To say that I love sprinkles would be an understatement. Chocolate sprinkles were always my favorite growing up, but I’ve come to enjoy the rainbow version recently too. To keep the situation in check, I pretty much only allow myself to have sprinkles with ice cream. Whether we’re at home or out at the ice cream parlor, I always drown my ice cream in loads of sprinkles! I guess I’m secretly a 5-year old at heart 🙂
Anyway, given my love of sprinkles, it’s probably not terribly surprising that funfetti cake was among my first choices as a kid. If you’ve never had funfetti, it’s basically just a white cake with rainbow sprinkles mixed into the batter. The sprinkles melt in the oven so you’re left with dots of color throughout your cake. To the best of my recollection, the cake was usually topped with a vanilla frosting and then garnished with additional sprinkles. I can’t even remember the last time I had funfetti cake from a box, but I’ve been eager to try this homemade version for a while. I just needed the right occasion…
Fortunately, a perfect opportunity presented itself over the weekend – Shane had some friends over to play Rock Band, and I knew I could count on them to help eat the cupcakes. This white cake recipe is a bit unusual. Most cakes call for creaming the butter and sugar together, adding eggs and then alternating dry and liquid ingredients, but here the dry ingredients plus the sugar are mixed, the butter is cut in until the mixture is sandy, and finally the eggs and liquid ingredients are added. As a result, the cupcakes bake up with a really lovely light, fluffy texture. They are fairly sweet (thanks to the amount of sugar in the recipe as well as the added touch of sweetness from the sprinkles), but no one here complained. Just a few hints – don’t overfill the wells of the cupcake pans (1/2 to 2/3 at most). It’s a bad habit of mine and I’m glad I didn’t do it with these as they do rise quite a bit and there’s nothing worse than cake batter all over the bottom of your oven. Also, the site where I found the original recipe notes that the rod-shaped sprinkles melt best in the batter; you probably won’t have as much luck with the round, ball-shaped sprinkles.
As for the frosting, once I decided on vanilla, it was simply a matter of choosing from among the many recipes out there. Bridget over at The Way the Cookie Crumbles is famous for her comparison posts and I was psyched to find a vanilla frosting comparison there. Her favorite was an easy buttercream from Cook’s Illustrated that had been among my contenders so I ran with it. The recipe calls for just a few ingredients – butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, heavy cream and salt – and once whipped together, the frosting has the perfect fluffy consistency. Another bonus? It pipes like a dream. I made 1/2 of the recipe below but if you like to mound your frosting on your cupcakes I’d recommend making 3/4. Mmmm, delicious nostalgia indeed!
Funfetti Cupcakes
from Baking Bites
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
Whisk the milk, egg whites, vanilla and almond extracts together in a measuring cup.
Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed briefly to combine. Cut the butter into 6 pieces and add them to the mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until the mixture is coarse and sandy. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl and continue beating for 20-30 seconds. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the sprinkles.
Divide the batter evenly among the wells of the prepared pan – I wouldn’t fill them more than 1/2 – 2/3 full, the cupcakes rise quite a bit in the oven. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow them to cool completely before frosting.
Makes 12 cupcakes
Quick Vanilla Buttercream
from Cook’s Illustrated
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Stir the heavy cream, vanilla extract and salt together in a small bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 30 seconds. With the mixer on low, slowly add the confectioners’ sugar a little at a time until it is completely incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then beat in the heavy cream mixture. Increase the mixer to medium speed and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, stopping once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
The frosting can be made a few days ahead and refrigerated. When you are ready to use it, let it come to room temperature and then beat briefly.
Makes 3 cups of frosting
Great pics, great recipe. I almost made funfetti cupcakes this weekend but went with coconut instead. When I Get around to funfetti, I’ll use this one! 🙂
These were a great treat to keep up our energy while rocking out, thanks for making them!
I’ve been seeing that reverse creaming method more and more lately. I’m willing to do whatever makes the best cake, but I have more fun with the standard creaming method!
Isn’t that Easy Vanilla Buttercream perfect? It’s the standard powdered sugar version most of us had growing up, but with a much higher ratio of butter to sugar – can’t go wrong there!
