Homemade Funfetti Cake with Funfetti Frosting — 🎂🎉🍰 This cake is as close to store-bought funfetti cake mix that I’ve been able to replicate at home. I have no shame in admitting my love for that stuff, but it’s nice to be able to pronounce all the ingredients and prep a cake from scratch in literally 5 minutes!
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I’ve always loved Funfetti. Who can resist all those sprinkles buried in soft, fluffy cake? None of us in my house can.
This homemade funfetti cake has sprinkles in the batter and also has a wall of sprinkles in the funfetti frosting. Sprinkle overload, such a beautiful thing.
The cake and funfetti frosting are both fast and easy to make, and the cake always turn out supremely moist, springy, and fluffy thanks to buttermilk, sour cream, and oil. That trifecta of moisturizing and tenderizing ingredients makes it impossible to have a dry cake!
Funfetti Cake Ingredients
This is such an easy funfetti cake recipe! You’ll need the following basic ingredients:
Cake:
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Egg
- Buttermilk
- Sour cream
- Canola oil
- Vanilla extract
- Sprinkles
Funfetti frosting:
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Confectioners’ sugar
- More sprinkles!
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Funfetti Cake from Scratch
Here’s how this easy homemade funfetti cake recipe comes together:
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another.
- Gently stir in the sprinkles.
- Turn the batter into a greased 8×8-inch baking dish and bake until the center is set and not jiggly, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Once the funfetti cake comes out of the oven, let it cool completely before frosting. The homemade funfetti frosting is as simple to make as whipping the ingredients together until light and fluffy!
Baking FAQs
Nope! White cake is incredibly light, fluffy, and has such a lovely in flavor thanks to the multitude of egg whites in the batter. Funfetti cake is made with a whole egg, buttermilk, sour cream, and plenty of vanilla to create a richer, moister cake that is — yes — loaded with sprinkles!
Funfetti cake tastes like a richer version of a vanilla cake. It also has a subtle tang to it from the buttermilk and sour cream in the batter.
Get your hands on real buttermilk, if possible. Otherwise, you can make a buttermilk substitute in a couple of minutes. You can also use powdered buttermilk, which has a long shelf life and comes in handy for recipes like this funfetti cake.
I used generic, store-brand sprinkles to make this funfetti cake recipe and they didn’t bleed into the batter at all. Long, skinny sprinkles work best for this recipe.
If you’re concerned with the sprinkles bleeding into the batter, I recommend being very gentle when stirring them in. If you overmix the batter after adding the sprinkles, it may change color.
I have only make this with all purpose so really can’t say if cake flour will yield the same results with the same measurement of flour or not.
I’m sure you can. You’d need to double the ingredients listed and bake the funfetti cake in a 9×13-inch pan. Note that your baking time will differ since you’re making a much larger cake.
You probably can, although I haven’t done so myself so I can’t say for sure. If baking this recipe as cupcakes, you’d likely need to bake them for around 18 to 20 minutes. Use your best judgement!
Yes, you likely can double this recipe and bake it in two 8- or 9-inch round cake tins. To be safe, Google the volume of an 8×8-inch baking dish versus an 8- or 9-inch round baking tin to see how much of a difference there is between the two. This way, you’ll know if you need to double the recipe or 2.5x it, and so forth.
If you’re looking for a funfetti bundt cake recipe, I recommend making this recipe instead. I’ve tested it multiple times and know that it works in a bundt pan.
Storage and Freezing Instructions
Cake will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days (I’m comfortable storing frosted cakes at room temp, if you’re not store in the fridge) or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Wrap the cake tightly with plastic wrap before freezing for best results.
Recipe Video
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Homemade Funfetti Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
Funfetti Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ⅓ cup sour cream, lite is okay (plain Greek yogurt may be substituted)
- ¼ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ cup sprinkles, or to taste
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pinch salt, optional and to taste (helps offset the sweetness)
- 1 ½ to 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, I use 2 cups
- ⅓ cup sprinkles, or to taste
Instructions
Make the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, optional salt; set aside.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sour cream, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry, mixing lightly with a spoon or folding with a spatula until just combined. Small lumps will be present, don’t overmix or try to stir them smooth.
- Gently stir in the sprinkles, taking care not to overmix or they could bleed.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan and bake for about 30 minutes (start checking at 25 minutes), or until center is set and not jiggly, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Place pan on a wire rack and allow cake to cool. While cake cools, make the frosting.
Make the Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
- To a large bowl, add the butter, vanilla, optional salt, and slowly add the confectioners’ sugar while beating with a handheld electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Turn frosting out onto cooled cake, smoothing it lightly with a spatula or offset knife.
- Evenly sprinkle the sprinkles before slicing and serving.
Video
Notes
- Cake will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 5 days (I’m comfortable storing frosted cakes at room temp, if you’re not store in the fridge) or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Cake base adapted from Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Bean Browned Butter Glaze.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Desserts Using Sprinkles:
Easy Homemade Funfetti Bundt Cake — No cake mix in this 100% homemade funfetti cake that’s loaded with sprinkles and tastes amazing! Fast, easy, and the best scratch funfetti cake recipe!
Funfetti Cookies — These funfetti cookies are essentially sugar cookies from scratch that have been loaded with sprinkles. They have that nostalgic boxed cake flavor but are 100% homemade!
Oreo Chocolate Chip Funfetti Cookies — The cookies are loaded with Oreos, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and are adapted from my favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. They’re soft, moist, buttery, and thick enough to sink your teeth into!
