Funfetti Cake is a cake I have always loved.  I purchased the box mix years ago when my children were little. They begged for funfetti cakes for their birthdays.  I love the Betty Crocker Frosting as well.  There is nothing like those rainbow colored chips.

Working to make this beautiful cake homemade, has taken a few years to get it right. The flavor is delicious and the texture is perfect.  Funfetti Cake is the pairing of vanilla cake and rainbow sprinkles to make everyone happy.  This cake is on my mind because I am making it for a very special first birthday. Happy Birthday James!

How To Make Funfetti Cake

1.  Start with preheating the oven to 350°.  The oven needs to be at this temperature at least 10 minutes before placing anything inside.  This insures whatever you are baking will start at the correct temperature.   It also keeps the the amount of time to bake precise.

2. You will need three 8-inch cake pans.  You can also make this in nine inch rounds, the cake layers will be thinner. For me 8-inch cake pans gives the perfect frosting to cake ratio.  Don’t get me wrong, frosting is delicious, but for me, the cake is the star of the show.  Frosting is only there to accent the cake, not the other way around.

Preparing The Pans Ahead Makes Getting the Cakes Out Easy

3.  Grease the cake pans, dust with flour and then place a piece of parchment inside.  Crisco is the grease of choice in my home. My mother always used it and I have continued the tradition by having a can on hand for certain cookies, Gingersnaps, Snickerdoodles, and, of course, greasing cake pans.

Cutting the parchment paper can be easy.   Place the cake pan on top of the paper and then trace a circle around the bottom of the pan.  Remove the pan and use your scissors and cut inside the circle you marked by about 1/4 inch.  The circle will fit perfectly inside your cake pan. 

4.  Mix the room temperature butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  There is something magical that happens to butter and sugar when you whip it for four minutes. 

5.  It is a great practice to crack eggs into a bowl.  If you accidentally get a piece of shell in the bowl, you can get it out much easier than getting it out of the batter.   

Cracking your eggs on a flat surface will also help to reduce shells cracking and breaking into the bowl.  

Separating the whites from the yolks is easier with cold eggs.  I use several methods when separating eggs.  Often, I crack the egg on the countertop and then hold it over a bowl.  I let the whites leak out of the shells, while I toggle the yolk back and forth between the two shell halves.

I also love to crack the egg into my hand and let the whites slip in between my fingers, keeping the yolk in my hand.  When separating the whites from the yolk, you do not want any yolk in the whites.  When whipping the egg whites, a little yolk will make it very difficult to get the stiff peaks you migth be seeking. In this recipe it is not an issue because you are using both yolks and whites and not whipping the whites.

You Need Both Egg Yolks and Whites in This Recipe

6. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar mixture.  Once the eggs are mixed in, add the sour cream and vanilla.

7.  Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.   Add the dry ingredients  to the batter a spoonful at a time.  Alternate dry ingredients with a little buttermilk until both are mixed in. 

Scraping Down the Sides of the Mixer With a Spatula

8.  Once the cake is mixed, add the sprinkles and fold in by hand.  You do not want to break up the sprinkles, you just want to add them gently at the end with a spatula.

I am a little bit of a snob about sprinkles.  There are regular sprinkles from a grocery store which will work just fine.  I have found I love the sprinkles at Orson Gygi’s in Salt Lake City.  They are a more tender sprinkle and cook up so well in cakes.  They are also pleasant to eat on top of cakes and cookies.  

You can purchase  them here.  I am receiving no income for this endorsement.  Just passing on the knowledge I have gained after purchasing many, many sprinkles.  

Using a Kitchen Scale Keeps the Layers Even

9.  To get the same size cakes takes a little bit of math.   I weigh my cake batter using a kitchen scale.  Set a bowl on your scale and make sure you tare the scale.  This means the bowl is not being weighed, only the batter you place inside.  Spoon in a third of the batter into the bowl on the scale.  Write down what this first batch weighs and pour the batter into the first prepared cake pan.   Make sure to get all the cake batter out of the bowl and place it back on the scale.

Pour the same amount into this bowl as you measured in the first bowl.  Pour this into the second prepared cake pan.

Do this a third time for the third pan.  You will probably have batter left over.  Pour all of it into the bowl on the scale and then divide this by three.  Add one third of the batter to each prepared pan.  Now when they bake, you do not need to worry about one baking faster than the others.  They are all the exact same size.

