you're making mealtime meaningful.
Inject your day with cake, or more specifically, a colorful slice of happiness! This Funfetti Cake is a from-scratch way to recreate your childhood treat in the best possible way.
General Mill’s top baking brands — Pillsbury and Betty Crocker — released colorful mixes and frosting, but none of them hit the nail on the head until the 1980s. During this decade, Pillbury was the first company to inject multicolored sprinkles into cakes and frostings. Pillsbury created the fusion word Funfetti (fun plus confetti) to describe a sprinkle-laced cake, but there wasn’t much of a secret to them. They used their white cake and frosting products as bases, injecting the plain flavors with loads of Jimmy sprinkles. This method was a hit and it was a continued seasonal success that changed sprinkle colors with the seasons.
We all know the power of color. The saying goes “We eat with our eyes” and it’s true that color can captivate taste buds, and surely grabs the attention of kids. However, making a cake from a mix just doesn’t have the same feeling or taste as a from-scratch version. Instead of wading through the internet for the perfect one, look no further than this Funfetti Cake recipe.
This Funfetti Cake has a light crumb, but it’s not lightweight when it comes to flavor. It’s packed with fragrant vanilla for a delightful bite!
It starts like any unsuspecting cake. You cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, after a few minutes you should see a change in color and texture.
Next, you add frothed egg whites. You want to give the egg whites a good whip, this helps incorporate the eggs into the butter-sugar structure, and it adds a bit of levity to the cake’s structure.
You alternate the whisked dry-ingredients with the wet-ingredients until all of the ingredients are mostly incorporated, you don’t want to overmix. Always give your batter a few stirs by hand with a rubber spatula, this will ensure that nothing, like butter, is sticking to the bowl. Use the same rubber spatula to fold in your rainbow sprinkles. If you want to ensure your sprinkles don’t stick to the bottom of the pan, coat your rainbow sprinkles with a tablespoon of flour and then mix them in. I didn’t end up doing that, but you’re free to do it!
Don’t overbake this cake; since it doesn’t have egg yolks, it won’t get super golden, you test for doneness at 25 minutes. A few cake crumbs on the tooth are a hundred percent acceptable.
If you’re not assembling the cake, wrap the cooled layers in plastic wrap and store them in the fridge. This cake is versatile so it goes with a lot of different frostings — chocolate, strawberry, and almond cream cheese— are just some options. But my favorite companion to this cake is a rainbow chip frosting I made over here.
Funfetti Cake
Yield(s): Serves 8 to 10
10m prep time
30m cook time
you're making mealtime meaningful.
Ingredients
- 2 2/3 cups cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 large egg whites, beaten until frothy
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup milk, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles, plus more for decorating the sides of the cake
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2 8-inch pans with baking spray, set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light, airy, and pale yellow in color, about 5 to 6 minutes on medium speed. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the paddle and sides of the bowl down. Add in the vanilla.
- In a measuring cup, stir the milk, sour cream, and oil together, set aside.
- On a low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions and the wet mixture in two additions. Alternate between the flour and wet mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to fold in rainbow sprinkles.
- Divide batter evenly between two pans, smooth the batter out to remove any air bubbles, and bake until golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs for about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Let cakes cool in pans for 5 to 8 minutes, before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely. Frosting with buttercream, slice up and enjoy.
Recipe adapted from Baker By Nature