Gluten-Free Confetti Cake Recipe makes a perfect birthday cake. The delicate yellow cake only requires one bowl to make. Then you stir in your favorite gluten-free sprinkles. It’s perfect for beginner bakers. Frost the cake with gluten-free vanilla buttercream frosting－and more sprinkles, of course!
It’s no surprise that I love a confetti cake. I mean, it has sprinkles. And I LOVE sprinkles. Honestly, if you don’t love sprinkles, we can’t be friends. (Kidding. Mostly.)
The recipe is quick to put together. It makes a perfect two-layer cake —which makes it great for birthday parties or other celebrations. Just be sure to have lots of gluten-free sprinkles on hand.
Is Confetti Cake the same as Funfetti Cake?
If you aren’t familiar with Funfetti®, I’m about to make your day! Funfetti® is white cake with sprinkles. Lots of sprinkles. Pillsbury is the creator of the Funfetti® phenomenon. They introduced it in 1989. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Funfetti® is their brand name for a confetti cake. A confetti cake is the homemade version.
What’s the Best Gluten-Free Flour to Use for Confetti Cake?
For this recipe, use a gluten-free flour blend that contains xanthan gum. Without it, the cake turns out flat and dense.
I tested the recipe with Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour. If your flour blend doesn’t contain xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon to the recipe.
What Flavor is Confetti Cake?
There’s a lot of debate around this. I believe that the unique flavor comes from a combination of clear vanilla extract and a dash of almond extract.
It’s funny that I call for clear vanilla extract. If you’re familiar with vanilla, you know that clear vanilla is artificial vanilla. And that’s the point.
Boxed Funfetti® cake mix, the type you probably grew up eating, includes artificial vanilla. If that’s the flavor you crave, grab a bottle. It makes a difference! I’d use clear vanilla extract in my frosting too, for the full effect.
As for the almond extract, it adds an almost maraschino cherry flavor. (If you’re just realizing that maraschino cherries taste like almonds, raise your hand.) The almond extract isn’t required. Feel free to skip it if you don’t want to buy a bottle.
How to Make Gluten-Free Confetti Cake
- Prepare the Batter. This is an easy one-bowl recipe. Whisk together the dry ingredients, add the eggs, oil, and flavors. Stir. Done!
- Add the sprinkles. Be sure to use gluten-free sprinkles.
- Pour batter into greased cake pans.
- Bake until golden brown. A cake tester inserted in the center should come out clean.
- Cool the cake. It’s important to wait for the cake to cool. This is key. If you frost a warm cake, the frosting melts and drips down the cake. Remember: wait for the cake to cool.
- Frost. Use your favorite gluten-free frosting.
Are Sprinkles Gluten-Free?
It depends. Most sprinkles (also called Jimmies) are gluten-free. However, always read labels.
What Kind of Sprinkles Should I Use for Confetti Cake?
Good question! There’s lots of sprinkles on the market. For funfetti cake, I use “sprinkles”, they are also labeled jimmies. Don’t confuse these with nonpareils. “Sprinkles” are long and soft. Nonpareils are tiny, hard sugar balls. In batter, nonpareils tend to melt and bleed color, while sprinkles don’t–giving you nice bursts of color throughout the finished cake.
What Frosting Should I Use?
Classic vanilla buttercream frosting is traditional. But chocolate and cream cheese also make nice frostings for confetti cake.
Gluten-Free Confetti Cake
Easy gluten-free confetti cake. Loaded with sprinkles, this tender cake makes a fun birthday cake®－no mix needed!
Ingredients
Gluten-Free Funfetti Cake
- 2 ½ cups gluten-free all-purpose flour (see note) (11 ½ ounces; 326 grams)
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (10 ½ ounces; 298 grams
- 3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups milk, traditional or dairy-free
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil (4 ¾ ounces; 134 grams)
- 4 large eggs (about 8 ounces; 226 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract pure vanilla or clear (imitation)
- ½ teaspoon almond extract, optional
- ⅓ cup gluten-free sprinkles, plus additional for topping cake
Gluten-Free Vanilla Buttercream
- 1 cup butter, softened (8 ounces; 226 grams)
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted (16 ounces; 454 grams)
- 4 tablespoons milk, more as needed (2 ounces; 56 grams)
- 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract, optional
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350℉. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray.
