funfetti cake Archives - Sugar & Sparrow

Double Funfetti Birthday Cake

Whitney — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 03:07:56 +0000

Like many cake makers do, I made my own birthday cake this year! I actually do this as a tradition every year but normally fail to document it in a blog post. This year, all I wanted was sprinkle everything with a splash of chocolate, so I made a double funfetti cake with a little chocolate ganache thrown in the mix. By double funfetti I mean funfetti cake + funfetti buttercream and there is nothing more celebratory than that combo!

This cake starts with my favorite funfetti cake recipe, which I revised for my book to yield a 3-layer 6-inch cake (this blog version yields a larger cake). The ingredients in the book version are tweaked ever so slightly to include a little almond extract and egg whites to make the cake even more light and fluffy. I’ve included the recipe below, and it’s just one of many amazing layer cake recipes you’ll find in my book, which is now available worldwide wherever books are sold!

I made a double batch of my funfetti buttercream recipe for this cake, but reserved a few Cups of the plain vanilla buttercream before adding the sprinkles just so I could pipe some pretty pink swirls on top of the cake as a finishing touch. The funfetti buttercream is so easy to work with but it’s not the best for piping since the sprinkles tend to get stuck in piping tips. These Ultimate Unicorn Rainbow Jimmies by Sprinkle Pop are my favorite to use in the buttercream recipe and the cake recipe. They don’t bleed their color easily and I just love the cool-toned rainbow colors in the mix.

I added a little bit of chocolate ganache as filling between the cake layers and as a drip on top. My favorite way to make the ganache recipe work for both consistencies (thick for the filling and thin for the drip) is to make it a day (or at least a few hours) ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will solidify as it cools, then you can microwave it in 5-10 second intervals to bring it back to a room temperature, peanut buttery consistency for the filling. When you’re finished filling the cake, you can microwave the leftover ganache a little more to make it slightly above room temperature, aka the pe r fect drip consistency.

Those cute little sprinkle truffles on top came from a last minute idea I had about how to recycle the cake scraps that were leftover from leveling the cake layers. I crumbled the cake tops in a bowl and mixed them together with funfetti frosting until the mixture stuck together enough to form balls when rolled between my hands. This is how you make cake pops, but instead of dipping the balls in melted chocolate, I rolled them in a bowl of sprinkles and then refrigerated the sprinkle cake truffles until I was ready to top the cake with them. They tasted AMAZING and looked so cute as cake toppers that I had to make them their own separate blog post.

I’m so excited to share this double funfetti birthday cake with friends and celebrate another trip around the sun. It’ll probably be my last hoorah before baby boy gets here in just a few weeks (give or take). We’re gonna end up being birthday buds and I can’t wait to make us both birthday cakes in the years to come!

Double Funfetti Birthday Cake

The most celebratory cake of all! A delicious sprinkle-studded funfetti cake with funfetti buttercream that's always perfect for anyone's birthday or celebration.

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Servings 15 slices

Ingredients

Funfetti Cake (from my book, Anyone Can Cake)

2 1/2 Cups (290g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
2 tsp (10g) baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 Cups (300g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs + 2 large egg whites, room temperature
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 Cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature
1 Cup (240ml) whole milk, room temperature
1/2 Cup (100g) rainbow sprinkles**, coated in 2 tsp cake flour

Funfetti Buttercream

2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
4 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 Tbsp whole milk, room temperature
pinch of salt, or to taste
1/3 Cup (67g) rainbow sprinkles**

Optional Fillings & Toppings

1 batch chocolate ganache recipe link below
6 sprinkle cake truffles recipe link below

Instructions

Make the Funfetti Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F/177ºC. Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a baking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and fitting a wax or parchment paper circle to the bottom of the pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans.
Add the sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter on high for 2 minutes. Add in the sugar and continue to beat on medium-high until light and fluffy (another 2 minutes), scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs and egg whites one at a time. Add the vanilla extract, almond extract, and sour cream. Mix for one minute on high speed, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more.
Turn the mixer off and add in the dry ingredients all at once. Mix on low speed until just combined, then slowly pour in the milk while continuing to mix on low until incorporated, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps. The batter will be slightly thick.
Gently fold the flour-coated rainbow sprinkles into the cake batter by hand, then divide evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 32-36 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they’re entirely room temperature before applying any frosting.

Make the Funfetti Buttercream

With a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on high until creamy and light (almost white) in color, about 7 minutes.
Turn the mixer to low speed and add the powdered sugar a few cups at a time, scraping down the bowl and paddle after each addition and making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next one.
Add the vanilla, milk, and salt and mix on low for another minute until fully incorporated and smooth. Reserve 1 1/2 Cups of frosting if you plan on doing any piping on top of the cake at this point. Fold in the rainbow sprinkles to the rest of the buttercream with a rubber spatula.

Make the Chocolate Ganache (Optional)

If you're planning on filling and dripping the cake with chocolate ganache (like the one pictured), make one batch of this chocolate ganache. You can half the recipe if you're only wanting to use it for the drip.

