A delicious, from scratch, Funfetti Cupcake recipe with a soft, tender crumb and colorful sprinkles. Top it off with your favorite frosting for a sweet treat.
Serve these easy Funfetti Cupcakes at your next birthday celebration. Send your guests home with some Birthday Hot Cocoa Bomb favors and you’ll be everyone’s favorite host! Add a batch of cannoli dip for an easy treat featuring sprinkles.
Table of Contents
Why These Cupcakes Are Best
It’s time friends to ditch the boxes of cake mix (or save them for cake mix cookies) and bake up your own cupcakes.
You’ll love how easy they are to make, but also the fresh flavor can’t be beat.
- Made from scratch! These have all the familiar festive color as the boxed version with a more heightened, fresh flavor you’ll love.
- Perfect for any holiday or occasion. Use specific colored sprinkles to add flair to any holiday. Red/Green for Christmas, pink/blue for baby showers, etc.
- Easy to make and serve. We love cupcakes for parties and potlucks because you don’t need to worry about plates or silverware.
- The best frosting vehicle. No matter what kind of frosting you choose, these cupcakes can handle it.
If you love cupcakes, be sure to try our classic yellow cupcake recipe next. And if you love sprinkles, try our funfetti cheesecake for a creamy birthday treat.
Ingredient Notes
- Cake flour. The lower gluten content gives these cupcakes their fine, tender crumb.
- Buttermilk. Adds moisture and acidity to the cupcake batter with very little fat for a moist, soft cupcake. Use our buttermilk substitute if you don’t have any on hand!
- Vanilla. Use a pure vanilla extract for best flavor in this recipe. This homemade vanilla extract is my favorite for baked goods.
- Butter. Unsalted butter allows you to control the flavor and salt in baking. If you are using salted butter, omit the added kosher salt.
- Egg Whites. To make the white cupcake base, you’ll only be using the egg whites. Save the yolks to make a batch of delicious lemon curd!
- Sprinkles. Multi colored jimmies or round “confetti” sprinkles are perfect for making funfetti cupcakes.
Frosting Ideas
There’s no shortage of incredible options for frosting your homemade cupcakes! The vanilla base of funfetti cake makes it ideal for pairing with just about any kind of frosting you can imagine.
Vanilla buttercream is a classic choice, but you can’t go wrong with a sweet lemon frosting either.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting is full of bright berry flavor with a rosy pink color. It’s one of my favorite frostings for summertime!
If you’re in the mood for chocolate top your funfetti treats with this Chocolate Buttercream Frosting . Or give my Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting a try instead for something a little out of the ordinary. You can also whip up a batch of chocolate cream cheese frosting for a tangy treat.
Can’t decide? This Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Buttercream Frosting Recipe let’s you have two flavors in one!
Tips and Tricks
- Easter dessert idea: Press a marshmallow peep on top of each frosted cupcake. So adorable!
- Birthday garnishes: For birthday parties, garnish the funfetti cupcakes with more sprinkles and stick a cake candle in the center.
- Buttermilk substitute: If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, make your own with my easy buttermilk substitute recipe.
- Make it in a cone! Use our guide on how to make ice cream cone cupcakes for a delicious dessert idea.
Recipe FAQs
If you don’t have cake flour, make your own with all purpose flour and cornstarch. First, measure 2½ cups of all purpose flour into a bowl. Remove 5 tablespoons of the flour. Replace with 5 tablespoons of cornstarch. Mix well to combine, then add to the recipe in place of the cake flour. Easy and effective!
You sure can. This batter makes enough to fill two 8 or 9 inch layer pans. You will need to increase the baking time by about 10 minutes.
I don’t recommend freezing funfetti desserts. The cupcakes will release moisture as the thaw causing the sprinkles to bleed color into the white cupcakes for a less-than-appealing appearance.
For that reason, homemade Funfetti Cupcakes should enjoyed within 3-5 days of baking.
To make this recipe as a sheet cake, follow the directions for making the batter as directed. Pour batter into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
More Easy Dessert Recipes
- Homemade Caramels
- Chocolate Meringue Cookies
- Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
- Banana Pudding Recipe
- Monkey Bread Recipe
Funfetti Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 5 large egg whites room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- For the cake, combine cake flour, baking powder, and kosher salt in bowl. Set aside.
- In mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes on medium, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.
- Alternate additions of dry ingredients with buttermilk, mixing after each addition (about 3 of each). Once the last of the buttermilk is added, beat for one full minute.
- Fill cupcake liners two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 21-23 minutes. Remove and cool in pan 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, use your favorite flavor and pipe it on, or spread with spatula.
Notes
- If you don’t have buttermilk, use our guide on how to make buttermilk substitute.
- STORE– keep cupcakes in airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Use your favorite frosting recipe. Vanilla buttercream is a classic choice. If you’re in the mood for chocolate atop your funfetti treats with this Chocolate Buttercream Frosting . Or give my Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting a try instead for something a little out of the ordinary. You can also whip up a batch of chocolate cream cheese frosting for a tangy treat.
Hey Aimee,
I made the funfetti cupcake and they fell flat, what did I do wrong. baking powder was new and also the cake flour, This is the first time is has ever happened
Every white cake I’ve tried is too crumbly! Yours looks delish and I’m sure the cake flour is the key! Can I use for a layer cake instead of cupcakes? Will it hold up? Thanks for sharing!
Yes absolutely. Here is the link: https://www.shugarysweets.com/lemon-cake-with-creamy-filling-and-lemon-curd
These looks amazing, so fun 🙂 and happy birthday to your daughter!
Thanks girl for the sweet birthday wishes!
ALL of these cupcakes look amazing, but my husband (even though he is almost 30!) still thinks Fun Fetti rules. I’ll have to whip these up for an Easter treat!
Your cupcakes are always the best! 🙂
Oh, how sweet. Thank you!
Happy Birthday to your daughter! These look like wonderful birthday cupcakes.
Thanks you Regina!
Sorry to those of you who commented and they are now gone! Lost a day’s worth of comments in my migration to a new server! thanks for your patience!