This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our disclosure policy.
Funfetti Birthday Cupcakes: Moist, classic white cupcakes speckled with funfetti sprinkles and topped with luscious, fluffy vanilla frosting.
Today is a very, very special day. One might say the day the world just got so much better.
It’s Erik’s birthday.
Erik is my… everything. Now before you roll your eyes, I have to say that I’m almost never cheesy and rarely do I state things in a dramatic way (okay, that’s an outright lie. I’m very dramatic, but only with my pen).
But the thing is, Erik is wonderful.
He’s kind, generous, has the patience of a saint and all the things. As lucky as he obviously is to have me (still fact-checking on that one, guys), I’m so much luckier to have him.
Anyway, before I make him blush like a big ol’ county fair prize-winning tomato, I just wanted to say:
Happy Birthday, Erik. ?
You da man! Haha.
Okay, enough of the feels… time for some cupcakes!
This year, when forced by whisk-point to state exactly what he wanted for his birthday cake, he asked for–wait for it…. vanilla birthday cupcakes. You see, he’s an adventurous type of guy. Heh. Heh. The thing is, I attempted (emphasis on attempted) to make a marble cake for him for YEARS. This was also way back before I knew anything about flour sifting, room temperature ingredients and, let’s face it: needing to cool a cake all the way beforefrosting it (duh?).
Needless to say, we agreed: out with the old, in with the new! So I turned to my favorite food blogger, Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction, and went all classic on this piece. I took her gorgeous Funfetti Layer Cake recipe and changed it up to a Funfetti Birthday Cupcakes recipe. Woot woot!
Really, what’s more fun that Funfetti Birthday Cupcakes? Come on now! Rollercoasters? Double-fisting puffs of cotton candy? Bouncy houses? Eating a big bowl of homemade cream cheese frosting? Well, surely funfetti birthday cupcakes are at least on the same level as those fahmazing things. Surely.
Meanwhile, Erik had the distinct pleasure of seeing me wrestle with frosting these babies. How’s that for a birthday present? Let’s just say there was much sleeve-rolling, not-quite-breathing and perfectionism-anxiety tendencies all accompanying me during the frosting segment of this show. Oh, the things you do for your man. Alls I’m saying.
Anyway, I could never put into words how special Erik is… but I CAN make him some funfetti birthday cupcakes. Dagnabit! Happy Birthday, my love. ?
Here’s to a birthday weekend full of Chinese food, video games and funfetti birthday cupcakes (ooooooh, yeah). xo
Funfetti Birthday Cupcakes
Ingredients
CUPCAKES
Dry Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ½ cup + 1 tablespoon pure cane sugar
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 egg white, room temperature
- ¼ cup sprinkles + more for topping
FROSTING
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 ½ cups confectioners' sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons buttermilk
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place a cupcake liner into each of the cups of a 12-cup cupcake pan. Set aside.
- Cake Time: In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Start on low speed, then increase to high speed, beating the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. On medium speed, mix in the whole egg and vanilla until well incorporated and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down as necessary.
- Set the mixer on low speed and slowly begin adding the dry ingredients in fourths, alternating each increment with a bit of buttermilk, until both are completely incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and the paddle attachment as necessary. Be careful not to overmix this batter—it will make the cupcakes tough.
- In a small bowl, energetically whisk the egg white until it’s foamy and fluffy. This will take several minutes. Carefully fold the egg white into the cupcake batter. Fold sprinkles into batter.
- Spoon batter evenly into each cupcake liner. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Allow cupcakes to cool on a cooling rack for 2 hours or until completely cool.
- Frosting Time: In the large bowl of a stand mixer set on medium speed with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for a few minutes until smooth. Set the mixer to low speed and slowly add in the confectioners’ sugar, buttermilk, and vanilla. Once all of the ingredients are lightly incorporated, increase the stand mixer to high speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat until fluffy—about 5 minutes. If your frosting is too runny, add in more sugar; if it’s too thick, add in small amounts of buttermilk.
- Cupcake Time: Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, it’s time to frost! Add frosting into a piping bag and squeeze or twist the end slightly to compact the frosting towards the tip of the bag. Attach your piping tip of choice. Starting from the center of the cupcake, squeeze the bag with even pressure as you pipe outward, in a circle. Swirl the frosting in a circle until you reach the center/top of the cupcake. Apply gentle pressure downward, stop squeezing the piping bag and pull it up to finish. It takes a couple tries, but you’ll get the hang of it!
- Optional: top with sprinkles. Enjoy!
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Sally's Funfetti Layer Cake.
© beamingbaker.com. All content and images are protected by copyright. Please do not use my images without my permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please re-write the entire recipe using your own words and include a link to this post for the recipe.
You know what else is perfect for a birthday surprise? These Healthier Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies. YUM.
Or, these soul-satisfying Double Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies (Vegan, Gluten-Free). Talk about Cookie Love.
