One Bowl EASY Vegan Funfetti Cake – Better Than Box Mix!

You won’t believe how amazing this vegan funfetti cake is!! It’s absolutely better than box mix but just as easy with a super moist, tender, and “buttery” sweet crumb full of rainbow sprinkles, and secretly vegan, eggless, and dairy free with a gluten free option! Absolutely no one will know this funfetti cake is vegan!

When it comes to vegan birthday cakes, you just need all the sprinkles.

And with this ultra tender and moist vegan funfetti cake, you’ll be sure to please a crowd. All you need is one bowl, 9 ingredients, and some patience while this cake bakes (trust me, the aroma that will be coming from your kitchen will be very hard to resist!).

Why you’ll love this homemade funfetti cake:

This is truly the best homemade vegan funfetti cake for a few reasons.

I’ve had not one, not two, not three, but four random taste testers confirm that this is the best funfetti cake they’ve ever had…period.

Yes, vegan or not! Of course, this birthday cake is vegan, but not all of my taste testers subscribe to a vegan diet, so this made me extra excited. (and that’s why I immediately had to make a vegan Funfetti cupcake based off of this recipe).

The homemade vegan funfetti cake is:

• Moist & fall-off-the-fork tender
• Rich with sweet and buttery notes of vanilla
• Sprinkled with pops of all natural plant based color
• Light & fluffy
• Undetectably allergy friendly for those that need dairy free, egg free, easily gluten free, and nut free

Trust me when I say, this is truly the only birthday cake recipe you’ll need. Make this once, and you’ll get requests from just about every single family member, friend, and colleague.

You also only need one bowl, and you can easily make this funfetti cake by hand or by stand mixer.

This is the perfect vegan cake recipe for birthdays, graduation cake, wedding cake (we had it as one of our cake tiers!), or any celebration. I’m very much a classic vegan vanilla cake and classic vegan chocolate cake lover, but when it comes to this confetti cake…I’m speechless.

Is funfetti cake just vanilla cake with sprinkles? What’s the flavor?

Contrary to popular belief, funfetti cake is NOT just vanilla cake with sprinkles. It actually has a slightly denser and richer taste to it than the super light and tender vegan vanilla cake.

However, the flavor is similar. You have the notes of vanilla, but there’s a bit more butter to the cake, and then the sprinkles add their own flavor to it. When people are trying to associate the taste with funfetti cake, they’re actually thinking of the taste that the sprinkles leave when baked into the cake batter! So no fancy trick is needed on your part, just some good really fun and vibrant sprinkles!! 🙂

Funfetti cake ingredients:

Making an amazing vegan birthday cake comes down to the process. Of course, you’ll need some key ingredients, but this vegan funfetti cake is made with all natural and simple ingredients.

For this vegan cake, you’ll need:

• Flour: you can use all purpose flour, cake flour, or gluten free 1:1 baking flour. Just make sure to see the section below on how to still reach that tender texture.
• Sugar or coconut sugar: if using coconut sugar, the color will be slightly darker, but still beautiful!
• Leavening agents: Baking Powder and Baking Soda.
• Dairy free milk with apple cider vinegar: this creates a vegan buttermilk. You can use soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk, or whatever your favorite is!
• Vegan butter: the true way to get that traditional funfetti flavor!
• Unsweetened dairy free yogurt: This is my favorite vegan egg substitute for cakes. Instead of going through the process of making aquafaba “eggs,” you can simply use yogurt! I also love using applesauce too.
• Vanilla extract: the recipe card says 2 tablespoons and YES, you really need that much!
• Vegan sprinkles: I’ve used homemade vegan sprinkles for this (which I talk about down below! and store-bought. If you don’t want to go the homemade route for your homemade funfetti cake, you can use store bought vegan sprinkles!

A note about sprinkles: many sprinkles are not vegan; if you do follow a vegan diet specifically, please ensure that the sprinkles that you’re using are indeed plant based. I found a wonderful vegan brand that I use consistently throughout my bakes. I’ve listed my favorite vegan sprinkle brands in the below sections, as well as in the recipe card.

