese and whipping cream frosting- so light fluffy and stable!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cake, Anita! I am actually working on editing a white cake recipe video now that I plan to share with the next few weeks. In the meantime, my strawberry cake recipe has a video that shows you this process that you can reference. 🙂
Stephanie
What cream cheese and whipping cream frosting recipe did you use? I would love to know 🙂
Anita
It was a by bakingamoment.com “Whipped Cream Frosting”. it called for 1package of cream cheese, 2 3/4c. Heavy whipping cream, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1tsp. Vanilla extract. Very easy, vey fluffy, and didn’t disintegrate on the cake (I kept leftover frosted cake in it’s called the fridge).
Shanin
How many cupcakes would this recipe make?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Shanin! I actually have a confetti cupcake recipe that I would use instead. It yields approximately 15 cupcakes. 🙂
Kestra
Hi! We made this cake but were surprised to find it too sweet, as we normally love sweet things! Do you have any advice on cutting the amount of sugar in the recipe? Could we cut it in half? Would we need to alter other ingredients to match?
Sam
Hi Kestra! It’s really a to-taste kind of alteration. I can’t really tell you how much to cut it by. 🙂
Mary
Hi Sam.
I have been following your recipes for a month now and I like how detailed you explained it.
I will be trying this cake soon. I am just wondering if I can substitute the unsalted butter for salted butter in making the frosting. Can I also adjust the powdered sugar if it is too sweet for me?
Thank you.. 😊
Sam
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for following along! You can use salted butter, but be sure to follow my tips in my post about substituting salted and unsalted butter. Unfortunately if you reduce the powdered sugar you will be altering the texture of the frosting. Enjoy! 🙂
Hannah
Hi again! I have one more question. If I only have 2 regular cake pans, can I bake the third layer in a springform pan that is the same size? Thank you so much!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Hannah! If it is the same size, then you should be ok. 🙂
Jill
Can I use gluten-free flour and a sugar substitute? I’m making for a friend and she is borderline diabetic and gluten intolerant.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Jill! Unfortunately, I do not have experience using gluten-free flour or sugar substitutes therefore I can not provide you with any personal recommendations. I know in many of my other recipes people have had success with the 1:1 gluten-free flour so hopefully, you have the same success in this recipe. If you experiment, I’d love to know how it turns out for you! 🙂
Liza
Hi!
I haven’t made this recipe yet but I am going to tomorrow and I have a couple questions about it. What type of salt should I be using, kosher salt or table salt? And then should I use whole milk or another type of milk?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Liza! You will want to use table salt and I reccomend using whole milk if you have it on hand. I hope that your cake turns out amazing! Happy Baking. 🙂
Shannon
Made cupcakes today.. omg so good! I’m not typically a vanilla cake fan but wanted to test before using for my daughters bday cake… and I’ve eaten 3 cupcakes so far today!!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cupcakes and I hope that your daughter does too! Thanks for trying my recipe. 🙂
Hannah
Hi! I have made this cake before and it turned out AMAZING!! I just wanted to ask how many cups of batter the recipe makes, so I can make even layers. Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed this cake recipe, Hannah! I have not measured the amount of batter before, so I am not 100% certain. The next time I make this cake, I will be sure to add that information. 🙂
Jay
Hi! I’m looking to make this in 3 6“inch pans. Do you have any recommendations of temperature and time changes? Thank you so much!
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Jay! I have not tried this recipe in 6″ pans before, however, others have and had success. Since I have not tried it myself, I can not provide you with exact bake times. I reccomend just keeping an eye on it. Enjoy! 🙂
Rachel
Love this recipe! I made this cake for my son’s first birthday smash cake. I made his smash cake and 2 dozen cupcakes from this recipe. Since I didn’t use the same size pans I just monitored closely for cooking time, it was 38 mins for the heart shaped cake and 22 mins for the cupcakes for me. I’ve only made a few cakes from scratch and read her recommendations on measuring flour as well as the link to the technique for frosting. Both were very helpful and I recommend reading those. I hadn’t whipped egg whites like that before and didn’t really get “peaks” but they were fluffy and the top was looking like ripples. Maybe I should have gone longer but it still turned out to be a very light moist and delicious cake and cupcakes. I need to watch some videos on whipping/beating the egg whites to get better.
Thank you for this recipe!
Sam
Hi Rachel! I am so glad you enjoyed the cake so much! Thank you for the feedback on how long you baked everything in your different pans. I actually whip egg whites to stiff peaks in my video for strawberry cake if you want to see how it is supposed to look. 🙂
Emily
I made this today and it tastes SO YUMMY! But it fell in the center while it was baking. Any ideas what I did wrong for that to happen? I’m totally at a loss!
Sam
Hi Emily! Typically this cake will fall if you your egg whites didn’t quite make it to as stiff peaks as they should, or if they were over-mixed after being combined, or if the cake is under-baked. There are a lot of variables here. 🙂
Emily
Hmmm I suspect maybe it was the egg whites not quite getting to the stiff peak stage. I was impatient and my baby really hates the sound of the mixer 😂😂. I’ll definitely try it again, because like I said, it tastes really really good!! Thanks for answering!
Julie
I haven’t tried the cake yet, but the batter was delicious 😋. I followed the directions exactly, but the cakes seem to have sunk & are crispy around the edges. Is there something I should do differently next tine?
Sam
Hi Julie! There are several things that can cause this cake to sink: if your egg whites weren’t whipped quite enough, if they were over-worked when stirred in, or if the cakes were under-baked. It sounds like your oven may be running a little bit hot if the edges were crisping.
Melissa
Really simple to follow and the cake was super moist and flavourful. It’s definitely on the sweeter side which is to be expected with all the sprinkles! I used my own buttercream recipe so this review is just for the cake – I’ll definitely be using this one again.
Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for trying my recipe, Melissa! I am so glad that you enjoyed the cake. 🙂
kathie dunton
Can cake flour be substituted for all purpose flour? Same measurements? Benefits?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Kathie! Yes, it can! To substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour for every cup of all-purpose flour. Either flour will work well. The results will be about the same. I hope that you enjoy the cake. 🙂