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).
Any tips if I want to use this for cupcakes???
Yes! This recipe works great as cupcakes. Just fill the tins no more than 2/3 full and bake at 350 for 15-18 min.
Hi Whitney,
How much does the recipe serve? I am planning to use the 6 inch tins. How high will the cake be? My pans are 4 inch tall. I am having a double celebration at the same party so I will also be making cupcakes apart from the cake so I do not want too much waste
Thanks!
Hi Tiziana! The cake pictured is a three layer 6 inch cake that stands at about 6 inches tall, but the recipe makes four 6 inch layers. If you bake that additional layer, the cake will be about 8 inches tall. My cake pans are only 2 inches tall, and since I’ve never baked my recipes in a taller pan like the one you have, I’m not sure how the baking time/oven temp should be altered to accommodate the taller sides. I’ve heard that you should drop the oven temp by 25 degrees and bake for longer when using taller pans, but I’m not sure exactly how long they’ll need if you’re wanting to bake taller layers. Other than that, if you’re planning on using some of the batter for cupcakes, I have tested that before and they bake perfectly at 350 for 15-17 minutes! Hope that helps and let me know if you have any more questions!
This is a great recipe! I made cupcakes and they needed exactly 17 minutes at 350*. It made about 48 cupcakes, so I’m very glad I didn’t double the recipe, but I will be saving this for the next time I need to make a cake or cupcakes. Very happy with it!
Yay, Alyssa! I’m so happy to hear that this recipe worked well as cupcakes! Thanks for reporting back how many cupcakes it yielded as well 🙂
Hi again – you can disregard and delete my above comment if you’d like, I just found some on Walmart! Thanks though!
So good to know! I’ll keep the comment on here just in case anyone else is wondering where to look.
Hi Whitney! Congrats on your little one! (I follow you on IG). Any idea where I can get these dang specific sprinkles from for not an arm and a leg? The rainbow jimmies for the inside meaning. The only ones I’m seeing from Wilton just have white/red/pink/yellow/green/orange. I’d really like to find the ones like the above with the blue and purple too. I’m making a unicorn cake and her dress has good chunk of purple. TIA!
Hi Sara! Thank you so much 🙂 I actually buy the rainbow jimmies from the bulk section of my local grocery store (Winco)! Not sure where you’re located, but check the bulk section of your local grocery store. The baking goods aisle might have sprinkles too, just make sure they’re coated with a waxy film so that they don’t bleed their colors.
I want to bake a 2 layer 6 inch cake as well as 24 cupcakes. Would 2 batches of this recipe be enough batter? Also how many batches of your vanilla frosting should I make?
Hi Sheryll! I actually think that this recipe might be enough as-is, but it might be cutting it a little close. I would make the recipe as-is and if you need more batter, use this recipe but add 1/4 cup sprinkles (same recipe but reduced amount of batter and no sprinkles) to make more cupcakes. You’ll need about 2.5 batches of my vanilla buttercream recipe to frost all of that. Hope that helps!
Your notes are awesome for a novice baker. But I have 2 more questions: can I make a 4 layer cake using 6 inch square pans with this recipe, or would that alter the cooking time? also, if I replace the milk with buttermilk in order to omit the sour cream, is the measurement still 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk?
Thank You!
Hi Stephanie! I think you totally could, but the shape of a square pan requires more cake batter than a round pan, meaning your layers may be shorter when dividing the batter equally between them. Since I’ve never tried this recipe in square pans, I can’t say for sure what the baking time will be, but I would check at 30 minutes and go from there. And yes – if omitting the sour cream use 1.5 Cups of buttermilk. Hope that helps and enjoy!
Hi Caroline! Did you coat the sprinkles in flour as specified in the recipe? That’s the only way I know of to prevent the sprinkles from sinking.
Hello Whitney Congratulations on your new little bundle, being a mom is the best but tough.
I’ve tried many different recipes and my vanilla and yellow cakes always turn out heavy and dense. They aren’t dry just heavy. Any tips that might help me make it fluffy and light? Thanks so much!
Hi Jessica! Thanks so much for your kind words. When you say you’ve tried vanilla and yellow cake recipes, are you referring to my recipes or just those cake flavors in general? That will help me determine how to best help!
Good morning. I haven’t tried yours yet, but they are next in hopes they will produce a light cake. Maybe I should try them first and then let you know how they turned out. I’m using your funfetti recipe in the next few days!
