This Vegan Funfetti Cake recipe is the most perfect one out there, and it will quickly become your new go-to birthday party treat! It’s SO easy to make, and can be done in one bowl. The cake is moist and fluffy, filled with your favorite sprinkles, and topped with a rich vanilla buttercream frosting. It’s got everything you could want in a cake, while being undetectably vegan and gluten free!
I have two major reasons I love funfetti treats. One – customization! Make this with rainbow sprinkles for a classic look, or make it with red & green sprinkles for Christmas, or pink for Valentine’s Day, or red white and blue for any number of patriotic holidays, or anything else! You can fit it to all your celebratory dessert needs. And Two – happiness! Pouring a ton of brightly colored sprinkles into a big bowl of cake batter will make anyone smile, no matter what else is going on around you!
This cake is insanely easy. If you’re a bit nervous about cake making, this is a GREAT starter cake. No crazy ingredients, or intimidating techniques for a unique frosting, and no temperamental fillings like berries. However if you’ve landed here because you love funfetti but really just can’t handle a cake right now, I get it!, head on over to my Vegan Funfetti Cupcakes for something a little quicker and easier, or for an alternative funfetti treat, try out these Vegan Funfetti Cookies.
But if you’re ready for the real thing, then it’s vegan funfetti cake time!
How To Make It
Let me say again, this cake is SO easy. The only advance prep is taking your vegan butter and non-dairy milk out of the fridge about 2-3 hours before you begin so they can come to room temperature. Other than that, the cake comes together alarmingly quickly. You may make it too frequently. Not that there’s such a thing as too much vegan funfetti cake.
Once the vegan butter and non-dairy milk are at room temperature, cream together the vegan butter, neutral oil, and sugar (see the Ingredients Needed section to learn how to make the cake layers sugar free!) in a large bowl. You can use a mixer, or get down and dirty with your hands, but either way make sure you mix these ingredients for a solid few minutes until they are light and fluffy. See the below photo as reference.
Next Up..
Add in the non-dairy milk and vanilla extract, and mix again. The mixture is going to look ugly here, and not fully combined. That’s okay! That’s how it should look. Again, see below for reference for this step.
Now add in gluten free (or all-purpose) flour, baking powder, and salt, then mix again. Lastly, add in the sprinkles!!! One quick side note on sprinkles – I use these sprinkles for the insides of the cake and these sprinkles for the decoration on top. I do NOT recommend using the little circular non-pareil sprinkle balls inside the cake, as the color will likely run.
Back to the instructions! Mix until fully combined, then pour evenly into parchment lined & greased cake tins. I like to weigh each one with my handy dandy kitchen scale to make sure they’re all roughly the same weight, that way they all look uniform and pretty at the end.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-28 minutes. As soon as a toothpick emerges with just crumbs, no batter, get those babies out of there! Let them cool in the pan for about 15 or so minutes, then flip them out onto cooling racks. Let them come fully to room temperature, or even chill them in the fridge for a bit, before frosting.
For the frosting..
When you’re ready to make the frosting, start with your butter straight from the fridge so it is cold and hard. I use a simple hand mixer (you can use a fancier mixer if you have one!) to whip the butter on its own until it is fluffy, then add in the vanilla and powdered sugar a little bit at a time until it hits your desired frosting consistency. The amount I use here allows for heavy frosting and then some extra to pipe on top if you want fun swirls! Then decorate with MORE sprinkles because why not.
And voila! Vegan Funfetti Cake!
Storage:
Store the cake in an air-tight container on the counter or in the fridge, it will stay good for 2-3 days, perhaps a bit longer in the fridge.
Pro Tips & Tools:
- Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method. Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
- Make sure you measure your liquid ingredients using liquid measuring cups. This will ensure accuracy! I love this set.
- As I mentioned, using a hand mixer with the frosting is the way to get the best results there. I use this very simple and effective one.
- Again, for sprinkles, I use these sprinkles for the insides of the cake and these sprinkles for the decoration on top.
- Need any other tools I’ve used here? For the cake itself I use these cake tins, these parchment liners, and this kitchen scale to make sure each layer is the same size. For the frosting, I use this simple hand mixer. And to frost the cake you can use a simple offset spatula, or spring for this whole set of cake stuff.
Ingredients Needed:
- Vegan butter – I use Earth Balance sticks
- Neutral oil – any should do, I always use grapeseed.
