Celebrate any special day with these delightful and Easy Birthday Cupcakes topped with rich Funfetti frosting! Soft, tender, and packed with colorful sprinkles, these fun and tasty treats are sure to be a crowd favorite.
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Why This Recipe Works
Tender Cake: Recently, I shared my Funfetti Birthday Cake and I couldn’t help making a delicious Funfetti birthday cupcake recipe too!
This recipe is quite different from the cake because of the nature of cupcakes being smaller and needing a slightly different structure.
I use a technique I learned from Cook’s Science of Good Cooking, called reverse creaming, and it produces the tenderest cupcakes!
You will love these cupcakes because they are tender, moist, and filled with sprinkles!
What Do You Need for Easy Birthday Cupcakes?
Cupcakes: These cupcakes are so simple even though they are made from scratch. All that butter and using the reverse creaming method make them top notch!
Sprinkles: Use Jimmy Sprinkles for the funfetti look. Avoid nonparalelis.
Funfetti Frosting: This is a variation of my easy buttercream recipe that you just add sprinkles to!
What Type of Sprinkles Do You Need for Funfetti Cupcakes and Frosting?
Although you can use most types of sprinkles, I like to use Rainbow Jimmy Sprinkles. These are long and skinny sprinkles that are vibrant in color and don’t bleed color into the batter.
I would avoid nonpareil sprinkles since they bleed color very quickly into the batter. Nonpareils are tiny round rainbow sprinkles.
How to Make Birthday Cupcakes?
- Step 1: In a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed.
- Step 2: Once combined, add the butter one chunk at a time until the mixture looks like sand.
- Step 3: Add in the eggs one at a time until fully mixed. Then add in the milk and vanilla, increase the mixer speed to medium, and stir until the batter is light and fluffy- about 3 minutes.
- Step 4: Fold in sprinkles by hand with a rubber spatula.
- Step 5: Scoop batter into cupcake liners and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
How to Make Funfetti Frosting?
- Step 6: Beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar and heavy cream, mixing until combined. Mix in vanilla and salt. Beat on high for 30 seconds for volume.
- Step 7: Fold in sprinkles by hand.
Birthday Cupcake Tips
- Adjust oven racks to the middle of the oven for even baking.
- Use Rainbow Jimmie Sprinkles for the best results!
- Fill cupcake liners only ¾ full for a nice round cupcake.
- Use a cookie scoop to easily fill cupcake lines.
- Piping the frosting onto the cupcakes can be difficult because of the sprinkles getting stuck in the piping tip. I find scooping frosting onto each cupcake works well!
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Frequently Asked Questions
I like to fold the sprinkles into the frosting with a spatula. You can also sprinkle a few on top after frosting.
Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
If frosted, I like to store cupcakes in a large container with a lid- like this- in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Yes! You can make the cupcakes ahead of time and freeze for up to 6 months. Simply thaw the night before serving and frost the day you serve them.
Other Cupcake Recipes
If you want more easy cupcake recipes make sure to check out all my easy desserts like these strawberry shortcake cupcakes, chocolate fudge frosting, and my cream-filled chocolate cupcakes!
If you like this recipe make sure to give it a 5-star review and leave a comment down below!
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Birthday Cupcakes
Ingredients
Funfetti Cupcakes
- 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter cut into 12-16 chunks and softened
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup Jimmy Sprinkles
Funfetti Frosting
- ½ cup butter softened to room temperature
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla*
- 5 tbs heavy cream
- Pinch salt
- ½ cup Jimmy sprinkles
Instructions
Funfetti Birthday Cupcakes
- Adjust oven racks to middle of the oven and then preheat oven to 350°F. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pan and set aside.
- In a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt on low. Once combined, with the mixer on low, add the butter one chunk at a time. Mix until mixture looks like coarse sand. *1 ¾ cup all purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt, ¾ cup unsalted butter
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing until fully combined. Then add in the milk and vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium and mix for ~3 minutes or the batter is light and fluffy. Fold in sprinkles.3 large eggs, ¾ cup whole milk, 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ¾ cup Jimmy Sprinkles
- Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Once done baking, allow cupcakes to cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, then carefully remove from pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely
Funfetti Frosting
- In a bowl of a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat butter on medium high speed until fluffy.½ cup butter
- Alternate between adding powdered sugar and heavy cream, mixing in everything until fluffy. Then mix in the vanilla and salt.5 cups powdered sugar, 1 tbs vanilla*, 5 tbs heavy cream, Pinch salt
- Turn mixer to high and beat for 30 seconds to add volume.
- Fold in sprinkles by hand.½ cup Jimmy sprinkles
- Frost cupcakes.
Notes
- *Reverse Creaming- this technique produces tender cupcakes that hold together well.
- Storage: If frosted, I like to store cupcakes in a large container with a lid- like this- in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- Make ahead: You can make the cupcakes ahead of time, freeze for up to 6 months, then thaw the night before serving and frost the day you serve them.
Nutrition
This post and recipe are updated from an old Hearthstone recipe.
The original recipe was inspired by Hearthstone’s Hidden Cache card! This card is a secret and it buffs one of your minions when revealed! What kind of loot do you keep in your hidden cache? Gold, silver, weapons?
If you haven’t heard of Hearthstone check out my What is Hearthstone? page, where you can read all about this awesome free card game! Make sure to also check out my entire Hearthstone Menu, with more fun-themed recipes like Stuffed Evolving Spores Stuffed Mushrooms, Sir Finley’s Peach Iced Tea, or Nat Pagle’s Fresh Catch of the Day: Salmon with Mango Salsa! You’ll also find tasty desserts like Golden Pack Card Lemon Loaf Cakes and Mini Witchwood Apple Pies!
Stephanie says
This sounds like a great way to fancy up a box mix! I'm totally down to try it 🙂
Mayuri Patel says
I've actually never used a box cake mix. Love the hidden treasure stashed in the cupcake. Just too cute.
Jacqueline says
These cupcakes are so cool. I just love the idea of filling them with sprinkles!
mydeliciousmeals says
This is an interesting idea for the cupcakes, I'm sure kids would love these. Like that chocolaty frosting. Looks so tempting!
Linda | Brunch-n-Bites says
I've been eyeing this ever since you posted it on Instagram. Love how fun these cupcakes are! I've never heard about Hearthstone and i'm pretty sure it's as fun as these cupcakes are.
Anna says
These cupcakes are absolutely delightful, my kids will go mad for them! Any tips on how to get the icing to swirl so perfectly, like that?
Lisa says
Thank you! Yep! You want to use a wilton 1M piping tip, and as you are applying pressure to the piping bag, pipe the frosting in a swirl starting from the center and swirling out and then continue the frosting swirl up, layering on top of the bottom.
Chef Mireille says
using boxed mix definitely makes this amazing looking treat easy to put together
Gloria says
OMG this inside of that cupcake is AMAZING!! This makes the perfect celebration cupcake...and I know just the person I am going to bake them for.
Vladka says
creative cupcakes with hidden surprise. What a nice idea to surprise kids at their birthday party!