How to make vegan funfetti cake (overview)

For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.

The cake:

Now let’s talk about the process.

Here are some tips on making the cake batter:

1. Whisk the dry ingredients. Be sure to use a whisk here, as this will ensure that the leavening agents are evenly distributed throughout the flour.
2. Use room temperature ingredients. When adding in the wet ingredients, make sure that they are room temperature. Room temperature wet ingredients will make sure that your vegan cake doesn’t turn out gummy!
3. Don’t over mix the batter! Once all the wet ingredients are combined into the wet, add in the sprinkles and gently fold together just enough to evenly distribute.
4. Add in the sprinkles last. Especially if you’re making homemade vegan sprinkles. This will make sure that the sprinkles don’t start to run their color into the batter before it’s even in the oven!
5. You can use a stand mixer or mix by hand. Either or works! I have directions for both down below.
6. You can make a two or three-tiered 8″ cake or a three-tiered 6″ cake. The photos of the cake shown here are a three tiered 8″ cake. Each cake layer is approximately 1″ tall. If making a three-tiered 6″ cake, the layers tend to be 1 1/2-1 3/4″ tall.

The Pink Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

Making an American vegan buttercream frosting or a vegan cream cheese frosting is actually not hard at all. It’s just like making a traditional frosting!

I actually have a whole separate post for how to make vegan buttercream, which is definitely worth a read. You could also do vegan cream cheese frosting, like on my vegan red velvet cake.

To do this, you’ll simply beat the vegan butter (and homemade nut-free vegan cream cheese if you’re making a cream cheese frosting) until whipped.

Then sift in the already sifted powdered sugar into the vegan butter while you beat. You can use a stand mixer for this or a hand mixer. Either works!

Once the buttercream is fluffy, smooth and creamy, frost your vegan funfetti cake!

You can reserve some extra frosting if you’d like to do some fun designs, and definitely add some sprinkles on top, as this signals to everyone that this is a rainbow cake (not just your average cake!).

How to make homemade cake flour

If you’re a cake connoisseur like me (it’s my favorite, which is why we have so many vegan cake recipes on the blog and in my cookbook), then you know that cake flour is essential for making a tender and moist cake.

Now, if you only have all purpose flour or even if you want to make this a vegan gluten free funfetti cake and use 1:1 gluten free baking flour, you can still reach that desired tender cake texture.

To do this, simply add in an additional teaspoon of arrowroot powder or cornstarch, and whisk it into the flour. By adding this powder, it magically transform your cake from a good birthday cake to a fantastic birthday cake.

If you’re still unsure as to whether or not you should use cake flour or all purpose flour, here’s a great post by Sally’s Baking Addiction on what the difference is between cake flour and all purpose. I’d say half the time, I’ll use cake flour, the other half I’ll use all purpose. If I’m feeling fancy, it’s cake flour.

What are the best vegan sprinkles?

For this vegan funfetti cake, I used Sweetapolita vegan rainbow sprinkles. They’re my go to for amazing vegan sprinkles.

The one thing I will note about this sprinkle blend in particular is that the blue sprinkles run their color almost instantly upon being put into a batter, so you have to mix VERY gently (which will hopefully also prevent you from over-mixing your cake 😉 ).

I do like Sweetapolita’s vegan birthday sprinkles, but one thing that concerns me is that the stars in the mix don’t even dissolve…and they taste like you’re eating plastic, so I just sort of hesitate to recommend them (it kind of upset me when I realized the stars don’t dissolve lol).

In 2020, when we couldn’t go to grocery stores that often, I ended up making my own vegan sprinkles for this recipe. There is a great recipe for this found on Gretchen’s Vegan Bakery. We absolutely loved it. It’s just water or aquafaba and powdered sugar.

For the colors, I used beet powder for red, turmeric powder for yellow, matcha powder for green, a plant-based blue food dye from Whole Foods for blue, beet + turmeric powder for orange, and beet + the blue food dye for purple.

