Confetti Cake

Who doesn’t remember the joys of confetti cake in their childhood? Was there really any other option when it came to birthdays? I was very excited to try this cake for both the memories of how much I loved this flavor years ago and for the COLOR (one thing we don’t get a lot of in Dessert Person, TBH).

There was really nothing extravagant to buy for this recipe, however Claire warned about not buying sprinkles that have vegetable-based coloring. This was not exactly an easy thing to find, and I ended up getting exactly what she said to avoid.

I started by buttering the cake pans and lining the bottoms with parchment paper. Then I added my dry ingredients to the stand mixer and gave them a mix. After that I added in the butter, buttermilk and oil to start creating the batter. In another bowl, I mixed together the eggs, vanilla and almond extract. I added this in two parts to the stand mixer, leaving me with what I recall as a beautiful, fluffy, white batter. The last part—add the sprinkles! I tried not to mix it too much after this to avoid the sprinkle dye bleeding throughout the white batter.

Before filling my pans, I (of course) took a taste test of the batter before putting the cakes in the oven—and something did NOT taste right. It did not taste like my childhood memories; it tasted pasty and blah. This recipe was super easy thus far; what could I have messed up?

I had my husband try it. “There’s no sugar in here!” he said. Guess what? I forgot the sugar!

Fortunately, this was an easy fix, and after the sugar addition, the batter became more batter-ish, and it tasted how I remembered. This fix sadly made the sprinkles bleed a little, so what did I do—add more!

I filled my cake pans and baked the cakes for about 37 minutes. This is where I took a bit of a turn from the Dessert Person directions, and instead I made my own buttercream recipe. I’m not really into the cream cheese buttercream taste, as my childhood confetti cakes always had American buttercream. I made twice the amount I usually do so I’d have enough for good coverage in between the layers and on the outside. Once my cakes were stacked and frosted, I used the rest of my sprinkles to try something I’ve never done before…sprinkle the shit out of the entire cake. It’s actually not as easy as one would think, and of course makes a huge mess if you’re not strategic in the application process, but it looked so cool in the end!

Overall, I was very pleased with the Confetti Cake; it turned out how I remembered it from my childhood for the most part. I do think I could use more sweetness, and that’s not because I put the sugar in late. I would also like to try it with the sprinkles Claire recommended, because I definitely felt sprinkles on the roof of my mouth after eating a slice. This is a wonderful recipe to try if you’re looking to bake a cake from scratch for the first time thanks to its familiarity and easy directions.

Check out what Claire thinks about her version compared to the beloved Funfetti box mix (who didn’t learn how to bake on this mix?!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xidcMKR8ikM