Funfetti Cupcakes
Everyone needs a great go-to recipe for Funfetti Cupcakes! Colorful sprinkles are folded into homemade yellow cake batter, and baked into cupcakes that are sure to bring smiles.
Keep these moist, soft, and colorful cupcakes in mind for kids parties, birthday parties, or just because!
Table of Contents
Why we Love Them
There are so many reasons to love this recipe! Here are just a few:
- Fun and colorful!
- Perfect party cupcakes
- Light, fluffy, and flavorful
- Easy to Make
Ingredients for Funfetti Cupcakes
Here are a few ingredient notes. Make sure to find the full list of ingredients in teh recipe card at the bottom of this post!
- Rainbow Jimmies are best for funfetti cupcakes (rather than another type of sprinkle) as they are the least likely to bleed in the cake batter. They create the perfect bright flecks of color in each cupcake.
- Unsalted Butter- We prefer unsalted butter so that we have more control over the amount of salt in the recipe.
- Cake Flour is our flour of choice for many of our cake recipes. It's lower protein content results in a more tender cake.
- Buttermilk adds a boost of acidity to the cake batter, which softens the strands of gluten. This results in a softer crumb.
How to Make Funfetti Cupcakes
This Funfetti Cupcake recipe is based in part on our scratch Yellow Cake recipe. You can find the full, printable funfetti cupcake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners into your cupcake pan(s).
- In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition until the yellow of the yolk is well blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until combined. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Fold in the ½ cup of multi-colored jimmies. (You can add a bit more if you'd like, we were happy with the amount of color from the ½ cup.)
- Scoop about ¼ cup of batter into each of the lined wells of the cupcake pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. We like to remove the cupcakes immediately from the pan to prevent over baking. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Decorating the Cupcakes
We decorated our cupcakes with a simple and delicious vanilla buttercream! This is an American Buttercream recipe that is a combination of softened butter, vanilla extract, milk, and a pinch of salt.
This frosting is very easy to work with. We decorated our cupcakes with an 8B piping tip, and topped them off with more sprinkles.
Recipe FAQs
More Cupcakes
We have many more cupcake recipes to share with you! In addition to today's funfetti cupcakes, keep these in mind the next time you need a birthday cake recipe, potluck dessert, or are craving something delicious!
Some of our favorite cupcakes are our Boston Cream Cupcakes (from cake mix), Snickerdoodle Cupcakes, Oreo Cupcakes, and Banana Pudding Cupcakes (from cake mix). We also have a great go-to recipe for homemade Marble Cupcakes!
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Make sure to check out our full collection of cake recipes (which includes cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes)!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Funfetti Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 3 cups cake flour (342g)
- 2 cups white sugar (400g)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (226g)
- 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes).
- 1 ½ cup buttermilk (352g)*if you do not have buttermilk see note below
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (12g)
- ½ cup Rainbow Colored Jimmies sprinkles (90g)
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened (226g) Should still hold its shape but dent when pressed.
- 5-6 cups confectioners sugar 690g(You can adjust amount slightly up or down to your liking.)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 8g (For whiter frosting, you can use clear imitation vanilla)
- ⅓ cup milk or cream 72g (Adjust amount as needed to reach desired consistency.)
- ½ teaspoon salt 3g
Instructions
For the Funfetti Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners into your cupcake pan(s).
- In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk and vanilla extract. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition until the yellow of the yolk is well blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until combined. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Fold in the ½ cup of multi-colored jimmies. (You can add a bit more if you'd like, we were happy with the amount of color from the ½ cup.)
- Scoop about ¼ cup of batter into each of the lined wells of the cupcake pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. We like to remove the cupcakes immediately from the pan to prevent over baking. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
For the Vanilla Buttercream
- Cream the softened butter until smooth. Blend in the vanilla extract.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk to the mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
- Add remaining powdered sugar and milk and mix at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Then, slow down the mixer to very slow for 1 to 2 minutes. The texture will become very smooth.
- Yields approximately 4 ½ cups of frosting.
- If your buttercream is too thin, add a bit more sugar. If the consistency is too thick, add a bit more milk.
Decorating
- Frost and decorate your cupcakes however you like! This vanilla buttercream recipe is very easy to work with. (We used a french tip 8B)
How to Store
- These cupcakes can be kept at room temperature for 1-2 days in an airtight container, sealed bakery box or under a cake dome. After that, move to the refrigerator for freshness.
Looks great! Simple and fun :-)
I love this recipe and so will my grandgirls. Tasty and colourful..
Thanks Marsha! So glad to hear it ;0)
Melissa, I’ve attempted this recipe twice and the cupcake centers are collapsing. I’ve weighed out all of my ingredients and I use a #16 scoop, so I’m not over-filling.
Please help! Can you tell me what I’m likely doing wrong?