How to Make a Funfetti Cake from Scratch

It's always more fun to DIY. Every week, we'll spare you a trip to the grocery store and show you how to make small batches of great foods at home.

Today: Make an artifically delicious childhood treat a little bit more authentic. Molly Yeh from My Name is Yeh shows us how.

Deep in the heart of Park Slope, my family and I sat at my sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner, eating and drinking merrily, as a wedding party does. Up until that point, my day had been spent in my small Brooklyn kitchen, baking cakes in five of my sister’s favorite flavors (pistachio, black sesame, lemon, chocolate, red velvet) for what would be my very first wedding cake. It was epic -- enough for a wedding four times the size of my sister’s -- and I was a very proud maid of honor.

But at the end of the night, I was a very annoyed maid of honor when the bridezilla demanded that she would like a funfetti cake at her wedding. To her credit, I’m exaggerating when I say "demanded," but still, I couldn’t believe that it hadn’t occurred to either of us until then that her cake should have been funfetti. Every bride who grew up in the '90s should have a funfetti cake, or something.

More: A beautiful cake stand for your beautiful creation.

Although I told her that I would absolutely not be making any more cake that day, I knew I had no choice. I swung by the Key Foods on my way home and wrote my speech as I whisked the oil and eggs into a boxed mix. To her delight, as signified by the top-of-her-lungs shriek in the middle of a jam-packed Dressler, the top layer of her cake was funfetti and all was right in the world.

So consider it my revenge that for my wedding this year, I will be having my sister make a three-tiered funfetti extravaganza, and no, cake from a box is not allowed this time. I’ve given my sis a head start though, with days and days of recipe testing.

At first thought, a homemade funfetti cake seems like an easy task: Just fold a bunch of sprinkles into a vanilla cake and wham bam, you’re done.

Wrong.

Funfetti is not that simple. Funfetti is a complex being who has issues because when anyone tells him to just act natural, he fails. The secret to funfetti is that funfetti in his most natural element is, in fact, slightly artificial. Here's why:

1. Artificial sprinkles work best. Natural sprinkles (in my experience) aren’t bright enough. Naturally-colored nonpareils, naturally-colored sprinkles, homemade sprinkles made with natural food dye, and a series of found objects including chopped mint leaves, bachelor's buttons, dried mango, and cranberries were just not bright enough after baking. The best and brightest results came from artificially-colored sprinkles, artificially-colored nonpareils, and artificially-colored homemade sprinkles. And forget about using any type of sanding sugar.
2. Artificial vanilla works best. This is a tip I picked up from Marian, who learned at a Momofuku Milk Bar cake class that McCormick’s clear imitation vanilla is way closer than an all-natural vanilla extract to achieving that nostalgic flavor we get from boxed cakes. Try it and you’ll understand.
3. Not every vanilla cake will work for funfetti. The batter needs to be thick enough to suspend the sprinkles so that they don’t all fall to the bottom when the cake is baking. Oil-based cakes need not apply. Egg yolks are also not welcome here, since we want the cake to be light enough in color that the sprinkles really shine.

Alright, got all that? Good. Go have fun(fetti)!

Funfetti Cake

Serves 10 to 14

For the cake:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large egg whites
2 tablespoons clear imitation vanilla (I use McCormick's)
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sprinkles

For the frosting:

2 cups (or 4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar, or to taste
2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla
1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans. Cut out circles of parchment paper and line the bottom of the pans, then lightly spray the parchment with non-stick baking spray.

With an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Add the egg whites, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Mix in the vanilla and oil.

More: Customize your cake's color scheme by making your own sprinkles -- just don't use natural dyes!

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With your mixer running on low speed, add this to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk. Once you have a smooth batter, fold in the 2/3 cup of sprinkles.

Divide the batter evenly between the pans. Sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of sprinkles over the top of the batter, then bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Begin checking for doneness at around 25 minutes.

Let the cakes cool for a few minutes in the pans, then flip them onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before frosting.

Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla and salt and mix to combine. Taste and add more sugar, if desired. Frost your cake and enjoy! 

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in 2014. But the internet's currently abuzz with excitement about the Cheesecake Factory's funfetti-inspired cheesecake, so it's as good a time as any to remind you that there's a way to create a funfetti cake on your own, from scratch, in the comforts of your kitchen. We can't all live close to a Cheesecake Factory location, after all. 

Photos of pans by Catherine Lamb; all others by Molly Yeh