Confetti Cupcakes
- Ella
- Sep 20
- 6 min read
Confetti Cupcakes//Birthday Cake Buttercream
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Options also given to make mini cupcakes, a mini smash cake, or a 6-inch 3 layer cake.
These are not just any Confetti Cupcakes—they’re the best Confetti Cupcakes you’ll ever make. I’ve tested more than my fair share of Confetti recipes from the internet, and time after time they came out either too dry, too dense, or lacking that real nostalgic birthday cake flavour. These? These are everything you dream Confetti should be.
Each cupcake is impossibly soft and fluffy, with a moist crumb that actually stays tender for days (a rarity in cupcake-land). The flavour hits that perfect sweet spot—cheerful, nostalgic, unmistakably “birthday cake”—but without being cloying or artificial tasting. That’s thanks to my favourite trick: almost entirely natural, gourmet ingredients with just a touch of LorAnn Super Strength Cake Batter Flavor. It’s the magic that ties the whole thing together, making these taste like the Confetti of your childhood, only so much better.
And let’s not forget the buttercream. With just a touch of cake batter extract, it nails that exact nostalgic “birthday cake” flavour we all grew up loving. But here’s the magic: it’s made with real butter and quality ingredients, so it tastes rich and authentic without any of the filler that you find in grocery store cupcakes. It’s the best of both worlds—the flavour you crave with the quality you deserve—and it takes these Confetti Cupcakes to a whole new level. This frosting is so special, you truly have to taste it to believe it.
If you’re craving the cake version instead, you can find my Confetti Smash Cake recipe here—or simply double this recipe to make a full-sized 3-layer, 6-inch birthday cake that’s just as magical.
Easy enough to whip up for last-minute celebrations, but elevated enough to wow at any party, these Confetti Cupcakes are pure happiness in handheld form. Colorful, nostalgic, and outrageously delicious, they’re proof that sometimes the simplest bakes really are the most joyful.
Recipe:
Makes 24 cupcakes
(See notes below for more options)
Notes
This recipe makes 1200 g of batter.
Each cupcake uses 50 g of batter, which makes 24. These bake for 20 minutes.
You can also make mini cupcakes. I tested mini cupcakes using 15 g of batter, and they were perfect. So this amount of batter could make 80 mini cupcakes. These bake for 15 minutes.
I also tested using some of the batter to make a perfect mini-sized smash cake. I filled 2 3-inch baking tins with 95 g of batter each, and they were perfect. These bake for 20-22 minutes. And once baked, remove them from their baking tins after 5 minutes.
Here's an idea for a child's birthday party: make 12 regular sized cupcakes (for the adults - that uses 600 g), 24 mini cupcakes (for the little kids - that uses 360 g), and 1 mini smash cake (for the birthday boy/girl - that uses 190 g). Boom - 50 g of batter left to pass around the kitchen with spoons! It's also perfect to fit everything in the oven in one go. Normal cupcake trays fit 12, my mini tray fits 24, and you can sneak the two little 3-inch baking tins on the side of one of the trays.
This is also the amount of batter that I'd use to make a regular 6-inch (3 layer) cake. This bakes for 24-25 minutes.
I specify the type of salt used, as different salts are more or less salty than others. If you don’t have the same kind of salt used, be mindful of this and adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, pink Himalayan salt is less salty than most others.
Top tip for room-temperature eggs: if ever you don’t have the time to take them out of the fridge early enough, or yet if you forget, you can place them in a bowl covered with hot water for 5 minutes, and they will become room-temperature just like that!
Likewise, you can bring your cream to room temperature by lightly heating it in a saucepan or microwave.
I often place the melted coconut oil in the fridge to hurry up the process of it coming to room temperature.
Make sure that the bowl used for the egg whites, as well as the beaters, are perfectly clean. Even trace amounts of a fat can hinder the whites from whipping into stiff peaks.
