I can’t believe it’s March and I haven’t posted anything with sprinkles until now! I feel like sprinkles used to totally be my thing. I still super love them and they still have a fond space in my heart lol ❤️ but it’s been awhile! Maybe I just needed a break. But this Birthday Bundt Cake is delicious and filled with bright little pops of color and it’s totally what we need to start off our week! Plus I really needed to mail something to a friend who had a birthday recently, so we’ll see how the slices of this cake hold up in the mail. 😂
I love a good classic cake for birthdays, and while I am typically all about the frosting, I’ve been really into loaves and bundts with glazes lately. Maybe just because they’re easier! And I’m lazier these days. I know the past year has been hard on pretty much everyone, and I feel like maybe I’m not alone in saying I just don’t have as much energy as I used to when it comes to certain things. (Like washing dishes. I have come to despise washing dishes after a year of cooking pretty much only at home. 😆)
This Birthday Bundt Cake is easier to make and is totally worth the minimal effort! And you don’t even need a birthday to actually make it lol. The batter comes together in one bowl, and once the cake is cool, you just have to whisk together the glaze. Sweet and simple! These are my key words for 2021. 🎉
ABOUT THIS RECIPE
Cake batter flavoring: The absolute key ingredient to this recipe is cake batter flavoring! You can find it near the vanilla extract at the grocery store. You can certainly sub vanilla extract, but this gives it that buttery, cakey, and very specific flavor that comes to mind when you think cake batter.
Sprinkles: Most confetti/funfetti recipes call for jimmies, but I had a pack of confetti sprinkles already on hand and decided to use those instead. This is super nit-picky, but if I’m being honest, I like the colors of these better than rainbow jimmies! But you can use jimmies if that’s what you have.
Vanilla bean paste: This makes the most delicious glaze, omg. If you don’t have vanilla bean paste, you can use regular vanilla extract, but the flavor won’t be quite as strong. It will still taste great! I’ve purchased vanilla bean paste at Williams Sonoma and Trader Joe’s. The stuff at Williams Sonoma is in a bigger jar and is a bit pricey, but it’s good stuff. I was super excited to find some at Trader Joe’s over the holidays. It’s in a much smaller container, but it’s only a couple of bucks. I tend to save vanilla bean paste for special occasions anyway, so a smaller jar was fine with me.
Milk: I used whole milk in this recipe and haven’t tried it with anything else. I’m not sure how a thinner milk would work here, but I think it would definitely alter the texture some. You could use buttermilk here too if you want, but you’d probably need to increase the amount by about 1/4 to 1/3 cup since it’s thicker.
Birthday Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Birthday Bundt Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 large eggs
- ¾ cup veg/canola oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cake batter flavoring
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk
- 6 tbsp confetti sprinkles
Vanilla Bean Birthday Glaze
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- ¼ tsp cake batter flavoring
- 2 ½ tbsp milk
- Food coloring optional
- Confetti sprinkles for garnish
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease the inside of a 12-cup bundt pan with butter. Flour the inside of the pan, making sure all creases and center section have a thin coating of flour.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add eggs, oil, vanilla, cake batter flavoring, and milk. Using a mixer, beat on medium speed until all ingredients are incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in sprinkles.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until center is set and a toothpick inserted into the center of the bundt cake comes out clean (a couple of crumbs are okay). Let cake cool in pan 15 to 20 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the glaze:
- To make the glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste, cake batter flavoring, milk, and food coloring if using. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle glaze over the cooled cake. Immediately add sprinkles. Let the glaze set for 20 to 30 minutes before serving. Store covered at room temperature.
Notes
More sprinkle-filled recipes:
Funfetti Cookies
Funfetti Madeleines
Funfetti Cheesecake
Funfetti Cake Doughnuts
Funfetti Yogurt Pops
Some favorites from around the web:
Funfetti Coffee Cake from Style Sweet
Funfetti Cake from Butternut Bakery
Frosted Sugar Cookie Bundt Cake from Browned Butter Blondie
Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls from The Little Epicurian
Tie Dye Sprinkle Pie from Moments of Sugar
Delicious! 😋😋😋
So good! 😊
Yum! Can’t wait to make this one! I do love your cake recipes! Thanks for sharing!
Tried this this recipe in the UK (with necessary conversions) and it did not come out well at all.
The outer part of the cake was burned while the inside was very moist/uncooked. I would not recommend flouring the Bundt tin, just butter it liberally and turn the temperature down.
The sprinkles inside the batter are a waste of time, as they dissolve into the batter when cooking.
I would not recommend this recipe.
Hi, Annabelle. I’m so sorry this recipe didn’t turn out for you. I’ve made it a couple of times and even have friends who’ve made it and had no issues. I always grease and flour my cake pans and bundt pans and have never had this problem. The sprinkles are supposed to dissolve a little bit and create little spots of color. I’m not sure what went wrong, but this is a fairly standard cake recipe. Sorry again!