High Altitude Funfetti Cupcakes with Rainbow Swirl Frosting

Today’s soft, fluffy and moist high altitude Funfetti cupcakes are frosted with the prettiest pastel rainbow swirl buttercream and topped with sprinkles. This is a high altitude tested, from scratch cupcake recipe, based off my Funfetti cake, but with a few adjustments to ensure perfect cupcakes for those of us baking in the mountains. They’re light, flavorful, and flecked with colorful sprinkles, making them perfect for birthday parties.

Looking for more recipes like this? You might also like these soft, white chocolate chip sprinkle cookies, rainbow birthday cake, and frosted sugar cookie bars.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

So Pretty and Colorful. Everything about these Funfetti cupcakes makes me happy. The colorful dots throughout the cupcakes, the pastel swirls of frosting, and the scattering of sprinkles on top.

Perfect for Parties. I love making cupcakes like these for birthday parties and seeing people’s faces light up when they see them.

Moist and Flavorful. These cupcakes are everything a cupcake should be. Soft, fluffy, moist, light, with a delicious flavor from the vanilla and almond extracts.

What is Funfetti?

The Pillsbury Company created the Funfetti cake in 1989, and they also own the trademark. This colorful cake is also sometimes called a confetti cake, and of course, a sprinkle cake. Traditionally, Funfetti cakes are white cakes, rather than yellow cakes, which are reminiscent of the fluffy white cakes from box mixes that so many of us grew up eating on our birthdays.

The cupcake batter shouldn’t be so thin that the sprinkles sink to the bottom, so I developed a slightly more dense, but still soft and fluffy butter-based white cake recipe specifically for Funfetti cake and cupcakes, so that the sprinkles stay perfectly suspended in the batter as the cupcakes bake. The cupcakes are incredibly moist and flavorful from a combination of butter, buttermilk and sour cream, and both vanilla and almond extracts give it a classic birthday cake flavor. By whipping the butter to lighten its color as well as using only egg whites, the color is nice and white to highlight all the pretty sprinkles throughout the cupcakes.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Cake

• Unsalted Butter. Adds richness and fat, to make up for the lack of egg yolks in the recipe. When creamed with the sugar, it lightens in color for a whiter cake crumb.
• Granulated Sugar. Adds sweetness and moisture.
• Egg Whites. Add protein and structure, while using just the whites preserves the white color of the cupcakes.
• Cake Flour. With a lower percentage of protein than all-purpose flour, cake flour makes very light, fluffy cupcakes.
• Baking Powder. Leavens the cupcakes.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Buttermilk + Sour Cream. Adds moisture, richness and acidity, for a soft, tender cake crumb.
• Vanilla + Almond Extracts. I love the combination of the vanilla and almond extracts for a classic birthday cake flavor.
• Sprinkles. You can use any sprinkles that you have, but nonpareils are so tiny that they tend to melt and bleed too much into the cake batter. Preferably, use confetti sprinkles or quins, for more vivid dots of color throughout the cake.

Buttercream

• Unsalted Butter. Adds fat and richness, and makes a very fluffy frosting when whipped with the powdered sugar. In very hot weather, substitute vegetable shortening for up to 50% of the butter, to make a more stable frosting. Using half shortening also makes a much whiter buttercream.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
• Meringue Powder. Adds stability and improves the texture.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
• Milk. Add only if needed to thin the buttercream a little to your desired consistency for piping or spreading.
• Food Coloring. For the pastel swirls of color in the buttercream, I used 5 different colors to tint my frosting.
• Sprinkles. Use a variety of nonpareils, quins, jimmies, or even sugar pearls to decorate your cupcakes!

Instructions

Cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line your muffin pans with 19 paper cupcake liners.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter with the sugar for about 3-5 minutes on medium speed, scraping the bowl frequently, until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg whites, one at a time, until well combined.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, vanilla and almond extracts.
• With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Once you’ve added everything, mix well for about 15-30 seconds until the batter is well combined.
• Briefly fold in the sprinkles, just until evenly dispersed throughout the batter.

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TIP: It’s important to not over-fill the pan when making cupcakes, or you’ll end up with muffin tops.

• Use a scant 1/4 measuring cup to fill the muffin cups, filling them no more than 2/3 full. If you like, sprinkle the top of the batter with a few more sprinkles.
• Bake the cupcakes for about 15-16 minutes, just until the tops spring back when gently touched. Cool in the pan for several minutes, then gently transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

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Buttercream

• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium for 1 minute until smooth.
• With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder, salt and vanilla extract, until combined but clumpy. Increase the speed to medium, and whip for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally, until very light and fluffy. Only add the milk if the buttercream seems too stiff. Now turn the speed down to low, and mix for 1 minute to get rid of large air bubbles.

TIP: This frosting technique would also be perfect for mermaid cupcakes or unicorn cupcakes! Customize the look with your favorite blend of pastel colors.

• For the rainbow swirl buttercream shown in today’s post, divide the batter between several bowls. Tint each portion of buttercream with a drop or two of gel food coloring. (I chose 5 colors for mine: Americolor “Lemon Yellow”, “Orange”, “Electric Pink”, “Electric Green” and “Regal Purple”.

• Fit a 16-inch piping bag with tip 6B. Fill the bag (no more than 2/3 full) with spoonfuls of buttercream, alternating the colors in the bag, so that they swirl and blend together when you pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes.

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• Pipe the buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes, refilling the piping bag as needed. Top the cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use any type of sprinkles in the cake batter?

You can use any sprinkles that you have, such as nonpareils, jimmies and quins, but nonpareils are so tiny that they tend to melt and bleed too much into the cake batter. Preferably, use confetti sprinkles or quins, for more vivid dots of color throughout the cake, and a combination of quins and rainbow nonpareils to scatter over the buttercream.

Do I have to use cake flour?

You can use all-purpose flour if it’s all you have, but cake flour has a lower percentage of protein, resulting in a lighter, softer cake, which is especially desirable in white cakes. In a pinch, you can make your own cake flour: Measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons flour, then replace with 2 tablespoons of corn starch. Sift well.

Can I add sprinkles to any white or vanilla cake recipe?

No, you can’t. Some cake batters are too thin to support the sprinkles, and they will sink to the bottom of the pan. Other recipes might have a more delicate structure, and the sprinkles could cause the whole cake to collapse. Be sure to use a Funfetti cake recipe that’s been tested with the addition of sprinkles to ensure perfect results.

If I don’t live at high altitude, can I still make this recipe?

You sure can, although you’ll need to make a few adjustments, such as decreasing the flour a little and increasing the baking powder. This is a great article with specific recipe adjustments for various altitudes.

What colors did you use for the buttercream?

I used Americolor gel food coloring, in “Lemon Yellow”, “Electric Green”, “Electric Pink”, “Orange” and “Regal Purple”.

What piping tip did you use?

Wilton Tip 6B.

What if I only have one muffin pan?

If you only have one 12-cup pan, it’s not a problem. Just bake the first batch of 12 cupcakes, and when the pan is free, fill with the second batch. Let the batter sit at room temperature while you’re waiting. Just take care not to stir or disturb the cake batter more than necessary when spooning it into the cups.

How long do these cupcakes stay soft?

Stored in an airtight container, Funfetti cupcakes should stay soft and moist for up to 2-3 days.

Other Resources

How to Make Perfect American Buttercream

How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes

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