Confetti Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

By Samantha Seneviratne

Updated October 27, 2025

  • Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Media 1 of 2
Total Time
1 hour 20 minutes, plus cooling
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour 10 minutes, plus cooling
Rating
4(124)
Comments
Read comments

Like a boxed cake mix, but better, this homemade confetti cake is made with cake flour for a soft crumb, salted butter for extra flavor and almond extract for a bit of floral sweetness. It’s got everything you might remember from the store-bought mix without the chemical aftertaste. It’s slathered in a soft cream cheese frosting, made with a little less powdered sugar than usual, so that the tang really shines. Conventional, brightly colored sprinkles will give you the most vibrant cake.

Featured in: I’ve Baked Hundreds of Cakes. These 3 Tips Made All the Difference.

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Ingredients

Yield:One (9-inch) layer cake; 12 to 16 servings

FOR THE CAKE

  • ¾ cup/170 grams salted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature, plus more for the pans

  • 4 cups/512 grams cake flour, plus more for the pans

  • 1 ½ cups/360 milliliters whole milk, at room temperature, divided 

  • 6 large egg whites

  • ⅓ cup/80 milliliters vegetable oil 

  • 1½ tablespoons pure vanilla extract

  • 1 teaspoon almond extract

  • 1 ¾ cups/350 grams granulated sugar

  • 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder

  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)

  • ¾ cup/135 grams rainbow sprinkles 

FOR THE FROSTING

  • 24 ounces/675 grams cream cheese, at room temperature

  • 1 cup/226 grams salted butter, at room temperature

  • 2 cups/246 grams powdered sugar

  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

  • Rainbow sprinkles for decorating, optional

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 to 16 servings)

85 grams carbs; 113 milligrams cholesterol; 789 calories; 14 grams monosaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 25 grams saturated fat; 47 grams fat; 2 grams trans fat; 1 gram fiber; 501 milligrams sodium; 9 grams protein; 46 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

  2. Step 2

    In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together ½ cup of the milk, the egg whites, oil and vanilla and almond extracts.

  3. Step 3

    In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat in the butter until the mixture looks sandy, about 1 minute. Add the remaining 1 cup milk and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. The batter will be thick.

  4. Step 4

    With the mixer running, add the egg mixture in 2 parts, increasing the speed in between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary.

  5. Step 5

    Increase the speed to medium-high and beat the mixture for another minute. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the sprinkles.

  6. Step 6

    Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and spread it out with an offset spatula.

  7. Step 7

    Bake until the layers are puffed and light golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of each comes out with moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes, then tip them out of the pans to cool completely. (If you would like to make the cake in advance, you can wrap the baked and cooled layers in plastic and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the plastic at room temperature or in the fridge before frosting.)

  8. Step 8

    Make the frosting: In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in the powdered sugar, vanilla and salt until smooth. Cover and chill until ready to use, then beat until smooth and spreadable.

  9. Step 9

    If your cakes are domed, use a serrated knife to level the tops. Place one of the cake layers flat side down on a platter or a cake stand. Using an offset spatula, frost the top with 1 cup of frosting. Stack another layer on top, flat side up and top with 1 cup of frosting. Finish with the last layer, flat side up. Use the remaining frosting to cover the top of the cake, and working from the center outward, frost along the top and down the sides of the cake. Top with sprinkles as desired.

Tip

  • If you only have two 9-inch cake pans, you can bake two cake layers rather than three (you may have to increase the cooking time by a few minutes). Once they’re cool, wrap them individually with plastic and freeze for 30 minutes. Then, use a serrated knife to split each layer evenly in half for a four-layer cake.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
124 user ratings
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Comments

PF

I've been baking cakes for a long time (and have had my share of disasters) but one of the best pieces of advice here is to bake the layers in advance, days ahead, and refrigerate and/or freeze them. Baking and frosting involve tow very distinct tasks and techniques, and time wise, baking a cake from batter to frosting is a marathon task for most of us.

Natasha

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s cream cheese frosting is divine: 24 ounces cream cheese, 4-8 ounces butter, 12 ounces melted white chocolate, lemon juice (or dessicated lemon crystals). Use less butter if you want the cake to hold up in warm temperatures.

Ziggy

A note for uk bakers- sprinkles are less robust here and way more prone to melting, they are also not as vibrant. Something to do with e numbers is my guess, but either way, whenever I have tried to make a cake like this they melt and make a very sad cake with a layer of sugar at the bottom, slightly ill coloured crumb and no sprinkles in it. If anyone knows how to get around this without ordering them online (who can be bothered) then please lmk

Za

This is a beautiful cake, but it was sort of a bust, and I had to serve it anyway :( 1- agree with the comment below about baking time. I baked the cakes for about 32 minutes and they were dry and overbaked. There was also way too much salt in the frosting. I used regular salt because I often do not have a problem with substituting table salt, but in this case it made a huge difference. I will try again, but sad this one didn't work.

Ferguson

Other commenters are correct; the bake time is too long. Mine was done at 26 minutes. This cake was okay but not nearly as good as Julia Moskin's https://body-change.today/recipes/1018364-rainbow-sprinkle-cake%3C/a%3E.%3C/p%3E%3Cdiv class="noteactions_noteActions__VlyP0">

EE

I thought the cake part of this was great, but to me the icing proportions were really off. If you really love cream cheese it might work, but for me it was so strong that it took away from the cake flavor. I ended up removing half the frosting and adding in some unsalted butter to tone it down. I also don't recommend using the salted butter for the frosting - or if you do, don't add the additional teaspoon of salt.

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