Homemade Funfetti Birthday Cake
For my daughter’s first birthday, I decided to make a homemade funfetti birthday cake for a couple reason. First, it’s cute and looks pretty. Second, I made a low-sugar healthy smash cake for my son’s first birthday, and he didn’t dig into it like I had hoped.
I figured the lure of the sweet buttery goodness of a homemade funfetti birthday cake would win her over. Selfishly, funfetti was my absolute favorite cake as a kid (remember that rainbow chip frosting?!), so I wanted to try making a funfetti cake from scratch.
I searched through a bunch of different funfetti recipes, but chose to adapt this Food 52 recipe because their cake just looked the best. The major thing I changed was that I used pure vanilla extract instead of imitation because you can’t compare the flavor and I don’t mind the slightest brown color the vanilla imparts.
The other major thing I changed about this recipe is I upped the cake ingredients to make one and a half cakes so that I would have enough cake batter and frosting to make my daughter’s mini cake.
The recipe below is for one full-size cake. If you want to make a full-size cake and a mini cake like I did, multiply each ingredient in the cake and frosting recipe times 1.5. If you decide to make the mini cake, I would suggest baking the extra batter in a 9×13 pan and then cutting out 3-4 circles for the layers of the mini cake. My cake in the pan turned out thicker than I expected, so two layers was actually plenty of cake for my little one year-old.
To decorate the cake, I cut the number one out of the center of a piece of waxed paper and used it as a stencil to add a number one to the top of each cake. I used sprinkles to fill in the stencil space.
I am so happy with how the cake turned out. The cake is super moist and not too sweet. The frosting is ultra rich and adds the right sweetness to the cake. It taste so delicious and also looks so pretty. My daughter enjoyed her mini funfetti smash cake and quickly smashed it to teeny messy pieces. My family loved our full-sized homemade funfetti birthday cake too–it is so much better than the boxed store version. I even brought the leftover cake to share with my co-workers. My office mate said it was really delicious.
What is your favorite birthday cake recipe?
Homemade Funfetti Birthday Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large egg whites
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sprinkles
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans. Cut out circles of parchment paper and line the bottom of the pans. Lightly spray the parchment.
With an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg whites, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Mix in the vanilla and oil.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With your mixer running on low, add this to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk. Once you have a smooth batter, fold in the 2/3 cup of sprinkles.
Divide the batter evenly between the pans. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sprinkles over the top and bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at around 25 minutes.
Let the cakes cool for a few minutes in the pans and then flip them onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
Ingredients:
2cups (or 4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar, or to taste
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
pinch salt
Directions:
Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla and salt and mix to combine.
I made this last night and doubled the the cake recipe to make a sheet cake instead of a round one – the cake came out pretty good!
But the frosting…. 🙁 I followed the recipe exactly and it came out awful. Tasted like taking a bite out of a stick of unsalted butter with some sugar sprinkled on top. I couldn’t get the strong butter taste out as much as I tried, I’m thinking that maybe 4 sticks of butter is just too much. So disappointed about the frosting because the pictures looked so amazing!
Hi Marissa — thanks for your comment! I’m glad the cake turned out for you. I can understand if this frosting recipe was too buttery for you. I love buttercream.
Maybe you can look for a lighter frosting recipe to pair with the cake — this recipe sounds really light: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/vanilla-whipped-buttercream-354011
I love your blog! My husband and I also grew up loving fingertips cake and I’ve never thought to make it homemade until I came across your post! Do you know if I can use regular flour instead of cake flour? TIA!
Funfetti*** … autocorrect ♀️
Thank you, Tiffany! So yes, you can use all-purpose flour, but it might make your cake thicker, and chewier. I just would worry about losing the moistness and lightness.
I found this recipe to make your own cake flour at home: 1 cup All-purpose flour – 2 Tablespoons AP flour + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch = 1 cup cake flour. You can read about it here: http://www.thekitchn.com/the-easy-way-to-make-cake-flour-substitute-baking-tips-from-the-kitchn-44521
Good luck!
Hi! Im making this cake for my sons first birthday tomorrow, do you know about how long i should bake it if im using a 6 in. Round Cake pan?
I’m not sure since I haven’t made with that size but I’d think to check around 18-20 minutes and just keep checking!
Could these be made into cupcakes? What changes would need to be made. Thanks!
Hi Kal, I’m sure they could! I haven’t tried but I’m sure you could just pour the cake mix into cupcake tins.