Confetti Cake – moist and fluffy vanilla cake layers, lots of sprinkles and a whipped vanilla buttercream.
Best Birthday Cake
I’m not sure there’s anything more classic or more nostalgic than a classic Confetti Cake. Since the day Pillsbury came out with their hugely popular Funfetti Cake back in the 1950’s, it’s been a favorite for generations! What’s not to love? Vanilla cake, vanilla buttercream and lots of sprinkles!
Like many of you, I grew up on the boxed version of this cake. I loved it back then, but a few years ago came up with my own recipe. I originally posted it as my Fourth of July Funfetti Cake, and grew to love it even more!
In this first version of my Confetti Cake, I used my Classic White Cake and Vanilla Buttercream as the base. It’s super light and fluffy, and reminds me of my childhood. However, I’ve always felt like it could be better. As I’ve remade this cake over the years, I just kept thinking, I need to try this one again.
Confetti Cake
As I’ve been working on my cookbook (to be released later this year), I made a few changes to this recipe to make it even more memorable and delicious. In this updated Confetti Cake recipe, the cake is more of a vanilla cake than a white cake. It’s a little more moist, in my opinion, than my original version. And it also has a slightly stronger vanilla flavor to it as well.
The texture and flavor in this cake is so delicious and I’m so excited for you to try it!
CAKE MAKING TIPS
Don’t forget to follow my go-to tips for getting your cakes to rise and bake well:
- Preheat your oven for 30 minutes prior to baking.
- Use good quality pans like Fat Daddio.
- Spray your pans with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.
- Don’t overmix your cake batter once you add the dry ingredients.
- Use room temperature wet ingredients.
- Use fresh baking powder.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BUTTERCREAM
To get a light and fluffy, silky smooth buttercream, make sure you follow my tips: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BUTTERCREAM
- Sift your powdered sugar
- Use slightly cold butter
- Use heavy whipping cream
- Beat for 5 minutes
- Stir by hand
You’ll want to check out the post linked above for more details on each step.
More Birthday Cakes You’ll Love
Thanks for another stellar cake recipe!!!
How many sprinkles do you put in the batter, and at what point do you add them? I didn’t see it listed in the recipe.
Thanks!
Such a gorgeous cake! 🙂 Quick question – the recipe does not have the measurement of sprinkles for the cake batter…. how much do you recommend using for this particular recipe? Thank you so much!
Oops! There now!
What if I want to use 6 or 7” pans instead? Do I just increase the time or cut the recipe in half or what do I do? I don’t have 8” pans.
For 6″ cakes, you don’t have to do anything except you need four pans. For the 7″ pans you’ll use three and increase the time.
Hi! The Funfetti cake looks awesome. When do we add the sprinkles to the batter and in what amount??
Thanks!!
fold them in at the end
The complete recipe is cut off. I can’t see anything about how sprinkles should be added or the drip.
It’s there now
Hi Courtney!
I want to make this cake for an outdoor birthday party in the Texas heat next weekend. Do you think the buttercream will melt? If so is there another icing recipe you have that would be better?
Thanks!
Gabby
Honestly, any buttercream will melt in the heat. If possible, get a cooler and put some dry ice in it with the cake to store while you’re outside.
Did you use red food dye to make the drip pink?
I used pink
There is 6 eggs? becouse you writte twice 3 large eggs and then 3 large eggs? It is confuse. Thanks.
Three egg whites and three whole eggs.
Hello! This cake looks delicious! Would the recipe work in two 9″ cake pans? If so, how would you recommend adjusting bake time?
yes it will, you’ll want to reduce the bake temp to 325 and increase the time by 5-10 minutes
The temp is already 325 so do I reduce it even lower for 9” pans???
No, just use two pans and increase the time a little.
I made this cake for my daughters birthday. The flavor was so yummy, but I found it slightly dry. I followed the recipe to a “T”. Any tips on getting a more moist cake?
Try baking it for less time. Your oven may run a little hot so your bake time may need to decrease from mine a little. Also make sure you’re using light metal pans and not dark ones.
hello
love all your cakes. i have a question if i wanted to replace the eggs with something else. what would you recommend?
Thanks
a combination of vinegar and baking soda make a good egg replacement – look at my vanilla vegan cake
Love the look of this cake, I’m sure I’m going to really love baking and eating it but I did have one question. What type of food coloring is used to color the drip?
I like Americolor food gels
How do you do the drip, and do you add food coloring to it??
Yes add a bit of food gel to your white chocolate and heavy cream. I have tutorials on Instagram.