That being said, vegan sprinkles are a lot of work. They turn out beautiful. But if you really want to go a super plant-based route, then go for it!

Here are a few of my other favorite vegan sprinkles brands:

• Go Supernatural! Rainbow Crunchies
• Whole Foods 365 Brand Sprinkles (though the colors don’t hold up well once baked)
• Watkins
• Fancy Sprinkles

Funfetti cake FAQ’s + Tips

• Can I use gluten-free 1:1 flour or oat flour? I have tested this cake with gluten-free 1:1 all purpose flour, such as King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure. I have not tested this specific recipe with oat flour. However, I have recently tested my chocolate cupcakes using all oat flour and they came out wonderfully. And my vegan vanilla oat flour cake. I will be testing this recipe as well! My inclination is to say yes but I can’t guarantee the results!
• Can I use ground flaxseed in place of yogurt? Your cake won’t be as moist if you do this. I recommend sticking with the applesauce, as it will yield the best texture and taste. Sometimes, flaxseed leaves a bit of aftertaste in baked goods. To ensure that your vegan funfetti cake tastes like a true out-of-the-box (only better) funfetti cake, use applesauce.
• How do I avoid a gummy cake? Please please please use room temperature ingredients. It’s so important in order to avoid any baking mishaps. Also be sure to not over-mix the batter!
• My sprinkles’ colors are streaking through the cake batter- help! Unfortunately, this is due to the quality of vegan sprinkles you’ve used. Some vegan sprinkles, the “dye” fades fast, since it’s usually all natural. That’s why I recommend using either Sweetapolita, Fancy Sprinkles, or Go supernatural. They have the best vegan sprinkles I’ve seen!
• Can I use this cake recipe for a wedding cake? Absolutely! Jared and I actually had one of our cake layers be this funfetti recipe for our wedding 🙂 If you’re having trouble figuring out ratios, you can use Chelsweets’ cake batter calculator. It helps so much! Here’s what you need to know on your end: this cake can yield three 8″ layers that are each 1.5″ tall. Then plug those numbers into the equation!

Some final cake tips:

• Always remember to sift your flour and powdered sugar. This will ensure that the cake batter won’t bake too gummy, which is especially an issue for vegan cakes. By sifting the flour, you’ll ensure that your vegan funfetti cake will be perfectly tender!
• Double check your leavening agents to make sure that they’ve been stored properly or that they aren’t expired.
• Have fun with the decorations! You can reserve some leftover frosting and pipe it on the top, as I’ve done, as well as gently pressing sprinkles up the top of the cake sides.
• Make this cake into a funfetti sheet cake! Use a 9×13″ cake pan, and bake the cake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

How do I decorate a funfetti cake?

This is my absolute favorite part of any cake process. The decoration part! You should have enough vegan buttercream to even color some of the frosting. But if you’re concerned about not having enough, you can easily make a double batch.

You can use these recommended tools for making a layer cake:

• Cake turntable
• Offset spatula
• Bench scraper
• Parchment paper

But you really just just need a cake stand and some patience. I do love the the offset spatula and the bench scraper, as that helps to achieve a really smooth outside edge. However, you can also do swoops like I did! To do this, simply use the back of a spoon.

You can also use a bench scraper, which creates a really smooth edge. Another idea is to roll the sides in sprinkles all together!

For the middle layers of frosting, I use about 1/2 cup of frosting per layer. That seems generous, but I do love a really frosted cake!

Then I use the remaining frosting to frost the outside of the cake.

The really important item to note about making a layer cake is that you need all layers to be fully cool so that the frosting doesn’t melt. This ensures that your cake layers won’t slip and slide onto the floor!

You are just going to absolutely love this super easy and delicious vegan funfetti cake! Absolutely everyone will be raving about it, vegan or not! This homemade funfetti cake is:

If you make this recipe, be sure to let me know how it went down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others can see it!

As always, I love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!

Happy funfetti baking!

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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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