10.  Bake the cakes for 25-30 minutes.  You are looking for a golden brown color on top.  When you touch the top of the cake, it should spring back.  Don’t open the oven door until the very end.  The change in temperature when opening the door, can make your cakes fall.

11.  When done, take the cakes out of the oven and place on a cooling rack.  Let them sit for 10 minutes and then use an offset spatula to loosen the cakes around the rim.  Turn them upside down and place on the rack again.  Immediately peel off the parchment paper and dispose.

12.  Let cakes cool completely.  Making the cakes the day before you need them is helpful.  You can wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze once cooled.  This will make frosting the cake much easier.  If you do not have time to make the cakes ahead, frosting the layers with a thin coat of frosting and then putting them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes will also make frosting mush easier. This is called a crumb coat.

Funetti Frosting Instructions

1.  To make the frosting, put the room temperature butter in a stand mixer and beat until  it is a light yellow in color.  Add the powdered sugar a heaping spoonful at a time, adding a little heavy whipping cream as you need to bring the frosting together.  Once all ingredients are added to the bowl, set the timer to four minutes and beat.  Stop the mixer and scrap the sides occasionally within the four minutes. 

 In my Kitchen Aid, I have difficulty keeping everything mixed well because ingredients stick to the sides of the bowl.  You do not want streaks of butter in the frosting when you lower the bowl after the four minutes of beating.  Thus, the reason, to scrap the sides with a spatula every minute, or minute and a half, pulling the butter off the sides into the whipped mass in the middle.

2. Adding sprinkles to the frosting. There are two ways to frost this cake. You can either frost your cake with a crumb coating, refrigerate and then coat again with the final coat of frosting with sprinkles added. Or you can frost the entire cake with the vanilla buttercream frosting and then roll the cake in sprinkles.

3. If you decide to add the sprinkles to the frosting, the easiest way to frost the cake, you need to frost the cake with a thin layer of vanilla buttercream, refrigerate and then add the sprinkles to the rest of the frosting. Then use this sprinkle filled frosting to frost the remainder of the cake.

Assembling the Cake

Starting with a cake turntable makes frosting cakes so much easier.

1.  Use a cardboard round to place the cake on.  You can purchase these rounds in most craft stores or order online.  Place a little frosting in the middle to keep the first layer anchored to the board.  You want it to stay put while frosting the cake.

2.  Spread a layer of frosting on the first round.  Using my spatula, I pop about 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup frosting on top and use the back of the spatula to spread over the top of the cake while pushing it to the outside so it is just peeking over the edge.

3.  Pick up the second layer.  Using all your senses, place the second layer completely centered on the first layer.  It takes a minute to look at your hands with the cake and then looking at both sides, back and forth, to help guide you to place the layer in the center. 

Once placed on top, turn the cake around to see if there is any part of the second layer that is sticking out.  Gently push this part to the center. Frost the second layer like you did the first.  Then place the third layer on top.  

After the third layer goes on, if there are still parts sticking out, use a serrated knife to gently cut these off so the cake is flush all the way around.  

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4.  Using a pastry bag filled with frosting, put a thin tube of frosting around the cake starting from the bottom and move upward.  This is where the cake turntable really comes into play.  Take a large flat edged bench scraper and gently turn the cake around as you smooth out the frosting.

5.  If you want the ring of sprinkles around the bottom, do not frost the top.  To make this ring you need to let the cake with the crumb coat set in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.  You will need to frost again so you have the final coat. 

Now pour a healthy layer of sprinkles, about two cups, on one half of a large cookie sheet.  Place another cardboard round on the top of the unfrosted cake. Pick up the cake holding both the top cardboard round and bottom cardboard round in between two hands.  Press slightly to keep the tension between cardboard rounds.

Now gently drop the cake into the  sprinkles and roll.  I had to pick the cake up and rotate it and then move the sprinkles back together again before rolling the other half of the cake in the sprinkles.

6.  Remove the cardboard round on top of the cake and frost with the remaining frosting.  Place the cake on a cake stand.  I like to refrigerate the cake for 10-15 minutes to make sure the frosting is set before serving.

Here are a few products I like to use when making Funfetti Cake.

When you purchase items from the Amazon links below, I receive a small commission.

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