I always think a vegan funfetti cake is such a great celebratory cake!
It’s the perfect kind of cake to have for a birthday party, and while all the bright and cheery colorful stuff is very kid-friendly, adults also tend to be pleased as punch with cakes like this!
I’ve made some vegan funfetti cupcakes already, and those were so awesome, I knew I’d make a vegan funfetti cake one day!
What kind of sprinkles are best for a funfetti cake?
I wanted to wait until I could get hold of some rainbow sprinkles, because when I made my cupcakes I used non pareils (the balls). Those worked okay, but rainbow sprinkles is really the best for a funfetti cake.
If you use the wrong kind of sprinkles then they just melt and run and you end up with a cake that is too wet and doesn’t have the little dashes of color going through it because they all just melted away.
So you want to use rainbow sprinkles (also called jimmies)! That is really the top tip for this cake.
The other tip is to add the rainbow sprinkles in last, once you have already mixed your batter, and just gently fold them in.
Then divide between your cake tins and right into the oven.
You don’t want them sitting around in the batter, or that could result in the color streaking.
What about the flavor?
The flavor of this cake is delicious vanilla and the frosting is a fabulous vanilla buttercream that just melts in your mouth.
I’m not one for cake decorating (I just don’t have the skills!) but I decided to complement the colorfulnesss of the cake with some colorful frosting too. So after frosting the cake, I put a little frosting aside, divided it into two bowls and then added a drop or two of pink food coloring to one bowl, and a drop or two of green food coloring to the other bowl, and then just piped alternating colors along the edges of the cake.
Loads more sprinkles went into the middle for decoration and suddenly it was a pretty cake! And so easy anyone can do it. Really, there are no special skills involved in making or decorating this cake. 
So I hope you’ll love this gorgeous vegan funfetti cake! It is:
- Colorful
- Vibrant
- Super easy
- Vanilla flavored
- Light and fluffy
- Moist
- A great vegan birthday cake!
- Perfect for celebrations!
Keep it covered at room temperature and enjoy within a few days or keep covered in the fridge and consume within a week.
So let us know what you think of this vegan funfetti cake in the comments! And please rate the recipe too, it’s so helpful! Thank you.
For more fabulous vegan cakes, take a look at these great recipes:
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan White Cake
- Vegan Coconut Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Sheet Cake
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Vegan Funfetti Cake
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 12
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Colorful and festive vegan funfetti cake! This gorgeous, light and fluffy, moist and vanilla flavored cake with vanilla frosting is perfect for celebrations!
Ingredients
For the Funfetti Cake:
- 2 and 1/2 cups (312g) + 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) White Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) Soy Milk*
- 1/2 cup (120ml) Canola Oil*
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar
- 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup (95g) Rainbow Sprinkles*
For the Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
- 4 and 1/2 cups (540g) Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter
- 3–4 Tbsp Soy Milk
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Pink and Green Food Coloring (Optional)
For Decoration:
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and spray 2 8 inch cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Add the soy milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla and use a hand whisk to mix until just combined.
- Add the sprinkles and fold in gently.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cakes to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, 3 Tbsp of soy milk and the vanilla to the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Beginning at slow speed, gradually increase speed until thick and smooth. If it’s too thick, add in the extra tablespoon of soy milk but add it in slowly as you might not need all of it.
- If you don’t want to do the pink and green frosting decoration then just use all the frosting to frost the cake. But if you would like to do it, then leave a little frosting behind after frosting the cake. Take the remaining frosting and divide it into two bowls. Place a couple of drops of pink food coloring into one bowl and a couple of drops of green food coloring into the other and mix it in. Then pipe on alternating pink and green around the edges of the cake.
- Decorate the top of the cake with sprinkles.
- Keep the cake covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for a few days or covered in the fridge where it will last up to a week.
Notes
*Soy milk can be switched for almond milk.
*You can use any vegetable oil it doesn’t have to be canola.
*Check the sprinkles for vegan friendliness as not all are vegan.
- Category: Dessert, Baking, Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 12)
- Calories: 563
- Sugar: 73.2g
- Sodium: 376mg
- Fat: 17.5g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1g
- Carbohydrates: 98.2g
- Fiber: 0.8g
- Protein: 3.9g
Keywords: vegan funfetti cake
Perhaps if I baked this cake alone, and not side by side with another vegan funfetti cake I would have been satisfied with it. But alas, this recipe just did not stand up to the other. Firstly, it’s more dense. I think the baking powder addition to the other recipe helped make it more fluffy, which we preferred. Secondly, the icing wasn’t thick enough. Even with only 3 tbsp soy milk (without the added fourth), it didn’t hold its shape when piped out of a icing bag. The other recipe didn’t use milk at all in the icing, and it held up nicely. Sorry for the poor review; it wasn’t horrible but side by side it was not the winner.
