Confetti Cupcakes April 6
When I first discovered confetti cake, I was still in elementary school and could manage to bake a cake from a boxed mix, which I often did when the occasion arose to do so. I almost always opted for white cake because I liked the color and the vanilla flavor, but when I found that the store stocked white cakes with multi-colored splashes in the batter, I forgot my old allegiance to the plain cake and opted for its colorful counterpart more times than I can remember.
Confetti cakes get their name from the confetti-like splashes of color throughout. These splashes are produced by stirring rainbow sprinkles
For these cupcakes, I opted not to use a mix (not really surprising, I know), but to use a classic white cake recipe. The resulting cupcakes have the familiar flavor of vanilla and a hint of almond, as well as a clean white interior that sets off the colors of the sprinkles. The crumb is very tender, but not so delicate that the cake crumbles before it gets into your mouth, and quite moist. This is achieved through a slightly unconventional - for cupcakes, anyway - mixing process, where the butter is cut into the dry ingredients and the eggs and other liquids are added at the end.
I topped them with a marshmallow frosting, which I used before when baking Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes.
If you don’t have rainbow sprinkles, you can use chocolate jimmies or simply skip the “confetti” and leave these white. But it might be worth that extra trip to the store because colorful cupcakes are just a little bit more fun.
Funfetti Cupcakes
1/2 cup milk
3 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
6 tbsp butter, soft
2 tbsp rainbow sprinkles
Preheat oven to 350F.
Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
In a measuring cup, whisk together milk, egg whites and extracts. Set aside
In the bowl of an electric mixer (or a large bowl if you prefer to work by hand), combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir to combine. Cut in butter with the paddle attachment at low speed (or cut in by hand), until mixture is coarse and sandy. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape sides of bowl and continue beating for 20-30 seconds. Stir in sprinkles.
Divide batter evenly into prepared tin. Bake for for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.
Makes 12.
Marshmallow Frosting
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large egg whites
1/3 cup water
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk sugar, egg whites, 1/3 cup water, light corn syrup, and cream of tartar in large metal bowl to blend. Set bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch simmering water). Using handheld electric mixer, beat on medium speed until mixture resembles soft marshmallow fluff, about 4 minutes.
Increase mixer speed to high and beat until mixture is very thick, about 3 minutes longer. Remove bowl from over simmering water. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until marshmallow frosting is completely cool, about 5 minutes longer.
When cool, frost cupcakes and add more sprinkles, if desired.
Anuhea Apr 6
I love confetti/funfetti cakes…they are full of colorful surprises!
Jackie Apr 6
So fun! I can’t wait to try these!
Chris Apr 6
Wonderful! These will be great to bring to the staff on Monday, when they are bummed spring break is over. Lil’ bundles bound to bring smiles!
lori Apr 7
Wow, I never even knew that a cake like this existed! This would be great for me to bake with my four year old daughter. The fireworks of colors is brilliant!
Jen Apr 7
How fun these are! I’ve never made marshmallow frosting–I tend to make just plain-jane confectioner’s sugar and butter/confectioner’s sugar and cream cheese frostings. Maybe it’s time to branch out
mariya Apr 7
i’m going to try these out soon! they look enchanting.
Kate Apr 9
I am thrilled to have stumbled upon your site. My sister-in-law’s birthday is next week and confetti cake is her favorite. I have always cringed whenever she got the box of mix as cake mixes have never been my thing. I never thought of making one from scratch. I guess i never equated such bright colours with anything that would be homemade. Thank you for connecting the dots for me.
Kate
Cheryl Apr 9
How beautiful and festive. I love the way it looks. Makes you wanna be a kid again.
Dave Apr 19
I tried these treats today. I took the 12 cupcakes to be for standard cupcake tins and they all over flowed. Don’t fill them more than half full to be safe. They did taste good though.
Nicole Apr 20
Dave - Sorry to hear your cupcakes overflowed. I, too, used a standard sized cupcake tin and had no problems. I would say that each of the cups was about 2/3 full.
Corey May 7
I made these cupcakes today, and they tasted great! I did have one slight problem, though - when I stirred the sprinkles into the batter, the colours all began to run. So, when I bit into a finished cupcake, I didn’t have discrete flecks of colour (like in your picture), but swirls and streaks of colour instead (which were, admittedly, kind of cool). Did anyone else have this problem?
Chris May 12
I did, Corey…I didn’t do well with mine at all when I baked these last month. But, I am going to try again!
Bob May 30
Hi, cupcakes look great, nice site by the way.
liz Jul 19
i was just wondering if it would affect the cupcake much if i eliminated the almond extract. also as i’m in a rush, i’d probably be using betty crocker’s creamy frosting rather than making my own. shouldn’t be a problem right? thanks
Nicole Jul 27
What a fantastic idea! Instead of cupcakes I did this for my daughters birthday cake - looked and tasted great!
I have been becoming more and more dependent on this web site. Thanks for all your great ideas and recipes! We are “enjoying” them!
DD Aug 28
these cupcakes are super duperly amazing!!!! i even snuck in some whole wheat flour and you could not for a second tell the difference. my little brother ate three tonight and would have had more if i didnt stop him. these are beatiful and delicious… everyone should have the experience of eating one.
Ace Sep 23
To address the sprinkles-running issue:
The round colorful circle sprinkles will run. They should be used atop frosting, but not mixed into batter.
The elongated-pill-shaped jimmies are excellent for confetti cakes. They maintain color- and sometimes even shape!
emily Mar 27
i wnna eat them =D
emily Mar 27
i wnna eat them =D
Monika Apr 13
Can you use the same recipe for making a cake? or should i double the amount of ingredients?
shannon Jun 10
i loved these i made a few changes i used 2 whole eggs casue i like the mositness and i didnt use the almond so i used extra vinallia extract .. also i was wonder you no how they have a recipe for funfetti cookies on the side of the philsbery box.. how would you make them from this
Katie Jun 11
I just put these cupcakes into the oven and wanted to share my experience. I mistakenly mixed the sprinkles into the dry ingredients so that when I combined the wet and dry, the colours of the sprinkles ran together and completely dyed the batter. I used pink and blue sprinkles. The cupcakes are now fully purple (but with a greyish tint unfortunately). They are still fun but totally not what I was going for! I learned a lesson lol!
Sarah Aug 9
This recipe was really good, except that the frosting recipe makes waaaay too much frosting for 12 cupcakes. If I make this again, I will definitely cut the frosting recipe in half (or double the cake recipe :-P).
Olivia Aug 15
I can wait to try this it sounds taste