Hi Courtney, I’m so excited to make this cake for my twin granddaughters’ 2nd birthday. Their mom wants their cakes to look like a donut so I’m have two fat daddio’s ring mold pans size 7×2/12 in. How should I adjust for that? Should I make the full recipe or half it? What temp and for how long should I bake them? And would it be ok to use the drip only so it looks like a donut? Thank you!!!
You’ll only need about half the recipe and then yes, the drip would be so cute
Hi! Okay, maybe I missed it, but what quantity of sprinkles did you mix into the frosting for this one? (I see the quantity for the batter but not the frosting). Do you have a preferred brand of jimmies?
Your buttercream recipe doesn’t have salt listed on the ingredients but in your directions it says add salt. I’m confused. Can you please clarify?
Just do a small dash!
I’m looking to make a 9×13 cake, how would I adjust the baking time/temp for that size? Thanks!
you can use the entire cake batter in a 9″x13″ pan. For this size, you’ll turn the oven temperature to 325 degrees F and increase the bake time about 10 to 15 minutes.
Hi, is it possible to make this into a two layer sheet cake? Thanks in advance!
Yes! You just need to double the recipe and use two different sheet pans.
Hi Courtney! I am very excited to be trying this cake out! I was curious, is this cake & frosting recipe different than your classic vanilla cake? Thank you so much!
Yes it’s a little different!
Great recipe! My daughter and I made it today. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was how long to heat the cream in the microwave in the last step.
You should heat it for about a minute.
All your cakes are amazing. I always have a problem with my buttercreams they tend to be on the hard side so getting a smooth cake is somewhat of a problem. Any suggestions?
Are you adding enough heavy whipping cream? Make sure you hand beat your frosting with a wooden spoon for a few minutes at the end as well.
how much food coloring did you use for the icing?
There is no food coloring in the frosting.
Did you change the amount of baking powder? It originally said 2 tsp? Which is correct?
It’s one tbsp.
so is the recipe in Taste of Home for the Funfetti cake incorrect? It says 2 tsp? Not 1 tablespoon…thanks- fyi I made a 3 layer 8 in with the 2 tsp and it seemed fine…
It’s been updated. It’s one tbsp now.
Hey, Courtney! I’m somewhat new at baking cakes. I pulled these cakes out when there were still several moist crumbs on the toothpick like the recipe states (I’ve had trouble in the past cooking mine too long so this is earlier than I usually do!). Now I’m worried they may be underbaked and that I pulled them out too soon. Do you have any tips as far as being able to tell if it needs more time in the oven? When I went to invert them onto cooling racks, they felt very fragile as though they were going to fall apart (they held together though barely, phew!) Thanks, Courtney! I love your cakes!
If the toothpick doesn’t come out wet but just with a few crumbs, you are all good. Make sure you let them sit in the cake pans for at least 10 minutes after they come out. That will help continue cooking the cake.
Do I need to make any adjustments to this cake to make it at 6000 ft?
Thank you!
No my cakes were made for high altitude.
Is there a tool supply list? I’m taking the class and want to buy stuff ahead of time. Thx
I have a post called Essential Cake decorating tools! Go check that one out!
Will this recipe work using a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer? I know I’m behind times but I don’t have one!
Yes you can. Just make sure to not overmix.
What brand of rainbow sprinkles do you like??
Generic kind for inside the cake and Sweetapolita for decorating.
I made this cake for my son’s 3rd birthday and then did your chocolate buttercream as the frosting. It was a hit with everyone! The only bummer is that I made the cakes 2 days ago and froze them for about a day before putting them in the fridge to thaw overnight; and they were a bit dry and crumbly. Any idea what might have caused that?
Hi! The cooking time was 15-20minutes longer than the recipe stated. The cake is also a bit oily? Help!
Was your oven preheated?
Hi Courtney 😊
What is the altitude you bake at in Utah?
It’s about 4500 ft.
Do you ever use a convection oven or a convection setting for your cakes?
No.
Would this recipe work for cupcakes?
Yes!
Hi! I am planning on making this cake for my daughter’s 1st bday but I need some help with baking times please! I’d like to do two 7 inch round layers for the main cake and I have a 4 inch heart shaped pan for her smash cake. May you please help with correct baking times please? Thank you!!! I’m so excited to make this cake!!
It might be a little less time. Keep your eye on it.
Hi Courtney, This cake looks great. Can this recipe also covert to make cupcakes? Or do you have another recommendation?
Renee
Yes you can!
I need to make 2 6” cakes… would the layers be too thin if I divided the recipe as is between 5 6” pans?
It would be ok!
Hi Courtney! Do you think I could make this recipe gluten free by using cup 4 cup flour? Or am I better off using your gluten free vanilla cake recipe and then just adding some sprinkles. Would you ever suggest adding cake batter extract?