Funfetti Cake Mix Cookies — Jumbo, super soft, slightly chewy cake mix cookies that are loaded with rainbow and confetti sprinkles, and topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting!
Birthday Cake Cinnamon Rolls — The softest, fluffiest, most tender cinnamon rolls stuffed with cinnamon-and-sugar and rainbow sprinkles! Topped with tangy cream cheese frosting and more sprinkles!
Copycat Lofthouse Sugar Cookies — Just like real Lofthouse cookies, but with sprinkles baked in! These cookies are soft, buttery, and they just melt in your mouth!
Thanks for all the delicious looking recipes to choose from Averie! I just wanted to say you are a very gifted photographer, your photos are so beautiful and classy.
Thank you very much for the photography compliments! I really appreciate that :)
My daughter wants a rainbow cake this year. Do you think this batter would hold dye well and look pretty with the jimmies if the batter was dyed bright colors? I’ve done one before that didn’t work as well because the crumb wasn’t dense enough so the airiness didn’t allow for the colors to look super bright. The reviews on the cake are fantastic and I thought the colored jimmies would be sufficient for “rainbow,” but I am apparently very wrong! It needs to be colored WITH sprinkles!
I honestly really can’t say. I would make a trial run of it and see how it goes based on your expectations. It’s a VERY easy, fast, and inexpensive cake to make. Good luck!
You probably already made the cake, but I would have doubled the recipe and took half the batter and put it in the pan then take a
few different bowl fulls of the remaining batter and added a drop or two of food coloring into each bowl. Then take those bowls of batter and drop it into several places on the batter that’s already in the pan. Swirl batter with a toothpick.
Can’t ever have too many sprinkles–fun for adults and kids alike and it sounds delicious! I love the little bit of texture they add too.
You’re got that right! Happy 4th!
I made this today and it is delicious! Super moist. My husband normally only likes cake with some form of chocolate, but he loved it to. Easy to make with my kids helping and they were so excited for their sprinkles cake. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this was a hit with everyone!
It honestly doesn’t take much longer to make a cake from scratch…and it always tastes SO much better and is better for you! YUM :)
You are so right! Happy 4th!
Will this recipe be enough for 2 nine inch rounds??
no
This was maybe the most amazing cake I’ve ever made. I’m not a huge fan of cakes, as they tend to be too sweet, but I made this for my son’s birthday and I kept going back for more. It was so moist and delicious. I used regular while fat lemon yogurt. That was the only change I made (mostly because that was all I had). This is going to be new go-to cake for parties!
Thanks for the 5 star review and glad this was possibly the most amazing cake you’ve ever made!
Did you use round sprinkles in the cake or long jimmy’s like you show on top of the frosting? I have tried this type of cake before with the round sprinkles and they bleed a lot.
Long jimmies in both.
The cake is amazing!!! Just made it for my son’s birthday. Never buying cake mix again :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and glad you’re never buying a mix again!
made this yesterday for my sons birthday, doubled the recipe for 9X13 and it came out flat -didnt rise at all. Had to buy a cake at the grocery store. Why would this happen!?
I’ve never doubled this particular recipe but I don’t think that is actually the problem. Flat sounds like a problem with the baking powder. That is what’s going to make the cake rise and either yours wasn’t fresh or you possibly didn’t measure correctly would be my guess at the issue. No one has ever had an issue with this cake that they’re written to me about. Not sure what to say – maybe it was the doubling? Hard to say. Thanks for trying the recipe.
yes i thought it must have to do with the baking powder but could have sworn I doubled it, oh well! Thanks for responding!!
Sometimes in a rush I forget to double the simple things like that. It happens!
I made this cake for my brother’s birthday. Funfetti is his favorite cake, so I was really excited to try this easy recipe out! Well lemme tell ya, it was a HUGE hit! This and your vanilla buttermilk cake is now my go-to every time I need a legit, easy, delicious cake. I wish I could post a picture because it was so beautiful. Thanks! :) PS- I doubled the recipe and baked it in two 8-inch pans and it came out perfectly.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! Glad this is the buttermilk vanilla are your go-to’s! If you have an Instagram account, tag me with the photo you post.
Tried this and turned out great. Would you change the recipe for a 9′ or 8′ round pan?
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! I would use a 9″ round rather than an 8″ so it doesn’t overflow but I haven’t personally tried it.
Do you think this is enough for a bundt pan or should I double the recipe? Do you think the bake time would be the same?
I would double it and bake for probably 50-ish minutes but that is a total guess and you’d have to keep an eye on it.
I made this cake yesterday for my husband’s birthday. It’s DELICIOUS! I would definitely bake it again.
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you!
Has anyone tried This recipe using almond flour?
My family has never been a huge fan of home made cakes…until this one. Thank you! Now each kid has asked for this cake for their birthdays and I love that I’m not buying a box mix or a Costco cake with a bunch of nasty ingredients…I’ve done it as cake and cupcakes and they’ve been fabulous both ways…making another batch right now for my 10 year old :) Thank you!!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out so great for you that you’ll skip boxed mixes and storebought cakes from now on! That is a huge statement and thank you for the praise!
I was wondering if this can be made ahead of time and frozen. Or how long it would last in the fridge after it has been baked
In the directions, last step, I gave my opinions about storage. Fresh is always best, but you can freeze it if need be. It really depends how far in advance you want to make it before serving if I’d refrigerate it (unfrosted) before frosting it and serving.