A gluten free, made from scratch take on everyone’s favorite colorful cake!
No bake sale, birthday, party, road trip, or holiday can really be complete without funfetti cake. It’s the best boxed cake mix there is and something I’ve actively missed eating over the past few years. If you are or someone you want to bake a treat for is gluten free, fear not! I present to you the perfect gluten free, made from scratch funfetti cupcakes. They’re bursting with sprinkles (can you tell they dyed the batter a little bit? just go with it.) The frosting is light and fluffy and the perfect partner for the cakes!
I decided to make these cupcakes this week for two reasons. The first is pretty obvious: it’s Easter weekend and these seem like the perfect treat to have after your egg hunt on Sunday. They’re Springy and colorful and loved by kids and adults. The second, and arguably my main motivation, is that today is one of my best friend’s birthdays. We have been best friends since the tenth grade and I don’t know where I would be without her. Given that we’ve been best friends for almost a decade, you can imagine we have enjoyed our fair share of funfetti together. So even though we live in different cities and I can’t actually spend her birthday with her, these were made (and will be eaten) in her honor. Love you, Em 🙂
Moving on from my sappiness. Back to the cupcakes. The biggest decision you’ll have here is what kind of sprinkles you want to use. You can go the traditional sprinkle route, or use nonpareils (little sprinkle balls, basically) like I did. In my mind, nonpareils were going to make the cupcakes a little more…elegant? I’m not entirely sure. What I ended up realizing is that they tend to bleed. So, yes, the batter got a little bit pinkish/purple. I’m not mad about it, but let it serve as a warning to you that if you want white cakes with sprinkles dotted throughout, you should probably go with traditional sprinkles.
As for the frosting, you need something sweet, but not too sweet. The traditional funfetti frosting is vanilla, so I went with a basic vanilla buttercream. Whip your buttercream for as long as you can possibly stand so that it’s extra light and fluffy when you pipe, spread, or plop it onto your cupcakes. Sprinkles on top are a necessity.
Happy Easter, happy birthday, happy baking!
Gluten Free Funfetti Cupcakes
Prep: 10 min Bake: 20 min Makes: 12 cupcakes
Ingredients:
For cupcakes:
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 ½ cups all purpose gluten free flour (I used Cup4Cup.)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk of your choice (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk.)
⅓ cup sprinkles of your choice
For buttercream:
2 sticks butter, softened
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with liners or spray with nonstick spray.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or by hand with an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes until very light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
3. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
4. In another bowl, whisk together the GF flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
5. Pour in milk and mix until combined. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and beat for about 1 minute.
6. Pour in sprinkles and fold in by hand. The more gentle you are, the less they will bleed.
7. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until the tops spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out mostly clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before removing and letting cool on a wire rack. 8. For buttercream: While cupcakes are cooling, make buttercream. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or by hand with an electric mixer, beat the butter on high for 4 minutes until completely smooth, creamy, and fluffy. Slowly add in the powdered sugar with the mixer on low and beat to combine. Add the vanilla extract and beat on high for 3-4 minutes, until very fluffy.
9. When cupcakes are completely cool, pipe or spread the icing on. Top with sprinkles.
emthebaker.com 
Should I use salted or unsalted butter? I bought slated but now I’m having a second thought!
I actually prefer using salted butter in my cake baking! If using unsalted, add a pinch of salt to the batter.
This recipe looks great! If I wanted to convert to two 9-inch cake tins, would I simply double the recipe?
Thanks for your help!
Thanks for this recipe! I’m looking forward to making this today, but wanted to convert it to a cake. Do you recommend doubling the recipe for two 9-in. cake tins? Or is there another suggestion/measurement?
Thanks!
Just made for grandsons birthday, had left over mix, put in mug, microwaved it for 1 min 30 sec, it tasted awsome, my new microwave mug cake!
Thank you!
I just made these for my daugthers 2nd Birthday and they were so good! I made some modifications; I used arrowroot in place of cornstarch and I used Bob’s Red Mill 3-3 gluten free flour. Instead of a buttercream frosting I made a cream cheese frosting. They were a hit! The recipe was so easy and delicious! No one knew they were gluten free!
Em, these are delicious! Thanks for sharing!
These are amazing! I haven’t done a lot of gluten free baking – mostly because of the array of ingredients I don’t keep in my cupboard. These were simple and delicious!!! I used a one-to-one gluten free baking flour. They are fluffy, delicious, and a huge hit for my daughter’s birthday. I’m so glad I found this recipe – it’s going to be my go-to recipe for cupcakes and icing. Thank you!!!
I would like to try baking these for my daughter’s birthday party as one of the children attending is coeliac. I won’t have time to bake on the day of the party so will they be fine if baked the night before?
I just made these because I am having issues with gluten and a sweet tooth lol. This is probably the best cupcake I ever made. Great recipe!
Hi Emily! I tried to make these funfetti cupcakes for a little party for my son who’s gluten free today. They turned out perfect. Everybody loved it. Thought I had to let you know that. Thank you for sharing this recipe. ;D
Hi Emily! Is it ok to use coconut flour instead?
Hey Nadia! I’ve actually never tried baking with coconut flour. You’ll need less of it than the Cup4Cup flour I use, and maybe add an extra egg to the recipe. If you try it–please let me know how it works!
I tried making these following your exact directions……. the dough was similar to cookie dough and th cupcakes came out very dense…….not recommended
I was so excited to try these since your photo looks so cute and I too love funfetti anything. My gluten free neighbor’s birthday is tomorrow and I thought I’d surprise her with a sweet treat. I followed your instructions to a T, even using room temp eggs and butter, but these turned out horrible! The batter tasted good but the cupcakes are currently overflowing in the tin, and still aren’t done after 25 mins. I’m not in high elevation or anything and am cooking at 350 degrees. They have huge holes in the middle and aren’t browning up at all. Any idea what could have happened here? I’m so bummed!
Can you use this recipe for a cake?
I’d like to make them for a college graduation and will need to do many batches. Think it’ll work to freeze these as I do them?
Definitely! I would freeze the cupcakes and then ice after you thaw them.
where did you get your gluten free sprinkles? I am having a hard time sourcing gluten free sprinkles. Thanks!
Nearly all Wilton products are gluten free, although not all are manufactured in gluten-free facilities. Celiacs probably can’t use them, but if you handle tiny bits, these should be ok.
http://ahealthfulglutenfreelife.blogspot.com/2011/10/gluten-free-find-wilton.html
These look delicious, thanks for sharing!
Happy Easter!:)
Hi! Just nominated you for an award 😉 Check it out here: http://cocinadecella.com/2014/04/17/my-first-blog-award/
Spectacular! Yum!!!
Yummy!!!
CUTE!! I love how funfetti anything looks! 🙂