Party on a plate.
There’s no cake quite as happy or festive as a confetti cake. This confetti cake recipe, often called Funfetti cake, combines a fantastic vanilla buttermilk cake with lots of rainbow sprinkles for an all-time favorite birthday layer cake. Below, learn how to make this cake with detailed, step-by-step instructions, tips, and a how-to video.
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Why I Love This Confetti Cake Recipe
I made this buttermilk cake for the first time several years ago, when I offered to make my nephew’s fifth birthday cake — a milestone birthday if there ever was one. His main request was “lots of sprinkles.”
I wanted a vanilla cake that would be sweet but not cloying, moist but with enough structure to hold up in a big size. Naturally, I turned to Maida Heatter, whose recipes I trust implicitly. Enter this rainbow sprinkle confetti cake, a Funfetti-style layer cake made from from scratch that everyone will love.
The cake emerged from the oven in a sweet waft of butter and vanilla. The party took place two days later. The cake was still moist, with a slight buttermilk tang to complement the sweetness. Maida did not disappoint.
What is the difference between Funfetti and confetti cake?
Funfetti cake is like Xerox or Kleenex: a name that is technically owned by a company, but has entered the general lexicon of usage. The name Funfetti is trademarked and held by the J.M. Smucker Company, which did own Pillsbury until it was sold to General Mills in 2018.
If you are making a homemade cake from scratch, like this one, it is technically a confetti cake: a vanilla white cake mixed with sprinkles. A funfetti cake is made from a Pillsbury mix.
The Confetti Cake Flavor, Texture, and Looks
This is a moist, classic vanilla layer cake mixed with rainbow sprinkles. The sprinkles melt in the cake batter while baking, resulting in that signature confetti look when you cut into it.
- Flavor: This confetti cake has a sweet vanilla flavor, with just a touch tang from buttermilk to cut the sweetness. The rainbow sprinkles do not add any flavor, just fun. If you want to add a little something to the flavor, I suggest lemon zest or playing around with complementary buttercream flavors, such as strawberry or chocolate. Vanilla buttercream is also perfect. Because it’s a vanilla cake, it is endlessly adaptable.
- Texture: Because of the butter and buttermilk, the texture of this cake is very moist, but with good structure and fine crumb. It will stay moist for several days at room temperature once baked.
- Appearance: Pure joy! The rainbow sprinkles in this white cake are scattered throughout the cake batter before baking. When you cut into the baked cake, you’ll enjoy a colorful confetti reveal.
“This is perfectly plain/beautiful/delicious, and is easy to make,” reads Maida’s headnote for her buttermilk vanilla cake. I made the cake batter (adding extra vanilla for good measure), tossed in rainbow sprinkles, and baked it up. Five stars.
This confetti birthday cake has become one of my go-to cake recipes. You can opt out of the sprinkles, of course. Add a teaspoon of lemon or orange zest for hint of fragrant citrus, then frost it generously with fluffy buttercream.
If you like this recipe, you’ll also love this recipe for sprinkle cookies.
Confetti Layer Cake Tips, Substitutions, and Notes
This is a standard creaming method cake, which I make in an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. As always, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy before adding the eggs and vanilla. Once the dry ingredients start to go in, do not overmix. This develops gluten.
Use rainbow sprinkles as confetti for this cake, not nonpareils. Nonpareils (those tiny little rainbow sprinkle balls) are just too small and will melt and turn the cake color muddy, without the good definition of colors you get from rainbow sprinkles (a.k.a. rainbow jimmies).
This cake can be made in two 9-inch round cake pans. Grease the cake pans well and line the bottoms with parchment paper so the cake doesn’t stick. Wait until the cake layers cool for about 15 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool fully outside of the cake pans, peeling off the parchment paper.
Don’t want to make a cake? Make cupcakes. This recipe will make about 24 confetti cupcakes.
Love this confetti cake recipe? You may also enjoy:
- Soft Italian Sprinkle Cookies
- Italian Ricotta Cookies
- How to Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- How to Decorate a Sprinkle Cake
Confetti Cake from Scratch (Funfetti Layer Cake)
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- zest of one lemon or orange (optional)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans or one standard loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in one bowl and set aside.PRO TIP: Don't feel like sifting? (For the record, I avoid it whenever possible.) Do a quick, "fake" sift by stirring the dry ingredients together for a minute with a whisk. It won't be quite as fluffy and powdery, but it will work fine in a cake like this -- though it is best to do a full sift for extra-light baked goods like soufflés and sponge cakes.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium or medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl once during this process to make sure everything is smooth. Scrape again.
- With the mixer on low, add the eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest (if using). Once it starts to incorporate, kick the mixer up to medium again, and beat until it is lightened and fluffy, about one minute. Scrape the bowl and briefly mix again.
- On low speed, alternately add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions and the buttermilk in two: dry, wet, dry, wet, dry. When everything is fully incorporated, remove the bowl from the mixer. Scrape the bowl as necessary, and fold in the sprinkles by hand using a spatula.
- Pour the cake batter evenly into the two cake pans or loaf pan. Use the back of the spatula to smooth the batter evenly, and bake. Two 8" round pans will take about 30-35 minutes. One loaf pan will take around 1 1/2 hours. PRO TIP: Your cake is done when a cake tester, skewer, or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, and the top feels firm but not hard, like a sponge. You may also notice the edges pulling away from the pan.
- Cool in the pans for about 15 to 20 minutes. When the pans are cool enough to handle, run an offset spatula or a knife around the outside rim, and turn the cakes out onto a wire cooling rack. Let fully cool. PRO TIP: This cake can be made a day or two in advance, and I recommend doing so. Cake always tastes better the next day.
Video
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutrition information is provided for courtesy purposes only, and is an estimate not verified by medical or nutrition experts. Read the full nutrition disclaimer.
22 comments
Lynn
My grandson and I made this delicious confetti cake for his 8th birthday. He loved it so much that he didn’t even want ice cream. I used swiss meringue buttercream and the decorating was so easy with all those sprinkles! Thanks for this recipe !
Lynn
Absolutely delicious birthday cake that my 8 year old grandson and I made together! So much better than a box cake and not difficult to do. I found your recipe on “Once Upon a Chef” blog and wanted to let you know how beautifully this cake turned out! We enjoyed it so much that he did not want ice cream with it. I made a swiss meringue buttercream to frost it and then we covered it with sprinkles. Spectacular with sparkler candles! Thank you!
Lisa Ruland
Thank you so very much, Lynn! What a wonderful review, and I am so glad that the cake turned out so well, and sounds like you also made a wonderful memory baking with your grandson as well. Thanks again!