Yes – the fluffiness of the cake mostly depends on the recipe you follow. I won’t be able to instruct you on how to make someone else’s recipe more fluffy, but I do hope that you find this funfetti cake to be fluffy when you try it. I did a lot of testing to make sure it ends up nice and soft!
Hi Whitney,
So I tried your funfetti cake! The cake batter was so light and fluffy, my husband tested it and loved it! A few mini later he goes, you know I’ll want to clean the bowl when your done! Ha! But I tried making it twice and both times my cakes fell in the middle. I live in Denver so maybe the altitude has something to do with it, i followed the recipe to a T and even let my over preheat for a long time to make sure it was warmed evenly. Please help because this cake is delicious! Thank you for sharing with us!
Hi Jessica! Yes, baking at higher altitudes requires some different oven temps/techniques that I’m unsure of since I’ve never baked at a high altitude before. I would do a little research to see what you need to alter to make a cake recipe work for high altitude baking and adjust this recipe accordingly. That is my best guess as to why the cake fell in the middle, but here is a blog post I wrote up with the most common reasons why cakes sink: https://sugarandsparrow.com/why-cakes-sink/ double check that list as well to make sure it isn’t one of those things in addition! Hope that helps!
I made this cake for my granddaughter’s birthday, and it was a big hit. The cake was moist and flavorful, and the floured jimmies baked really well throughout the cake. I used three 8″ pans, and wow, those layers were nice and tall! I also used the AmeriColor Lilac for the frosting, but I ended up with a different shade of purple than your beautiful cake. It may have been because I used a Swiss meringue buttercream frosting, but I’m wondering if you have any tips for making that color pop. Your cake is so awesome! I will definitely be making this cake again as it was both moist and very flavorful. Thanks for a great recipe!
I’m so happy to hear that this recipe was a hit, Joanne! Happy birthday to your granddaughter! And yes, you are totally right about the swiss meringue buttercream not being easy to color with standard color gels. I’ve never worked with it before, but I hear that you have to use a different coloring technique to achieve vibrant colors like that. It’s one of the reasons why I always use American Buttercream for everything I do. It’s on my list to learn more about swiss meringue buttercream someday and share what I know as I go! In the meantime thanks so much for taking the time to let me know how much you loved this cake recipe!!
I just made this cake for my daughter and it was absolutely delicious. Worked perfect!
Thank you!
I just made this cake and it turned out delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
Yay, Yvonne! So happy to hear this recipe was a hit!!
I have made this recipe twice and it’s delicious! I had the same issue both times. The sides, after being cooked, are super crunchy. The first time I simply overcooked the cakes because my oven (convection gas) must run hotter than expected even though I baked it 30 min. The second time I watched it carefully starting around 20 minutes and ended up only baking a few minutes longer than that. The middle was perfect, but all three pans had crunchy and dark top, sides, and bottoms that I ended up removing because another blogger recommended it when using light icing colors. Either way I think it would have to be done because they tasted burnt. Anyway, I assumed the first time was because I overcooked the cakes, but I can’t figure out how to avoid this disparity between the interior and exterior of the cake next time. Any ideas or thoughts? Also, how many batches of your vanilla buttercream do you need for the 3 layer 8”? I doubled it and that was enough to ice the whole cake but nothing left to pipe. I had to run out and buy buttercream from the grocery store bakery (life saver in a pinch) to pipe and design. I still ran out of icing mainly because I am new to piping and had to practice some.
Hi Julie! Since you have a gas convection oven, the temperature needs to be altered to accommodate it. This recipe is written for a conventional oven. Next time, try lowering the oven temp by 25ºF (so bake at 325ºF). This is most definitely why your edges burned. You’ll also need to keep an eye on the baking time, since convection ovens tend to cook food faster even at the lower temp. Here’s everything you need to know about convection ovens vs. conventional: https://www.cnet.com/how-to/what-is-a-convection-oven/
As for the buttercream, next time make 2.5x the recipe so you’ll have enough for piping after filling and frosting. Simply multiply each recipe by 2.5 and you’ll be good to go!
What size cake pans do you use?
Hi Rebekah! This recipe is written for either 6-inch or 8-inch cake pans. The cake pictured has three 6-inch layers.
Thank you!
Hi Whitney,
I have tried this recipe about 10 times now and I absolutely love it. Here’s my question, do you recommend using cake baking strips with this cake and if so would I need to increase the baking time? I have used them before but my cake always comes out sticky. Thanks
Hi Joi! I’ve actually never used baking strips before. I would do a little research to see if the ones you have require altering the oven temp/baking time and go from there!