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Whisk together gluten-free flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add milk, oil, eggs, and extracts. Whisk until a smooth batter forms. Add ⅓ cup sprinkles. Stir to combine.
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Divide batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
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Bake until cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
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Remove cakes from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for five minutes. Then turn cakes onto the wire rack to cool completely.
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Once cool, frost with vanilla buttercream (recipe below) and sprinkle additional sprinkles onto cake.
Gluten-Free Vanilla Buttercream
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Cream butter until smooth in a medium mixing bowl. Add powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix, on low speed, until smooth. If buttercream seems thick, add a teaspoon or so additional milk. Use as directed.
Recipe Notes
Gluten-Free Flour
Use a gluten-free flour blend that includes xanthan gum. Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour recommended. If your blend doesn’t include xanthan gum, add 1 teaspoon along with the flour. Whisk together.
Katie says
I’ve made this twice now. I get 4 6-inch cakes or 2 6-inch cakes + 12 cupcakes. Thank you so much and I can’t wait to try more of your recipes
Monique says
I’m trying this now, but don’t have big enough cake pans. I do have Wilton’s 5 piece cake pans. They’re 6 in wide. How much do I have to adjust for time? I don’t want them to over bake.
Elizabeth says
Good question! I’d fill the six-inch pans halfway and check them after 20 minutes and then every 5 minutes. Have fun!
Shiva says
Can you use butter instead of oil?
Elizabeth says
Hmmm…It should but I haven’t tested it. Melt the butter and allow it to cool before using it in the recipe.
Molly says
Made this today with bobs red mill GF flour (blue bag). My only substitutes were rice milk and earth balance butter for a dairy free version and it came out absolutely lovely! My cake was done at 25 minutes. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE RECIPE! I haven’t had a confetti cake in years and this came out perfect!
Laura says
Just want to say I’ve been GF/DF baking for years and this is by far the best AND the easiest birthday cake recipe I’ve found!! Not only is it the perfect texture/taste but I didnt have to spend hours making it, separating eggs and whipping egg whites just to try to get a decent cakey texture. I used 1/2 cup unsweetened cashew yogurt and 3/4 almond milk for the milk and olive oil. Made a vegan ganache for the top and filled with raspberry jam. AMAZING!!!! Thank You!!!
Gillian P says
This is quite literally the best birthday cake recipe EVER!! The only sub we did was avocado oil (since we don’t do canola) and it was simply incredible! We called it unicorn cake.
Thank you so very much!!!
Stefanie says
Can the cake be frozen if I don’t put the buttercream on it?
Elizabeth says
You can freeze the cake even if you put buttercream in it! Frosted cakes freeze really well.
If you want to freeze just the layers, allow them to cool and then wrap tightly with plastic wrap.
Stacey says
I made this for my daughter’s birthday, she loves funfetti cake, however she is allergic to gluten, dairy and eggs. I made this with Bobs red mill 1 to 1 flour. (It’s my favorite gf flour to bake with) I also used Bobs red mill egg replacer for the eggs. Almond milk instead of regular and avocado oil for the oil. I used lemon extract instead of almond in both the cake and frosting. For the frosting I used Miyokos cashew butter instead of regular. Made this in a 9×13 stoneware pan because that’s how my daughter likes her cake! It turned out amazing! Everyone loved it, will definitely make again. Thanks for the recipe!
Amy says
If we want to just make one cake, can we divide each ingredient quantity in half?
Elizabeth says
Hi Amy,
I haven’t made a half version of this cake. So I can’t say for certain but I believe that should work.