Question of the Day
What special recipes do you pull out for a loved one’s birthday?
I can’t wait to hear your responses. ❤️ demeter
Great post.
Thank you!
Just made these with my son and they tasted very much like flour. They were not underbaked by any means. Any tips since normally we don’t bake from scratch?
Demeter, those swirls look fabulous! Erik must be happy and impressed when he saw these cute cupcakes 🙂 Belated Happy Birthday to Erik!
Sally is <3 and oh, love your cupcake GIF! So cute!
Aw, thanks Sheryl! More like he was trying to dodge getting yelled at for asking for cupcakes. Haha. Boy was I sweating while frosting these guys. Erik says thank you for the birthday wishes. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the GIF. Thanks Sheryl!
Erik sounds amazing, and totally deserving of all the frosting drama, and that picture of the two of you is ADORABLE! Happy belated Erik’s birthday and stay warm up there – I think we are (sorry!) sending you some of our NYC snow! xo
He really is. 🙂 He’s very patient and kind (my two favorite characteristics). Thank you Kate! But no thanks for the NYC snow… lol. xo!
A big happy belated birthday to Erik! Hope you guys had a great birthday weekend together 🙂 Ohmagoodness with these cupcakes. So cute! And I don’t know how you did the wizardry with the lit candle gif, but I heart it so much. I always use lightroom because it seems easier to work with, but one of these days I’m going to work on some photoshop skills… Also this post made me laugh because I’m all about crazy and interesting flavor combos, but the hubs… not so much. In fact, for the LONGEST time, he requested plain angel food cake (with funfetti!! bahaha) for his birthday, though he’s since graduated to my famous (ya know, because it’s Paula Deen’s!) red velvet cake. 😉
Thanks so much Steph! <3 It was a wonderful weekend. Full of relaxing and eating, just the way we like it. 😉 Wizardy: LOLOLOL. As always, your choice of words cracks me up, girl. Def, Lr makes the most sense with raw photo editing. But yeah, Ps... is so much fun! I used to do a little illustration in it, so we go way back. 😉 Meanwhile, why are our partners so similar? Must be the friendship bracelets at work. Haha. Great job graduating him, Steph! I have GOT to check out this famous red velvet cake. Did you post it?
No, I didn’t post the cake… all of my blog posts are 21 Day Fix approved and there’s nothing healthy about that cake (except maybe your healthy figure after eating it) 😉 It’s Paula Deen’s recipe from foodnetwork.com – I don’t use her frosting though, I think it had marshmallows in it or something? I use a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream instead. Time consuming but so. freaking. good. 🙂
Aw shucks… Sorry, I’ve got to get with the program! lol. Hmm… having a healthy figure sounds pretty good. 🙂 Marshmallows?? Woah! That vanilla swiss meringue frosting sounds incredible. Excuse me while I go drool (full-time occupancy, of course). 😉
Hi Demeter
You did an amazing job on these funetti cupcakes and what a lovely story and the expression of your love for your Erik.
Beautiful in all ways.
Lucky to have each other.
I am also fortunate because I have my wife Nicoletta in my life, and that inspires me to do great things.
Loreto
P.S. do you deliver ( we will take a dozen)
Hi Loretto, thank you so much for your kind comments. Love can certainly inspire great things. 🙂 No delivery here, but I can send over some hugs. 😉 Thanks for stopping by, Loretto. Hope to see you again soon!
Love looking at all the goodies you’ve been baking up. I keep wondering who gets to eat all of this (not fair!). Please fedex me some! BTW, what frosting tip did you pipe with? I’m making cupcakes next weekend for Ava and Tyler’s birthday party and have only had luck with a 1M tip. Take Care!
Thanks so much Erica! 🙂 Haha-The goodies go to the family. Let’s just say none of us have to go searching for snacks/desserts/sweets at the store anymore. 😉 Omigosh, first of of all, Happy Birthday to Ava and Tyler! Are you doing a theme party? The 1M is a good choice, you can make a wide variety of designs with that one. I think it makes for a good classic cupcake look. 🙂 Hope this helped! Take care to you too! And good luck with the party! xo
Smiling so hard after reading you sentiments about Erik!! So adorable! These cupcakes look absolutely amazing! Pinned 🙂
Aw… thanks Ashlyn. 🙂 He’s very sweet and very dorky (which is perfect for me. haha). Thanks for pinning and stopping by! xo
These cupcakes look so delicious! I love funfetti desserts!
Thanks so much, Marsha! Funfetti is just so fun (ahem). 🙂
Love Birthdays! Happy birthday Erik! Thanks for sharing your story! These cupcakes are beautiful! Pinning 🙂
Mira, you probably love birthdays because then you get to make all of your GORGEOUS cakes! 🙂 Erik thanks you for your birthday wishes. 🙂 Thanks for pinning! xoxo