Assembly

Once the funfetti cakes are completely cooled, level them to your desired height. If you're planning on making the sprinkle cake truffles, reserve some of the cake scraps from the leveling process in a small bowl and make them according to this recipe.
Add a swipe of funfetti buttercream onto a cardboard cake circle and place the first cake layer on top. Fill and stack the cake with funfetti buttercream. If you want to add chocolate ganache between the layers like the cake pictured, make sure the ganache is room temperature or slightly below (peanut butter-ish consistency) and use the Soft Fillings method of filling and stacking from this blog post. Crumb coat the cake with funfetti buttercream, then place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the buttercream set firm.
To create the design pictured, frost a smooth buttercream finish onto the cake with funfetti buttercream and place it back into the refrigerator for an additional 20 minutes to chill the buttercream while you heat the chocolate ganache to perfect drip consistency. Drip the cake with the chocolate ganache and place it back into the refrigerator for 5 minutes to let it set.
If piping the top of the cake, color the reserved buttercream any color you'd like. I used one small drop of AmeriColor Deep Pink. Fit a piping bag with Wilton Tip 1M and pipe 6 swirls on top of the cake, spaced about 1 inch apart. Fill in each gap with a sprinkle cake truffle.

Notes

*DIY Cake Flour Recipe: To make your own cake flour, spoon and level one cup of all-purpose flour and remove 2 Tbsp. Add 2 Tbsp of cornstarch. Repeat per the amount of cake flour you need, then sift the flour and cornstarch mixture 4 times (don’t skip that step!). After sifting, spoon and level to re-measure the amount of cake flour you need.

**Rainbow Sprinkles: the best kind of sprinkles to use in this cake and buttercream are the rod-shaped kind that don’t bleed color. Look for “carnauba wax” and “confectioner’s glaze” in the ingredients list. These are coating agents that will keep the sprinkles from bleeding color into your batter and frosting. My favorite rainbow sprinkles to use are Sprinkle Pop’s Ultimate Unicorn Rainbow Jimmies.

Make Ahead Tips:

The funfetti cakes can be baked, cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap, and left out at room temperature up to two days ahead of decorating. Unfrosted cake layers can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to two months before thawing and frosting.
For best results, reserve adding the sprinkles to the funfetti buttercream until right before you’re ready to decorate with it. The buttercream (sans sprinkles) can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip in your stand mixer to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency, then fold in the sprinkles.

The post Double Funfetti Birthday Cake appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.

Rainbow Funfetti Cake Recipe

Whitney — Mon, 30 Jul 2018 15:00:13 +0000

Jump to Recipe

If you’d have asked me what my favorite kind of cake was as a kid, I would reply without hesitation that it was Funfetti (specifically the Pillsbury box mix) with the canned rainbow chip frosting to match. The frosting came with a little pouch of rainbow chips that you could mix in by hand, so it felt like a fun little project. To this day, Funfetti cake remains my most popular flavor request from people of all ages, and for all kinds of events (even weddings!). There’s something about the sprinkles baked right into the cake that gets people jazzed, and for good reason. It’s basically a party waiting to happen!

Although I’ve swapped the canned Funfetti frosting for homemade, I’ve never been happier. This cake pairs so well with a variety of frostings since it’s a vanilla-based cake (specifically, my vanilla cake recipe with sprinkles folded in at the end!). In the past, I’ve topped it with buttercream flavors like vanilla, almond, cream cheese, raspberry and chocolate. Basically anything that pairs well with vanilla cake will go perfectly.

As far as sprinkles go, you’ll want to stick with very basic rainbow sprinkles called jimmies (the elongated kind, pictured below). I buy mine from the bulk section at the grocery store (such a great discovery!), and although you might be tempted to use fancier sprinkles or nonpareils I would not recommend it because many sprinkles tend to bleed their colors once they’re mixed into the batter. Trust me, I know from experience that some sprinkles can either tye dye your cake or turn it a weird green color. Your cheap-o rainbow jimmy sprinkles will be perfect for adding that pop of color without the colors bleeding, and with the inside of the cake looking so pretty, you can save the fancy ones for the outside.

Another thing about the sprinkles: I recently learned that coating them with a little all purpose flour keeps them perfectly suspended in the cake batter! You’ll notice 1 1/2 Tbsp of all purpose flour at the end of the recipe below, and that little bit of flour is every bit important for confetti-esque cake layers.

As far as decorating goes, the sky is the limit! To keep with the funfetti theme, I’ve used some Fancy Sprinkles in the Roller Disco mix on the outside of the cake to give it a fun, celebratory look. I added a few buttercream swirls with my Wilton 1M tip to the top, sprinkled generously, and called it a funfetti masterpiece. However you decide to decorate, slicing into this cake is like getting the party started.

Funfetti Cake Recipe

The perfect party cake for all ages! Soft and fluffy vanilla cake with rainbow sprinkles baked right in.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups (398g) cake flour, sifted before measuring*
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/8 cup (254g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cup (513g) granulated white sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup (168g) sour cream, room temperature
1 1/2 Tbsp (22ml) pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup (360ml) whole milk, room temperature
3/4 cup (142g) rainbow sprinkles (jimmies work best)
1 1/2 Tbsp all purpose flour

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8-inch or four 6-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a cooking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and a wax paper circle fitted to the bottom of the pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans.
Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning and leveling it in your measuring cup. Add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter for on high for two minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Add in sugar and continue to mix on medium-high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix for one minute on high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more.
With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the milk slowly and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps.
In a small bowl, coat the rainbow sprinkles with 1 1/2 Tbsp of all purpose flour. Then, gently fold the flour-coated rainbow sprinkles into the cake batter by hand. The batter will be slightly thick, but pourable.
Pour batter into prepared cake pans (no more than 2/3 of the way full) and bake for 35-40 minutes. They’re done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they’re entirely room temperature before applying any frosting.

Notes

Make ahead tip: These cakes can be baked, cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap, and left out at room temperature up to two days ahead of decorating. Unfrosted cake layers can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to two months before thawing and frosting.

The post Rainbow Funfetti Cake Recipe appeared first on Sugar & Sparrow.