A confetti cake is perfect for almost any occasion — maybe don’t show up with one to a wake. It’s impossible to not experience a zing of cheer when eating and looking them, and feel super special when receiving one for a birthday or other celebration. And with this confetti snacking cake size, you can get the effect of a huge, bold birthday layer cake without actually doing all the constructing and scraping and chilling etc.

Tips for Making Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese buttercream is simple but deceptively tricky — which might be redundant, but it’s true! The key to success is getting the butter and cream cheese to combine as quickly as possible, and to do that, they have to be at the same temperature. Otherwise, you’ll end up with chunks of cream cheese floating around in your buttercream. This type of buttercream is super susceptible to over-mixing because, unlike regular buttercream which you can beat and beat and beat forever and it will be fine, as cream cheese is mixed, it releases more and more water, which breaks the emulsion and causes it to curdle or become soupy. So you want to be able to mix it until it’s combined and, ideally, not a second more. Use high quality cream cheese and *not* cream cheese “spread”.

If your frosting mixture is beginning separate, and you suspect one of the ingredients is too cold, try microwaving a half-cup of the frosting just until it melts and loosens up a bit. Pour it back and mix to see if it all comes back together. On the other end, some time in the fridge can also help a frosting that isn’t coming together — just stir it occasionally and don’t let it firm up too much. Adding more powdered sugar can be a Hail Mary as some the corn starch in the sugar can help absorb some of that added moisture released by the cream cheese.

Best Sprinkles to Use for Confetti Snacking Cake

Let’s talk sprinkles. Rainbow nonpareils are not a good candidate for mixing into confetti cakes, as they shed their colorful coatings which then mixes into a spectrum of sludge in the dough. The waxiness of rainbow sprinkles mean they hold onto their color and don’t evaporate into the dough when baked. I also recommend choosing a sprinkle mix with the primary colors of the rainbow and avoiding any pastel mixes as they don’t show up well.

Confetti Snacking Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Print Recipe

A plush vanilla cake packed with rainbow sprinkles, this confetti cake (or "Funfetti") is topped with a zingy cream cheese frosting.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword cake recipes, confetti cake, cream cheese buttercream, cream cheese frosting, funfetti cake, snacking cake, vanilla cake, yellow cake

Active Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs

Servings 10 servings

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup cake flour 129 grams
• ½ cup all-purpose flour 67 grams
• ¾ cup granulated sugar 158 grams
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon for regular table salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into half inch cubes
• 1 large egg and 1 large egg white at room temperature
• ½ cup buttermilk at room temperature (113 grams)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil 69 grams
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles about 3 ounces

Buttercream

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (12 tablespoons, 170 grams)
• 4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar 90 grams
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch salt

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease one 8-inch round cake tin and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Dust with flour, tapping out any excess.
• In a medium mixing bowl, whisk cake flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer with fitted with a whisk attachment, add one cube of butter to the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed. Repeat until all the butter is added, the mixture looks sandy, and there are no lumps.
• In a liquid measuring cup, whisk egg, egg white, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract.
• Switch the mixer to the beater attachment and, mixing on low speed, slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl and keep beating on medium for another 15 seconds to incorporate the entire mixture. Mix in sprinkles until evenly distributed.
• Fill the prepared tin with the batter. Bake on the middle rack for about 38-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed. A wooden skewer should come out clean (or with just a few moist crumbs) and the internal temperature should read about 195-200°F on a digital instant-read thermometer.
• Transfer the tin to a wire rack and allow to cool for 5 minutes before loosening the cake from the sides of the tin with a mini offset spatula or a butter knife and turn out onto the wire rack to cool completely.
• Once the cake has cooled, make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the beater attachment or in a medium mixing bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter until lightened in color and fluffy. Add in vanilla and cream cheese and beat on low just until combined.
• Frost the cake and top with rainbow sprinkles and enjoy!

Notes

Note: This cake will cook faster and brown more on the edges if baked in a dark or nonstick pan. I recommend using light-colored aluminum pans — on which I did a whole review/test for Serious Eats. Spoiler, I like the ones from NordicWare. You can also bake this in a 9-inch tin, but it will take less time, so just pay attention to the visual cues.