Video link to demonstrate how to fold egg whites into cake batter, for those who haven’t done this before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfgz10xdq6k Skip to the 2 minute 45 second mark.
Here's a link to the piping tip I used:
Confetti Cupcakes
Ingredients
60 g butter, room temperature
110 g coconut oil (measured before melting)
1/2 cup sprinkles + 1 tsp flour
330 g sugar
2 tsp LorAnn Super Strength Cake Batter Flavor
3 tbsp pure vanilla extract
230 g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 + 1/8 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)
1 cup (250 g) full-fat cream, room temperature
4 egg whites, room temperature
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and ensure that oven rack is positioned in the middle.
Prepare 2 cupcake trays with cupcake liners (24 total). [See notes above for instructions to make mini cupcakes, a mini smash cake, or a 6-inch (3 layer) cake - quantities and baking times provided.]
Melt coconut oil in a small saucepan. Pour into a small bowl to cool completely.
Stir 1 tsp of the LorAnn Super Strength Cake Batter into the cream (just in a little bowl).
In another little bowl, mix the sprinkles with 1 tsp flour. The coating ensures that they won’t sink to the bottom as the cake bakes.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine.
Place egg whites in a very clean medium bowl and set aside.
Place butter in a large bowl, and beat on high speed with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.
Add in sugar and cooled oil. Beat on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Add in the remaining 1 tsp of the LorAnn Super Strength Cake Batter Flavor. Beat for 20 seconds.
Add in vanilla extract. Beat for 20 more seconds.
Add in dry ingredients and cream, alternating in additions—do 3 rounds of dry ingredients, and 2 rounds of cream (begin and end with dry ingredients). Each addition should be fully combined on low speed. Do not over mix.
With fresh, clean beaters, beat egg whites on high speed with an electric mixer until stiff, about 2-3 minutes. If you’re not sure if your whites are stiff enough, know that you should be able to turn the bowl completely upside-down without anything budging.
Gently incorporate whites into the cake batter, using a spatula, until fully combined. [For those new to baking—see notes for a link to a video showing how to do this. That is, there’s a specific technique to it to avoid bursting the air bubbles in the whites.]
Gently incorporate sprinkles into the cake batter, using a spatula, until fully combined.
Scoop batter into the cupcake liners. Fill each one with 50 g of batter - use a kitchen scale.
Place cupcakes in the oven, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once baked, immediately transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack. Use a little butter knife to lift them out, and do it quickly as they will be hot! I don't let them cool at all in their baking tins so that the cooking process stops immediately.
Birthday Cake Buttercream
Ingredients
470 g butter, room temperature
600 g powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp LorAnn Super Strength Cake Batter Flavor
1/2 tsp salt (fine white sea salt)
120 g full-fat cream, preferably room-temperature
Instructions
Place the butter in a large bowl. Beat on high speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
Sift in the powdered sugar, and beat on high for 2 more minutes.
Add in the cake batter extract, salt, and cream, and beat on high for 2 more minutes.
This consistency is perfect to frost a cake/smash cake. To get a super loose consistency to pipe perfect swirls, a little pro tip that I use is to separate about a 1/2 cup of buttercream into a bowl, and put it in the microwave for 10 seconds. It'll 1/2 - 3/4 melt. Then whip it back into the rest of the buttercream. It'll just loosen the whole thing up a bit to make super smooth swirls. Not necessary, but a great pro tip I want to share - that affects aesthetics only!To be honest, I almost always do this, even when frosting cakes (particularly for the final/outer coating), for the smoothest and easiest application.
Frost your cupcakes! (I used a JEM NZ3J Decorating Tip - I'll pop a link in the notes section.)
Top with sprinkles.
Enjoy at room temperature. (If you're making them the day before, store the cupcakes covered in the fridge, but make sure you take them out at least 3 hours before eating them. The buttercream and cupcakes harden when chilled, and it’s very important that they be room temperature when consumed so that they're soft and fluffy.)
Enjoy!
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