Confetti Cupcakes
These delicious confetti cupcakes with homemade buttercream icing are way better than a store-bought box cake mix! They're moist and fluffy and would be the perfect birthday cupcake.
Confetti Cupcakes Recipe
There's nothing quite as fun as a fluffy cupcake with confetti sprinkles inside! I love making confetti cupcakes for my kids birthday parties.
Who doesn't love a good cupcake? These confetti cupcakes are some of my favorites, but I also love these double lemon cupcakes.
Cupcakes are so much easier to serve at parties too. There's no cutting involved and no hoping you've got enough to go around. They're are already portioned out and you can be sure you've baked plenty for your guests.
But of course, there's no need to wait until birthday celebration roll around to make confetti cupcakes! These are the perfect fun treat for any special occasion, big or small.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Homemade funfetti cupcakes are the perfect shareable treat. Make them for parties, get-togethers, or even as a welcome gift for new neighbors!
- If you're sensitive to food dye, making homemade confetti cupcakes allow you to choose alternative colorful sprinkles. That's something you can't do with a box mix!
- These delicious cupcakes don't take long to make! You'll have bakery quality treats in no time.
These rainbow cupcakes are perfect for a birthday party! They'd also be a super cute dessert for Easter.
You can also use themed colors of sprinkles for a baby shower or wedding shower, or even for game day!
Ingredients
Making homemade cupcakes doesn't have to be difficult! Here's everything you need to make the best funfetti cupcakes. Add them to your shopping list and let's get baking!
Cupcakes
Below are the ingredients for the cupcakes themselves:
- unsalted butter
- sugar
- egg
- sour cream
- vanilla extract
- lemon zest
- all purpose flour
- baking powder
- baking soda
- salt
- milk
- rainbow sprinkles
Buttercream Frosting
And here is what you'll need to make the vanilla buttercream frosting that goes on top:
- unsalted butter
- pure vanilla extract
- powdered sugar
- heavy cream
- more rainbow sprinkles, for garnish
Of course, you can top these with just about any kind of frosting. Try chocolate or strawberry for something different!
Best Sprinkles for Confetti Cupcakes
What makes the colorful "confetti" in confetti cupcakes? Sprinkles!
Rainbow jimmies are the key to making funfetti-style cupcakes.
The ones I used in this recipe are these dye-free rainbow softies by Supernatural. They still have brilliant colors without extra food coloring.
If you have leftover sprinkles, make Birthday Cake Waffles!
Substitutions and Variations
To make these cupcakes gluten free, you can use a gluten-free 1:1 flour substitute, such as King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour.
Sour cream is my secret ingredient for moist cupcakes, but you can substitute it for greek yogurt.
Colorful sprinkles are what make these cupcakes so fun! If you're sensitive to food dye, try out these rainbow sprinkles that contain no artificial dyes.
I typically use whole milk in this recipe, but you can use 2% milk or a dairy alternative if you prefer.
How to Make Confetti Cupcakes
I know making cupcakes from scratch can seem like a lot of hard work, especially if you're a beginner baker. But this funfetti cupcake recipe is a breeze. You've got this!
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. You can also use reusable silicone cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugar with a stand mixer or hand mixer. Then, add in the egg, sour cream, and vanilla extract.
Mix on low speed until thoroughly combined.
In a separate medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Then, pour a little bit of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and let the stand mixer run. Whisk in some of the whole milk, then add more dry ingredients.
Alternate back and forth until the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed in with the wet ingredients.
Lastly, add the rainbow sprinkles to the vanilla cupcake batter. Gently, stir the batter until smooth. If you stir too vigorously, the colors might run.
Evenly fill 12 muffin tins with the batter until the cupcake liners are about halfway full. Top with a few more sprinkles if desired!
Bake for 15-18 minutes until the cupcake centers bounce back to the touch.
Hot Tip: Insert a toothpick into the center of your cupcakes. If it comes out clean, then the cupcakes are finished baking!
Place each cupcake on a cooling rack and let them cool completely before topping them with vanilla buttercream frosting.
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
Now for the fun part: decorating! Here's how to make the frosting:
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together the unsalted butter and vanilla. Be sure to let your butter come to room temperature before mixing.
Add in ½ cup of powdered sugar and mix. Continue adding powdered sugar at ½ cup increments until the icing is at a good consistency.
Add heavy cream into the mixture and mix until the icing is smooth, but holds its shape well.
Scoop the white frosting into a piping bag with a star tip attached. Pipe the homemade frosting onto room temperature cupcakes.
Top with any type of sprinkles you'd like! I used extra rainbow sprinkles.
Tips for Success
Let the butter and eggs come to room temperature before mixing. They'll mix easier and more evenly throughout the batter.
Don't over mix the batter. Mix until the ingredients come together well and then turn off the mixer.
Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients slowly so that it can mix evenly!
How to Store Leftover Confetti Cupcakes
Store confetti cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days. You can also store them at room temperature, they just won't last as long.
If you want to save some time, make the cupcakes ahead of time and store unfrosted cupcakes in an airtight container. (You can use my tutorial for storing muffins for some tips on keeping them from getting soggy or dried out.)
Then make the creamy vanilla buttercream the next day and ice them just before serving!
FAQ
Using sour cream or greek yogurt in your cupcake batter will always help them retain moisture! It is also helpful to mix your batter on low speed and to be cautious of over mixing the batter.
Over time, the dye from sprinkles will bleed into buttercream frosting. To ensure this doesn't happen, add extra sprinkles onto the top of your confetti sprinkle cupcakes right before you serve them. If you plan to store them before serving, wait and add the sprinkles once you remove them from the fridge.
More Cupcakes Recipes You'll Love
- Strawberry Buttercream Cupcakes
- Orange Cupcakes
- Moscato Cupcakes
- Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes
- Super Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe?
If you make and love this recipe, please leave a ★★★★★ review below! It means so much to me when you try my recipes, and I'd love to know how it goes. Please leave a comment below if you have any questions.
Confetti Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
for the cupcakes
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles plus more for sprinkling
for the vanilla buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- rainbow sprinkles for garnish
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add egg, sour cream, and vanilla.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder.
- Alternate between adding dry ingredients to wet ingredients in stand mixer and whisking in milk slowly. On your last addition, add in sprinkles.
- Whisk until batter is smooth.
- Pour batter into lined muffin tin, filling cupcake liners about halfway full.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until cupcake centers bounce back to the touch. Insert a toothpick to test — if it comes out clean or with a few crumbs, they are ready. If there is batter on the toothpick, they need a little more time.
- Cool cupcakes on a baking rack completely before frosting with buttercream icing.
Buttercream Icing
- Use a hand mixer to cream butter and vanilla together.
- Add ½ cup of powdered sugar.
- Continue adding powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until icing is at desired consistency.
- Add heavy cream. Icing should be smooth but hold its shape fairly well.
- Pipe icing onto room temperature cupcakes. Top with extra sprinkles.