★★★
Hi Natasha, sorry to hear it did not work out so well. It’s definitely not supposed to be dense, I would wonder if a bit too much flour went into it. But glad you found another recipe you liked. All the best. 🙂
Do u think like those powder milk will work?
★★★★★
Hi Mandy, if you mix it up with water so that it’s the same consistency as milk then I think it would work but I haven’t tried it! 🙂
Is it possible to reduce the amount of white sugar?
Hi Kelly, you could try using less sugar if you like, but I’m not sure how it would affect the outcome. 🙂
Could I use a 13×9 pan for this recipe? If so, how would it impact the baking time?
★★★★★
Hi Naomi, yes you should be fine with that, the baking time would be different, I would check it from about the 22 minute mark with the toothpick test. I would estimate it would take 22-25 minutes but I’m not entirely sure of that. Just keep a check on it. All the best! 🙂
I made this cake and it was delicious. Now I want to alter it to make cupcakes. Any tips?
★★★★★
Hi Alison! So happy you enjoyed it! This recipe would make around 18 cupcakes. You can also check out our vegan funfetti cupcakes recipe, which is for a perfect 12 cupcakes. 🙂
Hi. The recipe sounds so good. And I’m planning to make this cake for a bachelorette party.
Can you tell me, which brand you used for the sprinkles? It probably wont even be available here, but all vegan sprinkles that i tried to bake melted 🙁 so maybe there is a chance that I find the one you used.
Thank you so much !
Hi Melissa! I got mine on Amazon and they are Rainbow sprinkles, also called Jimmies. I will update the post with a link within a few days when I track down the exact one I used, but in the meantime, as long as they are called rainbow sprinkles they will work fine. 🙂
My cake came out delicious! I made one layer instead of two because I didn’t have two pans, but regardless the cake came out very moist and perfect. I used a canned frosting instead of the frosting listed just out of laziness…
★★★★★
Hi Jamie! So happy to hear it came out great! Thanks so much for the awesome review. xo
This cake was so flavorful and delicious. I’m not a baker and was so happy with how easy it was to make and how much flavor there was. I even made it in a sheet pan because it was my first try. Also, this is a great recipe for children with an egg allergy (my son).
★★★★★
Hi Lauren! So glad it came out great. Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
Just made this recipe for my grown daughter whose pre-vegan favorite was confettI cake. It was fabulous! Great taste and texture. Added sprinkles as recommended and got wonderful results in terms of bursts of color well distributed. The non-vegans in the family loved it too. Used vanilla flavored soy milk thinking it would boost the flavor too: Probably wasn’t needed, but certainly didn’t hurt at all. Can’t wait to try the lemon…
★★★★★
So glad to hear it was a success! Thanks so much for the wonderful review. xo
Super colorful and great taste!!
★★★★★
Does the white vinegar affect the taste at all? I’m a bit worried about using it in a cake
No, it doesn’t do anything to the flavor, it reacts with the baking soda to make the cake rise.
Can I use coconut milk instead of Soy/Almond milk?
I think it should be fine. 🙂
Hiya! Just checking in if canola oil is necessary, as it is not available in shops near me.
If yes, what oil would be an ideal replacement?
You can really use any vegetable oil at all, including olive oil or melted coconut oil. All the best! 🙂
Hi!
My cake didn’t rise and also cracked at the top while baking. Any idea what I could have done wrong? It tasted delicious though :]
Hi Kemi, cracking at the top usually indicates that the oven is a bit on the hot side. It depends on how badly it cracks, sometimes it’s not really a big issue. In terms of rising though, that can be the result of a few things, if you overmix the batter, if the batter sits for too long before being baked, or if your baking soda has lost its power (might have sat too long if you don’t bake often). Also make sure you did use baking soda and not baking powder. Glad to hear it was still delicious though! 🙂
Can I use GF flour in place of regular flour?
You can use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend, but since gluten-free flours absorb more moisture you will likely need to increase the oil a bit as well, and maybe add in additional moisture with some applesauce. Off the top of my head I would increase the oil by 1/4 cup and maybe add 3 Tbsp applesauce. 🙂
Thanks so much! I’m going to try this recipe tomorrow!
Another question, instead of butter could I use coconut oil?
Some people have used it in frostings and find it okay, but I find it gets too soft at room temperature and too firm in the fridge, so it’s really not my favorite in frostings but you can use it if you don’t have another option.
How can I convert this recipe into a sheet cake?
You can follow the baking instructions for our vegan vanilla sheet cake, this cake is the same size so it would work out the same.
Amazing texture and so colourful!
★★★★★
Yes, the colorfulness is my favorite part of a funfetti cake. 🙂