This Funfetti Sheet Cake recipe creates the lightest, moistest, and most flavorful sprinkle-filled cake topped with a smooth and creamy buttercream frosting! The cake is made in two bowls with a whisk, has a buttery birthday cake flavor, and is perfect for any celebration!
What is Funfetti Birthday Cake?
- Deep butter flavor
- Moist, light, and tender crumb
- Sprinkles and color all over!
Funfetti Cake Ingredients
All Purpose Flour: You'll need simple, plain, white all purpose flour for this cake! Make sure to measure properly using a kitchen scale or by scooping the flour with a spoon before transferring it into your measuring cups. Then, use a knife to sweep across the top to level the flour.
Baking Powder + Baking Soda: Both baking powder and baking soda are important for helping this cake rise to be light and fluffy. Do not substitute one for the other and make sure to measure accurately.
Salt: Salt brings out sweetness in the batter and enhances the overall flavor.
Granulated Sugar: You'll need white, granulated sugar to create a sweet, moist, and stable cake! You will whisk the sugar and eggs together for at least 2 minutes to create air in the cake!
Eggs: 2 large eggs at room temperature make this cake fluffy and stable. If you forget to leave the eggs out ahead of time, place them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes before using.
Unsalted Butter: Melt down ⅓ cup of unsalted butter for flavor, moisture, and
Vegetable Oil: Vegetable oil creates a moist cake that stays moist over time. You can substitue vegetable oil for an unflavored oil if necessary!
Buttermilk: Buttermilk creates a light and tender cake while adding an extra kick of flavor. Do not substitute regular milk for buttermilk. You can, however, create a homemade buttermilk! Read "Expert Tips & Tricks" below for more information.
Vanilla + Butter Extract: Vanilla extract is a staple in funfetti cake and completes the taste of this treat! Butter extract is the best addition to funfetti, as it creates a deeper, classic butter cake flavor!
Rainbow Jimmies: I recommend jimmies for this cake because they do not bleed, have a nice flavor, and disperse well throughout the cake. Here are some of my favorite sprinkles!
Sprinkle Cake Process
- Preheat oven and spray your 9x13 pan with cooking spray and/or line it with parchment paper
- Mix dry ingredients together: all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt
- Whisk granulated sugar and room temperature eggs together for at least 2 minutes
- Add remaining wet ingredients to the batter: melted unsalted butter, vegetable oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and butter extract
- Slowly whisk dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
- Fold sprinkles into the batter
- Spread batter in prepared pan and bake until golden brown on top
- Prepare frosting while the cake cools
- Frost and decorate cake as desired
FAQ
Funfetti cake is a light and moist vanilla butter cake with sprinkles mixed in. It's the perfect birthday cake, easy to customize with festive sprinkles, and has such a universally-loved butter flavor!
From my experience, both funfetti and birthday cake have distinct butter flavors with loads of sprinkles. Funfetti, birthday cake, and confetti usually indicate the same flavor and fun!
Butter extract adds a special kick of flavor to this cake. It creates the more well-known, slightly artificial, and deep butter flavor that we all know and love in a classic funfetti cake!
Expert Tips & Tricks
- Mixing Eggs + Sugar: I'll stand on this until the day I die- this birthday cake relies on you whisking your room temperature eggs and granulated sugar together for at least 2 minutes. The mixture will turn slightly pale in color and will look a little foamy. This step adds air to the cake, making a lighter, fluffier, and more tender cake. Do not skip this step!
- Homemade Buttermilk: You can make homemade buttermilk if you don't have it on hand or have time to run to the store! Though it's not my first choice, it's a great backup. Simply fill a liquid measuring cup with a tablespoon of white distilled vinegar. Fill the measuring cup with room temperature dairy milk up to the 1 cup line. Mix the vinegar and milk together and let the mixture sit for about 5 minutes. The milk will be thicker and have chunks in it. Use as buttermilk.
- Jimmies: I'm begging you... do not use nonpareils in this cake. You will have a mess of a cake, as the colors will likely bleed. Use the longer, skinny log sprinkles.
- Cooling: DO NOT frost and decorate the cake until it has cooled. You will end up with melted frosting.
Related Recipes
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Sprinkle Birthday Sheet Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 9x13 cake 1x
- Category: Cake, Funfetti, Sprinkles, Birthday, Buttercream
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Sprinkle Sheet Cake is the lightest, moistest, and most flavorful funfetti cake topped with a smooth and creamy buttercream frosting! The cake is made in two bowls with a whisk, has a buttery birthday cake flavor, is topped with a simple buttercream frosting, and is perfect for any celebration!
Ingredients
For the Funfetti Cake
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cup (263g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs (100g), room temperature
- ⅓ cup (74g) unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup (67g) vegetable oil
- 1 cup (200g) buttermilk, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon butter extract
- ⅓ cup (60g) rainbow jimmies
For the Buttercream Frosting
- ¾ cup (165g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 ½ cups (300g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons (30g) milk
Instructions
For the Funfetti Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 9×13 cake pan with parchment paper and spray the paper with cooking spray to ensure the cake comes out cleanly.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together until combined.
- In a large bowl, use a whisk to mix granulated sugar and room temperature eggs together for at least 2 minutes. The mixture should be come lighter in color, slightly puffy, and almost frothy. This creates a lighter, fluffier cake and is imperative for the success of the recipe.
- Add slightly cooled melted butter, vegetable oil, room temperature buttermilk, vanilla extract, and butter extract to the egg and sugar mixture. Whisk until combined.
- Slowly, add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Whisk carefully and do not mix past when the dry ingredients are fully incorporated and the batter is smooth.
- Use a spatula to fold the sprinkles into the batter, making sure they disperse throughout the batter evenly.
- Spread the batter into your prepared pan. Bake the cake for 25-35 minutes until the top is golden brown in color, the center of the cake springs back up when poked lightly with your pointer finger, and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs on it.
- Allow the cake to cool before frosting and decorating.
For the Buttercream + Decoration
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat room temperature unsalted butter until smooth.
- Slowly, add powdered sugar to the butter, making sure not to add too much at once or mix on too high of a speed to avoid making a giant mess. Beat the powdered sugar into the butter until smooth.
- Add vanilla extract and milk to the frosting and mix until incorporated.
- Beat the frosting on high speed for 3-5 minutes until the frosting turns lighter and whiter in color, fluffier, and creamier. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary to ensure the frosting is fully incorporated throughout.
- Decorate the cooled cake as desired.
- Store the cake at room temperature tightly covered or in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Keywords: Funfetti Cake, Sheet Cake, Sprinkle Cake, Birthday Cake, Buttercream Frosting
Jada says
I Made Sprinkle Birthday Sheet Cake To Celebrate The First Day Of Spring. It Was My First Time Baking An Sheet Cake. I Loved The Recipe. I Will Definitely Be Making More Recipe’s From This Blog Again.
★★★★★
Mia says
I made this cake today for a dinner party and wow, it will definitely be in my main rotation from now on. One issue I often have with funfetti cakes is that the added sprinkles make it too sweet. Not the case here. The cake was perfect. I am not a fan of American buttercream, so I swapped it out with an ermine buttercream and it paired perfectly.
★★★★★
Elise says
Thank you so much for this review, Mia! It makes me so happy to hear that you enjoyed this cake- it's one of my favorites!