- Granulated sugar – If you want to make these sugar free, I love using this Monkfruit Sweetener in place of granulated sugar.
- Non-dairy milk – any should do here! I usually use soy or almond.
- Vanilla extract
- Flour – Make sure you are measuring your flour either by weight or using the spoon and level method. Do not scoop directly from the container, as you will wind up with too much! This is so important! If you want to buy a pre-made gluten free flour blend, make sure it’s King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour, it is BY FAR the best one for my recipes, NOT Bob’s Red Mills or any others. If you want to make a homemade blend, here is a link to the one I use.
- Baking powder – I recommend using baking powder that has no added aluminum. This one is my go-to.
- Salt
- Sprinkles – I use these sprinkles for the insides of the cake and these sprinkles for the decoration on top.
- Powdered sugar – for the frosting. If you want this part to be sugar free, you can use this Monkfruit Powdered Sweetener in place of powdered sugar.
What To Bake Next:
- Want more use out of your cake tins? Try this Vegan Blueberry Cake with Lemon Curd Filling, or this Vegan Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, or this Vegan Triple Berry Cake, or this Vegan Triple Chocolate Cake, or this Vegan Carrot Cake.
- Want more cake but not in layer form? Try this Vegan Lemon Sheet Cake, or this Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake, or this Vegan Lemon Pound Cake, or this Vegan Vanilla Sheet Cake with Mixed Berry Frosting.
- Want other birthday party dessert ideas? Try these Vegan Fudgy Brownies, or these Vegan Copycat Levain Cookies, or these Vegan Coconut Donuts, or these Perfect Vegan Lemon Bars.
Vegan Funfetti Cake (Gluten Free and Sugar Free options)
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients – this makes THREE layers, adjust accordingly if you want more layers or fewer layers.
- 11 tbsp vegan butter softened to room temperature
- 3 tbsp neutral oil
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar *if you want a sugar free option, this links to my favorite sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular granulated sugar
- 2 cups non-dairy milk at room temperature
- 2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3½ cups gluten free flour can sub all-purpose if desired. This links to my favorite store bought gluten free flour blend that works best with all of my recipes, or see "Ingredients Needed" section for further info.
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2/3 cups sprinkles
Frosting Ingredients
- 2 cups vegan butter cold, straight from the fridge
- 7-8 cups powdered sugar *if you want a sugar free option, this links to my favorite powdered sweetener, you can substitute it 1:1 in place of regular powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease 3 8-inch cake tins plus line with parchment rounds. Note – this recipe has amounts for THREE layers of cake. If you are doing more layers or fewer layers, adjust the amounts accordingly!
- In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter, neutral oil, and granulated sugar. Make sure you do this for a few minutes, whether it is by hand or with a mixer, as you want it to be light in color and fluffy. Then add in the non-dairy milk and vanilla extract and mix again. This time the mixture will separate. Photos of both of these steps can be found above in the How To Make It section.
- Add in the gluten free flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until combined. Finally add in the sprinkles and mix one last time. Pour the batter evenly into your cake tins and put in the oven for 25-28 minutes, checking for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cake and removing from the oven when the toothpick comes out with just crumbs, not wet batter.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 15 minutes before inverting onto cooling racks to cool entirely before frosting. You can also stick in the fridge for a little bit once they are at room temperature, I find it easier to frost cake layers when they are cold.
- To make the frosting, take cold butter from the fridge and mix with a hand mixer. Add in the vanilla, and add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing until smooth each time. The amounts here will give you enough frosting to very generously frost the cake, and have leftover to pipe into designs on the top. Add some additional sprinkles while decorating for extra fun!
- Eat and enjoy!
Can you make this into a 1/2 sheet cake?
For sure! Here’s what I’d recommend – it’s the same base recipe as this sheet cake recipe on my site – https://strawberryshortbakes.com/vegan-vanilla-sheet-cake-with-mixed-berry-frosting-sugar-free-and-gluten-free-options/#recipe
Follow that recipe and cut it in half if your sheet pan is a half size. Use 1/4 cup of sprinkles. Then just follow the frosting recipe from this funfetti page but cut down significantly since you’re only frosting a half sheet cake not a three layer cake 🙂
How much does 3 1/2 cups of flour weigh?
If you’re using the flour I recommend, it’ll be 420 grams
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart