There are few recipes as cheerful as a delicious funfetti layer cake, speckled with all of the colors of the rainbow! There’s happiness in every slice.
You can find funfetti cake mixes at the grocery store, but my FAVORITE funfetti cake is made from scratch! Every delicious funfetti (or confetti) cake recipe has two things in common… you need a delicious white or yellow cake recipe, and lots of colorful sprinkles.
Rainbow jimmies have never let me down for this recipe (or ever, haha). They can easily be folded and distributed throughout the batter without a lot of color bleeding.
Today’s funfetti cake recipe is based on our White Almond Sour Cream Cake….minus the almond. As you’ll see in our recipe, we’re using the conventional method of mixing (rather than the reverse creaming) for nice, fluffy layers. This recipe works great for cupcakes also!
Funfetti Cakes were first introduced in the late 1980’s as a Pillsbury Cake mix. While it’s often thought of as a kids cake, I’m here to tell you that funfetti-loving kids grow into funfetti-loving adults! This cake is popular with my whole family. A scoop of sprinkles has a way of making any dessert more festive!
After folding our sprinkles into our cake batter, we divided the batter between three greased and floured pans (lined with parchment).
I recently made a funfetti cake for our free Unicorn Cake Topper Video Tutorial from our Free Cake Video Tutorials section. Unicorn cakes call for a little extra color!
And here is a closeup of our slice in all of it’s speckled funfetti glory!
Enjoy the recipe! If you give it a try, we’d love for you to write a review or leave a photo in the comments below!
Funfetti Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 T) (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 1 1/2 c (300g) granulated sugar
- 3 Large eggs
- 2 tsp. (8g) vanilla extract
- 1/3 c (73g) milk
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- 2 1/2 c (285g) cake flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons (12g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (or less if you prefer) Rainbow Colored Jimmies
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Grease and flour three 8 inch round baking pans
- In medium bowl whisk for 30 seconds the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
- In a separate bowl, combine milk, sour cream, vanilla. Stir with a fork to blend. Set Aside
- In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter until softened. Add the sugar and beat 3 to 4 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Scrape the bottom and sides of bowl midway through.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one until yellow streaks disappear.
- Add dry ingredients alternately with wet ingredients, mixing until dry ingredients are blended in. Begin and end with dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet).
- Fold in sprinkles just until evenly distributed.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pans 10 - 15 minutes then turn out. Makes 7 cups batter Will hold up to fondant. Works well for cupcakes - cupcakes bake without dome
Don’t miss our full collection of tried and true favorite cake and frosting recipes in our Recipes Section! There are so many wonderful recipes to try!
Funfetti Cake Recipe (find the printable version above)
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 T) (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 1 1/2 c (300g) granulated sugar
- 3 Large eggs
- 2 tsp. (8g) vanilla extract
- 1/3 c (73g) milk
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream
- 2 1/2 c (285g) cake flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons (12g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (or your desired amount) Rainbow Colored Jimmies
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Grease and flour three 8 inch round baking pans
1. In medium bowl whisk for 30 seconds the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
2 In a separate bowl, combine milk, sour cream, vanilla. Stir with a fork to blend. Set Aside
3. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter until softened. Add the sugar and beat 3 to 4 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Scrape the bottom and sides of bowl midway through.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each one until yellow streaks disappear.
5. Add dry ingredients alternately with wet ingredients, mixing until dry ingredients are blended in. Begin and end with dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet).
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pans 10 – 15 minutes then turn out. Makes 7 cups batter Will hold up to fondant Works well for cupcakes – cupcakes bake without dome
I love Funfetti Cake too! :-) I like this better then dying cake batter different colours – tastes better too! :-) Very fun and yummy! Thanks ladies for another terrific recipe.
I want a piece!!
Thank you for posting this recipe. I am making a cake next week for my grandson”s 11th birthday and didn’t want to use a box mix. This recipe fits the bill and I know it will be fantastic because a few months back I made the delicious cherry cake recipe you posted and another whose recipe name escapes me. Thank you very much.