April Hodges says
Baked “as is” using oat milk in a 9 x 13 pan. Rotated at 15 minutes. It took 35 minutes in my oven, but I’d recommend checking it at 5 minute intervals starting at 25 minutes. It was absolutely amazing! Thanks for the recipe!
Elizabeth says
Thank you for this!
Maureen says
I’m looking forward to making this next week for my son’s birthday! My cake pans are 9” rounds; how do you recommend I increase the batter and frosting to make a slightly larger cake? Should I just do one and a half recipes?
Elizabeth says
9 inch cake pans require about 5 cups of batter each; 8 inch cake pans need about 4. So if you do one and a half recipes, you’ll have some batter left over. If you want to make a few cupcakes, that would work great! If not, you can follow the recipe as-is. Just know that your cakes won’t bake as high.
Ambreen says
GF baking terrifies me. But I gave this recipe a go today and the result was amazing. I made one tweak, I used self raising gf flour instead and added 2 tsp baking powder. The cake was spongy and moist. Even nicer that a non gf cake. Its going in my book! Thank you for sharing.
Michelle Rosenbaum says
This is the BEST GF cake recipe that I have ever tasted! The butter cream frosting came out perfect and tasted amazing too. The only problem I encountered was all the jimmies sunk to the bottom of the pan and became a gummy layer that stuck to the bottom of the pan in some areas that you wouldn’t want to eat.
So, my question is how do I keep the jimmies suspended in the batter? My batter was in the thinner side.
Elizabeth says
Glad you liked the cake!
Hmmm..the batter should be thick enough to hold the sprinkles. What flour blend did you use?
Michelle says
I used Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose baking flour. The batter was thin. The taste was great. I need to use a different GF flour next time because I reacted to this GF flour.
Jenn says
I had the same problem. The cake was delicious but the batter was thin and all my sprinkles sunk to the bottom as well.
Elizabeth says
That’s so annoying! I haven’t experienced this. May I ask what type of sprinkles and flour you used? I’d love to solve this problem!
Maureen says
Absolutely wonderful cake! I didn’t tell anyone that it was gluten free, and several people told me it was outstanding and asked for the recipe. I only had 9” pans, so I did 1 1/2 of the recipe. Turned out great! Thank you!
Claire says
Just made this for my mother’s 80th birthday picnic in our garden. I’ve tasted a few crumbs and the icing and it tastes and looks amazing! It has risen so much! I made 2 batches – one in an ‘8’ shaped metal tin and one in a ‘0’ . I used lactose free milk and spread and self raising flour AND baking powder, but followed all else exactly the same. I used sunflower spray which is common in the UK, but I usually use butter to grease and should have used a little more spray. Thank you – I think my Mum will really appreciate this and it will be enjoyed by all the rest of the non coeliacs. I have frozen it with the frosting on. Fingers crossed it thaws ok.
Kathryn says
Thank you so much for this recipe, I made it yesterday for my granddaughters birthday and it was amazing, best sponge I have made. It was light and very tasty. My only problem was the sprinkles I used melted into the cake, I need to re look at what I buy.
Nermarí says
If we make it into cupcakes, how long do you recommend baking for?
Elizabeth says
For standard cupcakes, I’d check the after about 15 minutes.
Ava Rae says
This is DELICIOUS!! I made these as cupcakes. Same cake recipe, with half of the frosting. I think the bake time was around 23 minutes for the cupcakes. With the little bit of batter remaining, I made a smaller square cake, with a bake time of about 25 minutes. Will definitely make this again!
Emily says
I’m working on the butter cream right now and no matter how long I let it mix there are little lumps of butter. Any advice on how to get the lumps out!? Thank you!!
Elizabeth says
Hi Emily,
This happens when the butter is too cool. (In the winter, the butter might be the right temp but if the bowl is cold, it can chill it.)
There’s one thing you can try.
Gently. VERY gently heat it. The lowest heat setting on a microwave. This should soften it enough and then mix.
I hope this helps!
Jess says
Followed the recipe to the letter and it turned out perfect. Wish I could post a picture. Pretty proud of it. Haha. Thank you!