Funfetti is undoubtedly the most celebratory cake flavor of all, and this funfetti layer cake is the ultimate party cake! Originally published in 2018 (then ultra re-tested and updated in 2025), this recipe features layers of soft and moist vanilla cake with the ideal amount of rainbow sprinkles baked inside. Filled and frosted with a double batch of my favorite vanilla buttercream and decorated with plenty of colorful sprinkles, it’s perfect for celebrating anything and always a crowd favorite.
One Reader, Melanie, says: “Wow! This is going to be my new go to recipe for birthday cakes (with or without the sprinkles) and I only wish I’d found it years ago. I made a trial cake on the weekend before I have to make the real deal for my daughters birthday party in a few weeks and my family can’t stop raving about it. Even my husband who grew up on cake (MIL is an incredible cake maker) said it’s the best cake he’s ever had.”
Why You’ll Love This Funfetti Cake
There’s so much to love about this funfetti cake recipe, but here are the first few things that come to mind:
- Extra moist and fluffy. This recipe uses cake flour for a super soft crumb (it’s ultra-fine and has the lowest protein content of all the flours) and if you’ve never heard of it or can’t find it locally I have this homemade version you can use to obtain similar results. The perfect amount of moisture comes from the fat content in this recipe. Mostly the use of butter for richness, plus the addition of sour cream and whole milk.
- Amazing vanilla flavor. I use an entire Tablespoon of vanilla extract in this recipe for a powerful vanilla flavor, but I also love this recipe with a little almond extract. If that’s you too, you can sub one teaspoon of the vanilla for almond extract and get that little hit of almond to make the flavor more complex.
- Perfectly Suspended Rainbow Sprinkles. No sinking sprinkles in this recipe! They stay perfectly suspended all throughout the baking process so you get the prettiest slices.
- Everyone’s Favorite Flavor. Okay maybe not everyone, but almost everyone loves a funfetti cake. It’s nostalgic and childlike, but so fun to eat at any age. I truly think it’s the most celebratory cake flavor of all!
The Best Kind of Sprinkles for Funfetti Cake
To get the prettiest funfetti cake slices, you have to use the right kind of sprinkles. Otherwise, your sprinkles might bleed color into the batter or disintegrate in the baking process. In my experience, the best kind of sprinkles have been the elongated rainbow sprinkles (aka jimmies) that have carnauba wax and confectioner’s glaze in the ingredients list. Those two coatings help prevent the sprinkles from streaking your batter with color.
Some of my favorite brands to use are:
- Unpretentious Baker Rainbow Sprinkles
- SprinklePop Ultimate Unicorn Rainbow Jimmies
- Chef’s Select Rainbow Sprinkles
- Betty Crocker “Parlor Perfect” rainbow sprinkles (I find these at my local grocery store)
How to Make a Funfetti Cake
Here’s how to make and decorate this funfetti layer cake from start to finish:
Step 1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF, then grease and line three 6-inch round cake pans or two 8-inch round cake pans.
Step 2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Step 3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 4. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla before whipping everything on high speed for one minute.
Step 5. Add the dry ingredients all at once, mix on low speed until they begin to incorporate, then add in the whole milk in a steady stream while continuing to mix on low speed. Mix until the ingredients are well incorporated, about 15-30 seconds.
Step 6. Coat the rainbow sprinkles with a little flour (cake flour or all purpose flour), then gently fold them into your cake batter.
Step 7. Pour the batter into your prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes.
Step 8. Let the cake cool to room temperature, then make the buttercream frosting. I tinted my favorite vanilla buttercream recipe with a few drops of pink food color gel.
Step 9. Decorate the cake. I kept the design here simple by filling and frosting the cake with the vanilla buttercream, creating a smooth buttercream finish, and hand placing some rainbow sprinkles all around the sides of the cake. To finish the look, I used Wilton Tip 4B to pipe swirls of vanilla buttercream on top of the cake and added more rainbow sprinkles.
More Classic Party Cake Recipes You’ll Love
If you’re looking for more celebratory cake recipes, here are a handful of my go-to’s:
- Funfetti Sheet Cake
- Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Vanilla Sheet Cake
- Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
- One-Bowl Chocolate Cake
Did you make this funfetti layer cake recipe? I want to know how it went! Feel free to rate it and post a comment below, or tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram to show me a photo. I love to see what you create with my recipes!
Funfetti Layer Cake
Ingredients
Funfetti Cake
- 2 1/2 Cups (265g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 3/4 Cups (340g) granulated white sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 Cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Cup (240ml) whole milk, room temperature
- 1/3 Cup (60g) rainbow sprinkles**, coated in 1 tsp flour
Vanilla Buttercream
- 2 batches vanilla buttercream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with baking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and lining the bottom with parchment paper. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans.
- In a medium bowl, add the sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a large bowl and handheld mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle once in between. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the eggs one at a time, mixing for about 10-15 seconds after each addition. Add the vanilla and sour cream, then mix for one minute on high speed. Scrape down the bowl and paddle.
- Turn the mixer off and add the dry ingredients all at once, then mix on low speed. When the ingredients just begin to incorporate, add the milk slowly and mix until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs by hand to make sure there are no large lumps.