You can definitely use Cup 4 cup flour for this recipe. It is pretty sweet already but you are more than welcome to add cake batter extract.
do you explain how to decorate the cake? please do 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwo2IIoYDL8 this shows how I got the sprinkles on the cake!
Is the correct temperature 350 or 325? The cake class says 350 but this recipe says 325. Thank you!
325! I’ll fix that now!
Hiya! From the UK here and wondering what cake flour is? We don’t have anything called ‘cake flour’ here so wondering what to use?
For one cup of AP flour, take out two tbsp and replace with two tbsp corn starch. Then sift the mixture at least six times to get the same mixture as fine as cake flour.
Quick question- should the sour cream be room temperature as well??
Yes!
Can this funfetti birthday cake recipe be used for cupcakes?
Absolutely!
Hello! This will be my absolute first attempt at a cake. Ambitious, I know 😬
My son loves funfetti, but because of Covid, we are not having a party… just having my parents over. Obviously yielding 20 people will be way too much cake. Any suggestions on how to cut back on the amount to make and the cooking time? I’m going to grab some cake pans today (see, super amateur) and want sure if I should just buy littler pans and just make a condensed version of this? Also, is there a noticeable difference between cake flour and just doing the flour/cornstarch method? If it will taste better, then I’ll just buy the cake flour haha
Thank you!
You can half the recipe and make it in two 6-inch pans! I always suggest buying the real cake flour if you can!
Hi Courtney, where can I find the cake stand? I want one just like it to go with this cake.
Thank you!
it’s old from the dollar section of Target!
My niece’s favorite cake is this one and I tried a recipe years ago and it was dry and not good. I saw you on the Kelly Clarkson show and decided to look you up only to find this cake and do many other beautiful cakes. I figured I would give the Funfetti to decide if flavor also matched the beauty of the decoration and it absolutely did!! Even my adult son who is my toughest critic and not a big cake person and didn’t even want to try it, took a bite and finished the whole slice. I did pair it with a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream only because I find the American style buttercream too sweet. Thank you and so glad I found you!!!
Thank you so much!
Hi, Courtney!! Love all of your stuff. Looking forward to.making this one. Can u tell me how much and when to add sprinkles to buttercream so they wont bleed?
At the end you will stir them in.
what brand of clear vanilla extract do you like?
I usually use Wilton!
Hi Courtney! Cant wait to try this recipe. Could I make this into cupcakes? If so what would be the cook time?
Thanks!
Omg Courtney! This cake was delicious! The buttercream was just perfect! My family loved it. Will be adding this to my recipe book. Thank you so much for a delicious recipe and easy to follow instructions.
Thank you so much!
This cake is GORGEOUS! Do you have any tips for how you did the frosting decoration? Looks like the sprinkles were folded in. Do you just apply after the crumb coat and smooth? How do the spring joes not run their colors? Thanks in advance for any help!
Just folded in after crumb coat! Fold them in softly.
Hello! If I don’t have clear vanilla extract can I use the brown one? Thanks!
Yes.
Hi Courtney. Can you make this into cupcakes?
Hi! Where can I see the other comments, reviews ?
At the bottom of the page.
Hi! I don’t see anything about adding sprinkles to the buttercream frosting. How much sprinkles should I add to the frosting? It looks like there are sprinkles on frosting in pictures! Thanks xxoo
1/2 cup folded in at the end.
Hi Courtney! Beautiful cake and I appreciate the recipe!! I don’t see any instructions on how to add the sprinkles to the frosting. If I use a warmed bench scraper to frost my final layer, will the colors from the sprinkles melt and smear? And how much do we add for the batch? Thank you 🙂
Stir in the 1/2 cup sprinkles at the end. They will not melt.
Hi, your recipe does not say how much salt for the frosting.
A pinch.
Have not made this yet however it appears that sprinkles are in the buttercream but not mentioned in the ingredient list??
1/2 cup folded in at the end if you want to use them.
Hello! this recipe calls for “cake flour”, Is this the same as all purpose flour? If not, do yo mean like box cake flour like betty crocker brand? Thank you for your reply!
It is not the same flour. Cake flour is in it’s own box in the baking aisle. My favorite brand is Softasilk.
Cake was so yummy! Perfect balance of sweet and salty! However, I had to leave mine in for way longer than the specified time and the middles were still underdone… maybe my oven runs low? Any thoughts on how I might troubleshoot this? Practicing to make for sons birthday!
Every oven is different! Let it preheat at least an hour and keep your eye on it. I also recommend getting an over thermometer.