There’s nothing like a big ol’ slice of confetti cake to bring out the kid in ya!
This cake is the epitome of BIRTHDAYS when frosted with my favorite Fluffy Vanilla Frosting, My Favorite Buttercream or even my ever popular Bakery Style Fudge Frosting.
My favorite confetti cake recipe starts with a tender vanilla buttermilk cake. I’ve given the main measurements in grams as I always recommend baking cakes by weight. Cup measurements are also given. Use the scoop and sweep method if measuring your flours in cups.
I employ my favorite mixing method, reverse creaming, to produce a confetti cake with a velvety smooth texture and melt in your mouth feel. Checkout the video below to see this technique in action!
This recipe makes 1 half sheet cake (as seen in the video) and will also yield 3 8″ round layers, or about 26-28 standard sized cupcakes.
- 6 ounces (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 425 grams granulated sugar (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
- 250 grams cake flour (2 cups)
- 75 grams all purpose flour (2/3 cups)
- 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 12 ounces buttermilk, at room temperature (1½ cups)
- 4 large eggs
- 3 ounces vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- ½ cup rainbow sprinkles
- Preheat your oven to 350* F. Grease and lightly flour 3 8" round pans, or line a half sheet pan with parchment and spray it with non stick spray
- In a bowl or large measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Set aside
- In the bowl of your stand mixer combine the sugar, cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine the dry ingredients
- Place the mixer bowl on the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, begin adding chunks of softened butter and continue blending until the mixture is sandy and no visible chunks of butter remain
- Add ¼ of the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend on low to combine
- Raise the mixer to medium high speed and beat for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl and beater half way through beating
- Add half of the remaining liquid ingredients to the bowl, blend on low to combine and then scrape the bowl
- Add the remaining liquid ingredients and continue to blend on the lowest speed for 2 minutes
- Fold in the rainbow sprinkles
- Divide the batter into the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out with a few most crumbs stuck to it
- Cool the layers in their pans for 15 minutes, then turn them onto a cooling rack and carefully wrap them in plastic wrap while they cool completely
Thank you for your recipe. I have two questions. When do you add the sugar? Mixed with the other dry ingredients? Second, I love to freeze my cakes for a couple of days. Will that work for this cake?
Again thank you
Hi Cecilia,
The sugar, flour, salt and leavening all go in together. This cake freezes beautifully! Just make sure to wrap it well.
Happy Baking!
Dan
Hey Dan! I made this cake this last week and its delicious!! I made it in smaller pans and had leftover batter and decided to just use that for cupcakes. But the cupcakes didnt turn out the greatest. The flavor was there, but they seemed gummy on top. Do you have any suggestions to turn this recipe into cupcakes?
Hi Kelsey!
Im glad that you enjoyed the recipe! Ive had success making cupcakes from this batter by baking them at 375* for the first 5-8 minutes, then lowering the temp to 350* until done. You can also reduce the oil from 3 ounces to 1.5 ounces if you find that the cupcakes are to moist.
Happy Baking!!
-Dan
Dan,
Is the 3 oz of vegetable oil also by weight or volume (6 Tb)? Making this today with your Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Can’t wait.
Hi Christopher! I weigh the oil- although I’ve heard from others who have tried this recipe that they’ve had success with volume. I think that if you have the scale out for your dry- why not weigh the liquids as well!
Enjoy the cake!!
-Dan
Thanks Dan! I’ll send a pic with the finished product
BTW, great YouTube video on the strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream and reverse creaming method. My first foray into both!
Can I use this recipe without the sprinkles just to make a yellow butter cake?
Hi Jeanette!
You certainly can- I do it often.
Enjoy!
Dan
Hi Dan! I have to make a mustache cake and I was looking for a good sturdy cake, would this work well for shaping? And can you link me to a good chocolate buttercream recipe or tell me how to modify the Swiss merengue buttercream? Thank you so much!
how did you make the popping rock candy to maintain their crunch and their punch thank you so much!!
Hi Sandy! I coated them with 2 few coats of cooking spray and used swiss buttercream
Hi – how much of the recipe would be needed to make the two-tiered cake pictured above?
Hello! That two tier cake is a small 4″ top and 6″ bottom. So a double recipe would be plenty.
Id scale as follows
6″ pan- 12 oz batter
4″ pans- 5 oz batter
Happy Baking!
Dan
Hi Dan I was wondering if you could how much I would need for 2 layer 6 inch cake.?And also how much frosting I would need as well. Because I wanted to do the ombre rosette cake. Please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you.
Hi Maryam! The recipe as written can be divided into 4 6″ cake pans. So you will have enough for your two layer cake. My favorite buttercream recipe will also make enough to fill the cake and finish it with the rosette design. Happy Baking! -Dan
when u say to chill do u chill in the pan?? Thank you!!
Can I half this recipe?
Hi Jackie! You sure can !