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funfetti sprinkle cake

adapted from Claire Saffitz

I bought my boyfriend fancy sprinkles two weeks before he asked me out. He claims it has nothing to do with our current relationship status. The way I see it, I gave him fancy sprinkles, now he’s in love with me. I’m not one to infer causation, but I’d say I have some pretty strong evidence that sprinkles are the foundation of our relationship. Regardless, sprinkles are the best. They make everything brighter and more whimsical. I literally cannot count the times that I have frosted a cake or cupcakes, been disappointed with the result, then added sprinkles and called it a day. They are the baker’s equivalent of white out.

The addition of sprinkles in this recipe, however, is very intentional. The recipe is a classic funfetti cake with cream cheese frosting. There are so many funfetti cake recipes out there. I have tried quite a few including the ever trendy Momofoku milk bar funfetti cake (Christina Tosi is a goddess), but it wasn’t quite as moist as this one. If you are one of those people who thinks funfetti cake is too sugary or too childish or too basic, I’ll tell you this:

  1. The cream cheese cuts through the sugar. Seriously, cream cheese frosting has yet to fail me.
  2. Nostalgia never hurt anyone. Please, please please, drive to you local grocery store, pick up some low quality rainbow sprinkles, and taste the rainbow.

INGREDIENTS

  • 5 ½ cups cake flour (660g)
  • 2 ½ cups sugar (466g)
  • 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 ½ tsp salt
  • ¾ tsp baking soda
  • 3 sticks unsalted butter (340g), room temperature
  • 1 ½ cups buttermilk (360g)
  • ⅓ cup neutral oil (75g)
  • 3 eggs at room temperature
  • 6 large egg whites at room temperature
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp almond extract
  • ½ cup rainbow sprinkles, plus more for decoration
  • Cream cheese frosting (from carrot cake recipe)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 350°F Line three 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Pulse a few times with the paddle attachment to combine. Add the butter, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and extracts. Mix until all the flour is hydrated. Mix on medium speed for ~ 1 minute. Fold in the sprinkles until evenly distributed. Divide the batter evenly between the three pans (12 oz. each). Bake until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Cool the cakes, frost with cream cheese frosting, and decorate with more sprinkles.