The picture shows 3 layers and the recipe calls for 2 pans. How does that work?
Thanks for your comments!
@Patty- I’m so happy to hear it!
@Karen- Oops, you’re right I’ll update it. Sometimes I make two thicker layers but we decided to go with three slightly thinner layers this time.
Can I do this with pound cake? I’ll make my Easter Lamb Cakes like that.
Which icing did you use for the cake
I’m planning on using an Easter egg pan that I got from Wilton years ago for this recip0e. It is in two pieces and takes 1 box of cake mix. For fun I thought I’d write on the top FOR A GOOD EGG. I don’t think I would have room for writing Looking forward to baking this one next week.
Hi Lad, We used the Classic Vanilla Buttercream recipe from the recipe section. If you would like a whiter frosting, the Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream would be fine also.
Hi Patty, That is such a cute idea!!
Years ago I used a chocolate ganache to frost the cake. I was pleased with it because it was a nice glossy finish. I used to make daffodils also using various ways. Mostly I mixed granulated sugar dyed yellow and packed it into thimbles. About an hour later I would unmold it and keep checking and when I thought the time was right I picked at the center with a tooth pick until I got a nice thin trumpet. I did mess up a few. Making the petals was easy and then I just glued the trumpet in the middle and set them on paper towel cardboard to dry. I don’t think my grandson would appreciate the cake having daffodils, pink roses and daisies. I’m still thinking about what I can do with it. I am not in the mood to make a bakugan or some of the warriors that boys seem to like these days.
Hi there! This looks great! Just wondering why you choose the traditional mixing method instead of the reverse for this cake? Also wondering if you could just add 1/2 cup rainbow jimmies to your ‘white cake’ recipe without any troubles? I love your white cake recipe so just wondering what this one is like in comparison and if there would be any issue just adding the jimmies to the white cake/reverse creaming method recipe on your site? Thanks so much!!
I wondered to about just adding sprinkles to any yellow cake recipe
This was AMAZING!! The BEST white cake recipe I’ve ever had. I frosted it with your white chocolate buttercream frosting recipe on this site and it was out of this world! Moist, fluffy, tender and delicious!! Everyone wanted the frosting recipe. Thanks so much for sharing! It was a hit for my son’s 5th birthday party!!
Hi Kristel- Yay! Thank you so much for your feedback. I’m sorry that I missed your question above about the white cake- You could totally use this for reverse creaming method versions also.
We flip flop around sometimes in the mixing method that we choose for our posted recipes as some people prefer traditional while others prefer reverse creaming. But really, with funfetti, anything goes. You can toss sprinkles into whichever yellow or white cake you’d like. I’m so happy that you loved the recipe & the white chocolate frosting! xo
Hi. I was wondering how this recipe would stand up to stacking for a tiered cake. Thanks!!
Hi Tania, This recipe will stand up to stacking for a tiered cake.
Thanks @BeBe! It looks great. I can’t wait to try it!
Using this recipe in my egg pan did not work out well. I will stick to using regular pans for this recipe. The cake was done around the edges but not in the middle so I had to bake for a longer period resulting in a rather dry cake. When I use the regular pans I put these strips around the sides for even heat distribution and preventing the hump in the middle but there is no way I could use them with these egg pans. This recipe is a keeper but thought I would share my experience in case it would help someone.
I was wondering if you have done this in a chocolate cake. I have a client that wants a chocolate funfetti cake. Any suggestions?
Hi Crystal, I think that you would be able to see some of the color from the individual sprinkles…but it won’t be nearly as eye catching or noticeable as with the yellow or white cakes since the color that bleeds out around the sprinkles won’t show up. You could just give your client a head’s up that the sprinkles may not show up very well…and see if she wants to do it anyway. If your filling is a vanilla frosting, you can stir sprinkles into it or on top of it to give your cake slices some color.