Homemade Funfetti Cake with Vanilla Buttercream

Rohan turned one. The pandemic baby, born into masks and distance and FaceTime grandparents, is now a walking, babbling, aggressively curious one-year-old who puts everything in his mouth and has opinions about nothing except the volume at which he prefers to exist (maximum). The birthday party was the anti-Anaya party: loud, messy, uncontrolled. Rohan smashed his cake not with Anaya's delicate precision but with the full-body commitment of a boy who approaches cake as a contact sport. Frosting on the ceiling. Crumbs in his hair. Chocolate in places chocolate should not be. "He's like Arvind," Amma said, watching the destruction with the specific satisfaction of a grandmother who sees her genes in action. Amma was present all day. No lapses. She held Rohan and sang and fed him bits of payasam (too much sugar for a one-year-old but grandmothers are immune to pediatric guidelines). She called everyone by the right name. She knew it was a birthday. She was fully, completely here. The good days are precious now because they're numbered. I don't know how many are left. Neither does Dr. Anand. The disease doesn't follow a schedule; it follows its own logic, eroding here, sparing there, taking words one Tuesday and returning them the next. Anaya helped plan Rohan's party. She decided the theme: dinosaurs. "Because Rohan is loud like a dinosaur," she explained, with the logic of a four-year-old who has correctly identified her brother's primary characteristic. I made Amma's payasam and a chocolate cake (from scratch — the second birthday cake I've baked, better than the lopsided pandemic version). The payasam and the cake sat side by side on the table — the Indian and the American, the grandmother's recipe and the mother's attempt. Rohan ate both. He ate everything. He ate the way he does everything: completely, loudly, without restraint. One year old. Born loud. Still loud. Loved louder. Happy birthday, Rohan Patel. You are your uncle's nephew and your grandmother's joy and your sister's dinosaur and your mother's second chance to cook for someone new.

I made Amma’s payasam for the soul of the party, but I needed a cake that could hold its own against a one-year-old who treats food as a full-contact sport — something festive and joyful and just a little chaotic, which is exactly what a funfetti cake is. The second birthday cake I’ve ever baked from scratch came out better than the first, and watching Rohan destroy it layer by layer felt like exactly the right way to spend a good day. This is the recipe I used: bright with sprinkles, sturdy enough to stack, and honestly better the messier it gets.

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1/2 cup rainbow jimmie sprinkles (not nonpareils)
For the vanilla buttercream:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3–4 tbsp heavy cream
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
Extra sprinkles for decorating

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment, then grease and flour the parchment.
Mix dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed for 3–4 minutes until pale and very fluffy, scraping the sides as needed.
Add egg whites and vanilla. Add egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract until fully combined.
Alternate wet and dry. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the milk in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until the last streak of flour disappears — do not overmix.
Fold in sprinkles. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the rainbow sprinkles. Work quickly so the colors don’t bleed into the batter.
Bake. Divide batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake 30–35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the tops are lightly golden. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the buttercream. Beat softened butter on medium-high speed until very pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time on low speed, then add cream, vanilla, and salt. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 2 minutes until light and spreadable. Add more cream a teaspoon at a time if needed.
Frost and decorate. Place one cooled cake layer on a plate or stand. Spread a generous layer of buttercream on top, then set the second layer. Apply a thin crumb coat of frosting all over, refrigerate 20 minutes, then apply the final layer of frosting. Finish with a shower of rainbow sprinkles.

Nutrition (per serving)

Homemade Funfetti Cake with Vanilla Buttercream — A Birthday Cake Built for Smashing