A gluten free rainbow filled cake sure to impress at your next party! I have been drooling over the bakery in New York City who makes the ‘instagram’ worthy funfetti cake, and wanted to recreate it ‘gluten free’ for myself at home. After some research and quite a few trials with different ingredients, I’m really happy to share the final result.
This cake is relatively easy to make. The time consuming step is spreading the cake with icing, but if you’re not too concerned about having it perfect you can put it together in no time.
If you want to mix it up, add some jam and cream in the middle of the cake instead of buttercream (yum!).
My big tip is to ensure all ingredients are at room temperature before starting. Including the eggs, butter, buttermilk etc. This will improve the final product, as these ingredients do their jobs better when they’re not cold.
The sprinkles:
- This is actually an important component. The first time I made the cake there wasn’t much ‘fun’ in the funfetti as the colour all disappeared into the cake.
- You need colourfast sprinkles otherwise when you mix the sprinkles into the batter they will start to bleed into the batter, and once baked disappear all together. In the USA the sprinkles are known as ‘Jimmies’.
- I found them at Spotlight and online. I’ve added a picture below.
Ingredients
- CAKE:
- 370g gluten free plain flour*
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 345 ml buttermilk
- 4 egg whites, 110g
- 1 whole egg, 60g
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g butter, room temperature
- 330g caster sugar
- 90g jimmy sprinkles**
- BUTTERCREAM:
- 250g butter, room temperature
- 3 cups icing sugar, sifted
- 60ml milk or cream
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Extra sprinkles to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 175 degrees (Celsius). Grease and line two 22.5cm diameter cake pans.
- Sift the gluten free plain flour, baking soda and baking powder into a medium sized bowl. Add the salt and whisk together.
- In a medium jug, add the buttermilk, egg whites, whole egg and vanilla extract and whisk to combine.
- In the bowl of a stand mixture or using hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly (approximately 4 minutes total).
- Gradually add the flour and buttermilk mixture, alternating between them.
- Finally, add the sprinkles and mix briefly.
- Divide the cake batter between your two cake pans, smoothing the tops.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Cover with foil if they start to brown too much on the top. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in cake tins, until easy to handle. Then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
In the meantime make the icing:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand mixer beat the butter for 1 minute until smooth.
- Gradually add the icing sugar in batches, to prevent it from flying everywhere. Mix for 3 minutes on medium until smooth.
- Add the milk or cream and vanilla essence and beat well for 3-5 minutes until the desired consistency. If it’s too thick add 1-2 tsp of milk/cream and if it’s too runny sift in some icing sugar.
For assembly:
- Put one cake on a cake board or plate you’re using to serve. Trim the top (if needed) to level it. Spread over a layer of icing and top with the second cake.
- Start with spreading a thin layer of icing around the sides of the cake smoothing and then continue with the top. At this point you can refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, and this can help with preventing crumbs from mixing with the icing. However, I have done it without and it works fine.
- Continue spreading over the remaining icing, smoothing as you go. (A pallet knife can help).
- Decorate with extra sprinkles and serve!
Notes
* I have only made this cake with Bobs Red Mill cup4cup or Ardor gluten free flour. I can’t guarantee results with other flours. If you’re flour mix doesn’t include xanthan gum please add 1 tsp to help bind. ** Please read my note above regarding the type of sprinkles.
