Funfetti Birthday Cake

A super moist and delicious funfetti cake with colorful sprinkles and soft American buttercream. Tastes just like the box mix, but it's even better!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 40

Total Time 1

Servings cups

Calories 1294kcal

Author Elizabeth Marek

Equipment

2 8" cake pans (2" tall)
1 2F Wilton Piping Tip
1 Piping Bag

Ingredients

Funfetti Cake

200 grams Buttermilk
120 grams Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Butter Extract
5 teaspoons Clear Vanilla Extract
520 grams Cake Flour
600 grams Sugar
5 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Soy Lecithin
½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
120 grams Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
120 grams Shortening
200 grams Egg Whites
2 large Eggs
4 ounces Rainbow Sprinkles Jimmies or Confetti work best

American Buttercream

680 grams Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
1,143 grams Powdered Sugar
147 grams Heavy Whipping Cream
3 teaspoons Clear Vanilla Extract
¾ teaspoons Butter Extract
1 teaspoon Salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Funfetti Cake

In a measuring cup, add in your warm buttermilk, oil, butter extract, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
In a seperate bowl, mix together your egg whites and whole eggs. Set aside.
In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, add in your cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, soy lecithin, shortening and butter.
Mix on medium speed for 2-4 minutes or until the texture becomes crumbly.
While mixing on low speed, slowly stream in ⅔ of your buttermilk mixture (you should have about 4 oz of liquid leftover).
Increase the speed to medium and mix for 2 full minutes to develop the cakes structure.
Reduce the speed to low, add in the rest of buttermilk and the egg whites and egg yolks.
Mix everything together for 30 seconds until everything is homogenious.
With a spatula, Fold in your sprinkles.
Divide your batter evenly into 3 pans ( if making cupcakes, divide evenly into liners, about 1 -2 spoonfuls).
Bake at 350° F for about 35-40 minutes( about 18-20 minutes if you are making cupcakes).

American Buttercream

Using the mixing bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk your softened butter until smooth.
While mixing at a slow speed. Add in your powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix until smooth.
Add in your butter flavor, clear vanilla extract, and cream.
Whip for 2-3 minutes until buttercream is smooth.

Assembling the Funfetti Cake

Optional: Trim the brown layer of the top and sides of your cake layers. I usually trim my cakes because it gives them a cleaner look.
Place your cake on a cake board, or you can use a flat plate.
Take a few scoops of buttercream onto your first cake layer and spread a thin even layer about ½ inch thick using an offset spatula.
Stack your second cake layer on top and repeat the process.
Stack your third cake layer on top of the second and spread a thin layer of buttercream around the whole cake. Scrape off any access buttercream to where you can almost see your cake layers through your buttercream with your offset spatula or a bench scraper. This is called a crumb coat.
Once you frosted your crumb coat, place your cake in the fridge or freezer for at least 15 minutes, or until your buttercream is firm to the touch. This allows your buttercream to harden so when you go to decorate your layers won't move around and your first layer of buttercream will act as a base coat for your next layer.
Place your final coat of buttercream around your cake with your offset spatula, and smooth it out as much as best as you can.
Now, using your bench scraper, scrape away the excess frosting until it becomes as smooth as you can make it. Hold the scraper straight up and down, and slowly turn the cake until you’ve removed all of the excess buttercream. This will give your cake straight edges.
Smooth out the top of your cake and remove any excess buttercream with an offset spatula. You can now decorate your cake!

Decorating The Funfetti Cake

Start by placing the sprinkles of your choice into a small bowl ( for decoration it does not matter what kind of sprinkles you use ).
Pick up your cake from the bottom of the cake board and scoop sprinkles with your hand and brush them around the bottom sides of your cake ( Make sure to have a sheet pan underneath to collect the escapees ).
Once you have your desired look, place your cake back onto your plate or turntable. Prepare a piping bag with the piping tip of your choice ( I used a Wilton 2F ).
Fill your piping bag with some buttercream. I’m piping a simple shell border but you can decorate any way you like.
Top with more sprinkles and some birthday candles.

Video

Notes

Important Things To Note Before You Start

The best investment you can make when you’re getting started with baking is a digital kitchen scale! Weighing your ingredients will help you avoid cake failure. Using a kitchen scale for baking is super easy and gives you the best results every single time.
Practice Mise en Place (everything in its place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.
Need more help with making your first cake? Check out my how to decorate your first cake blog post.
Make sure all of your cold ingredients (e.g. butter, eggs, milk) are at room temperature or a little warm. Why? Because we want to create an emulsion and allow the ingredients to fully mix together.
Make your own pan release (cake goop!) The best pan release ever!
Chill your cakes before frosting and filling. You can cover a frosted and chilled cake in fondant if you wish. This cake is also great for stacking!
I suggest you use the long sprinkles also known as jimmies to make this cake because they create the cleanest look, and they don't bleed as much as other sprinkles.
You don't need to use soy lecithin and xanthan gum if you don't want to. If you decide to take it out, make sure you reduce your buttermilk by 100g.
If you want to add food coloring to this frosting, then you will add in any food coloring while you are mixing the egg whites with the powdered sugar (before you add in the butter). PRO TIP: Use a toothpick to transfer 1-2 drops of food coloring to your frosting to avoid putting too much color in your buttercream.
You can use whichever food coloring you have, but if you want a recommendation I would suggest the Chef Master gel food coloring. Use code “SUGARGEEKTEN” to get 10% off your order!

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