These cupcakes certainly are perfect for any occasion!
First thing first, I love playing the drums on “rock band”…..just saying.
The cupcakes look irresistible!
I love those comparison posts too……nice of her to save us all some work. This is a great post…I have always loved Funfetti too.
These look perfect! You just can’t beat a funfetti cupcake!!
These are beautiful!! I used to LOVE funfetti cake and I’ve made a homemade version before. This one looks much fluffier though, so I’ll be trying it once I have an excuse to not eat them all myself haha!
I am also a 5 year old at heart when it comes to sprinkles. I LOVE the non-pareilles the most. There’s just something about the little round crunchy colorful balls that sends me into a fit of omgsocute!!
rock band AND funfetti? sounds like a perfect evening to me.
When I was a kid I loved that box cake with the sprinkles inside. Never thought to make my own. Gorgeous styling!!
wow, love the open cupcake shot. Perfection
They sure look FUN!!!
yes! I want to make these! They look so good. Next birthday these are on the menu 🙂
Always a favorite!
These look delicious!
Such a perfect photo. I am trying to learn how to submit photos to Foodgawker but my photos come out blurred when I link them. Boo
I saw these cupcakes on FoodGawker. I love that cupcakes are so popular. I love frosting. I’m going to have to try that frosting recipe soon.
Those look great! Lots of fun. =) Just FYI, the round (non-pareil) sprinkles do work great in angel food cake–you end up with lots of colorful polka dots.
So cute and fun! The shot with the cupcake cut in half is great. I can tell how light the cake looks. I am book marking this to make for my neices and nephew next time they come for a visit.
Adorable! Sprinkles make everything better. The buttercream looks fantastic. I’ve been looking for a simple buttercream recipe (non Swiss-Meringue) and sounds excellent.
This looks fantastic! I’d never heard of funfetti cupcakes before…it definitely looks delicious!
Ooooh! Cupcakes! My favorite kind of porn! And this is top quality material, too! Yum, these look sooooo good. I want me some right now! Nice work, Tracey, and congrats on making the top 9!
I am in LOVE. What gorgeous cupcakes! And your blog is fantastic. May I ask what camera you use for such great shots?
Linda @ Lemon Drop Foodie
http://lemondropsfoodie.blogspot.com
@Linda – Thank you! For the past year I’ve been shooting with a Canon Rebel XS.
@Tracy – do you use any special add-on lenses?
@Linda – The only lenses I own are the kit lens (18-55m) and my 50 mm (1.8) lens. I broke the 50 mm about a month ago unfortunately so everything on my site recently was shot with the kit lens.
Yum! Those look delicious. I love the photos as well – how do you get the whites so white in your photos without loss of the other colors? Fantastic!
Yum! Those look delicious. I love the photos as well – how do you get the whites so white in your photos without loss of the other colors? Fantastic!
Cool! I love sprinkles too – they make everything seem more special.
@Kristine – I wish I had a good answer for your question, but honestly I don’t know. I shoot in auto white balance mode a lot of the time so I’d guess the camera is doing most of the work for me 🙂
Hi Tracey, I wonder if you could help. I’ve made two funfetti cakes now that have been failures both times as the colour hasn’t bled out of the two different types of sprinkles I tried. Please can you tell me the exact brand and type of sprinkles you used in this? I know you’re in the States but perhaps I can find them in England too. Thanks so much
@Cupcake Crazy Gem – I’m sorry you’ve had trouble. I’ve only made the cupcakes once and I used sprinkles made by Betty Crocker – they’re called Decorating Decors Rainbow Mix. Hope that helps!
I’m doing this tonight but doubling the mixture and making it into a cake. Can u tell me how much 6 tbsp of butter are in grams please? thanks!
@Sue – 6 tablespoons of butter would be about 85 grams. Hope that helps, good luck with the cake!
These look amazing, Tracey! Love funfetti and your photos are gorgeous!
Tracey, these were absolutely amazing!!! My coworkers loved them and I’m sure my friends and family will too when they get a chance to try them tomorrow.