- In a small bowl, coat the rainbow sprinkles with 1 teaspoon of flour (cake flour or all purpose flour). Then, gently fold the flour-coated rainbow sprinkles into the cake batter with a silicone spatula. The batter will be slightly thick.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 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 filling and frosting with vanilla buttercream (or frosting of your choice).
Hi. Can I just use all-purpose flour instead of the cake flour mix? Would the recipe change? Also does anything need to change with altitude? I am at 750m above sea level. Thanks!
Hi Bec! You can technically use all-purpose flour in place of the cake flour but the resulting cake will be more dense. The homemade cake flour (using all-purpose flour + cornstarch) will yield a more tender crumb than all-purpose flour alone, but store-bought cake flour creates the most tender texture of all. And yes, you’ll need to alter the recipe for high altitude baking. I don’t have any experience with high altitude baking so I’m not sure exactly how to alter the recipe, but here’s a guide I found: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
First, the great news – this cake tastes wonderful. The not-so-great news is that it’s too much batter for three 6 inch pans. I suspected this before I put the pans in the oven but I didn’t trust my gut and I baked them anyway. Unfortunately, they didn’t rise (or bake completely) in the middle. I salvaged an outer ring of each layer that did bake and I’ll use it for cake pops.
Hi Robin! I’m glad the cake tasted great and you can salvage some for cake pops! How tall are the sides of your cake pans? I bake this recipe in three 6-inch (2-inch tall) cake pans all the time. Did they actually overflow in the oven or did it just not rise in the middle? If it’s a case of not rising (or sinking) in the middle, I would check to see that your oven temp is correct internally with a thermometer and your baking powder is not expired (it loses its ability to make baked goods rise after 6 months). Otherwise these are some common reasons why cakes sink: https://sugarandsparrow.com/why-cakes-sink/ hope that helps for next time!
I made this as a 2-layer 8″ cake for my niece’s birthday and it was a huge hit! I’d like to make it into a 3-layer 8in cake for her big party coming up – how would I scale the recipe? 1.5x or double? If I double and have extra batter, could I use the extra batter to make some cupcakes? Any tips would be much appreciated!
Yay, Tina! I’m so happy this recipe was a hit 🙂 for three 8-inch layers, 1.5x the recipe will be the perfect amount of batter. And if you double the recipe and have extra batter you can absolutely use it to make cupcakes. Just fill the cupcake tins about 2/3 full and bake at 350ºF for 15-18 minutes. Enjoy!
Hi! I keep running into the same issue so I’m wondering if I am doing something wrong. I made your sprinkle ombré funfetti cake recipe from you book. I made the buttercream frosting exactly as laid out in the book, and I used a scale to measure my filling and crumb coat per the instructions in your book so I know I didn’t use too much on that part. When I went to measure out the 3 different bowls, I only had about 540 g of frosting total left, so I was short by about half of what I was supposed to have. What am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to be doubling the buttercream even on the full recipes in your book? Meaning donate recipes in your book only account for the final frosting, and then I should plan to do something additional for the frosting and crumb coat? Thank you!
Hi Liz! If you made the frosting recipe that was part of the sprinkle ombre funfetti layer cake, it should make more than enough frosting for filling, crumb coating, and frosting/decorating the cake. Did you run out of buttercream? Or just not have as much by weight as the book specified? If the buttercream recipe is part of the entire cake recipe, it should always make enough for creating the cake pictured.
Thank you for your reply! I still had some, but just enough to fill the largest bowl with the dark buttercream (called for 538g in that bowl.) I probably had about 545g total leftover after doing the crumb coat and filling, so only about 7g left after the big bowl. The recipe said I should’ve had enough to make a second bowl with 161g and a third bowl with 323g, so I feel like I did something wrong to be missing basically 484g of buttercream but I’m not sure what I would have done wrong.
I’m looking at making this cake later today. I have self raising cake flour could I use this and not add the baking powder or soda? Thank yoo
Hi Rue! I’ve never tried this recipe with self-raising flour, so it will be an experiment. If you try it, I would omit the baking powder and salt from the recipe, since self-rising flour contains both of those. Keep the baking soda in. Hope that helps and hope it turns out well!
Excuse me if this has already been asked – I want to do a 2-layer 9-inch cake. Could I use this recipe or am I better off using your vanilla recipe for 2-layer 8”? Thanks!
This is an old thread but I had the same problem. I think elevation might be playing a part here. Also consider your cake pans. I’m at sea level and used pretty dark cake pans and had the same problem. I ended up with a burnt, caramelized exterior with a raw center. Cut your temp down 25 to 50°F and that should help.
I love this recipe! Definitely my go to for vanilla cake. I have scrolled through the comments now several times to see if it has been asked but couldn’t find it, but can I add lemon juice or emulsion to make this a lemon cake?
Hi Kristy! I haven’t tried that with this recipe before, but I do have a lemon cake recipe that I love. It’s super light and fluffy with beautiful lemon flavor: https://sugarandsparrow.com/favorite-lemon-layer-cake/
Hello, do you have the frosting recipe and instructions please. I don’t see it. My cakes never look this good when I put the icing on so I’m keen to know how you made the frosting look so flawless.
Thanks!
Hi Zelda! I used a double batch of my vanilla buttercream recipe for this cake: https://sugarandsparrow.com/vanilla-buttercream-recipe/ and I have a tutorial on how to get smooth buttercream here: https://sugarandsparrow.com/smooth-buttercream-cake-tutorial/