The Best Birthday Funfetti Cake Pop Recipe Ever

The Absolute Best Funfetti Cake Pop Recipe

Our most popular cake pop for birthdays! Filled with sprinkles and bursting with flavor, you are sure to love our Funfetti Cake Pop.

The funfetti cake pop recipe everyone has been waiting for!

This recipe for funfetti cake pops is by far our most popular request. And I am so happy to share it! We spent a lot of time perfecting these cake pops and can’t wait for you to try them in your kitchen.

Our funfetti cake pops have a vanilla cake base that is enhanced with additional extracts to give it the most perfect birthday cake flavor. It is exactly how I think all birthday cakes should taste!

Not only do kids love these cake pops, but it has always been our most requested flavor for adults, too.

This birthday-inspired cake pop flavor has always made up the majority of our sales. We stopped making vanilla cake pops altogether once we realized our customers had a strong preference for our funfetti cake pop.

We hope you enjoy making and eating these tasty treats!

Funfetti cake pop recipe table of contents

About our funfetti cake pop recipe

Our funfetti cake pops start with a vanilla cake that is enhanced with a few additional flavors to put it over the top. We tested tons of recipes until we got this one just right. We have broken down various parts of this recipe below to explain WHY it’s so good. Starting with: flavor!

Funfetti Cake Pop Flavor

One of the most important to-dos when developing this recipe was to make sure it tasted like a funfetti cake.

Ok, but what does a funfetti cake taste like??

To me, I think of birthday cakes. Classic birthday cake. And not just vanilla birthday cake. Most “funfetti” cake pop recipes I see use vanilla cake with sprinkles. But that’s just… vanilla cake with sprinkles! There isn’t anything elevated to that.

Our flavor comes in the form of THREE extracts. Yes, I know. It’s a lot. But trust me, these flavors are what takes an ordinary vanilla cake and turns them into something magical. See below for details on each!

The star of the show: butter extract

My favorite of the three extracts used! Butter extract is what gives our funfetti cake pops the perfect birthday cake flavor. It sounds a little bit weird, but the ingredients for our butter extract brand of choice are: alcohol, water, natural tlavor, & extractives of butter (milk). There aren’t any artificial flavors or colors in it.

Butter extract may be hard to find depending on your grocery store. We tested several varities and found that McCormick Butter Extract had the best butter flavor. You can’t buy this brand in bulk, though, so we have gone through a ton of little bottles. Totally worth it for the perfect birthday cake flavor, though!

We also use butter extract in our recipe for secret ingredient rice krispy treats. Spoiler alert: butter extract is the secret ingredient part!

A must-have flavor: vanilla extract

The next flavor component of our funfetti cake is vanilla extract. You can use real vanilla extract or imitation vanilla extract for these funfetti cake pops. But be warned– clear vanilla extract is an entirely different flavor.

You want to use the standard brown vanilla extract in these cake pops.

Last but not least: almond extract!

Ratio-wise, we use less almond extract than the other two flavors. Despite that, we always get comments about the ‘hint of almond’ in these funfetti cake pops.

As far as the type of almond extract goes, we initially started with real almond extract but made the switch to imitation almond extract due to allergy concerns. There was absoltely no noticeable difference between the two as far as flavor went, and using imitation made our cake pops nut-free.

So, you can use either but we recommend imitation almond extract so that you don’t need to worry about potential allergy issues.

Cake pop dough color

One of our most important tasks when developing the cake was making sure the cake pop balls wouldn’t get too brown during the process.

There were a few recipes when developing where the cake would brown too much. When this happened, the cake pop dough would turn pretty dark after mixing cake with icing.

We loved the recipes that led to a lighter, whiter cake pop dough and made sure our final one was like that.

Cake pop balls on a tray after being scooped with a cookie scoop

How to make funfetti cake pops

The process for how to make cake pops follows the same simple steps regardless of flavor:

  1. Bake cake + cool
  2. Make icing
  3. Mix cake and icing
  4. Roll into balls + chill
  5. Dip balls in melting chocolate + add toppings
  6. Enjoy!

Now, you could make your cake from a box mix but I think the flavor and texture from a homemade cake just can’t be beat. Same for icing! That’s pretty much the only area where you can save time when making cake pops, but I think you sacrifice quality and flavor in doing so.

We have a step-by-step guide to making cake pops that is the best resource for making cake pops. I’ll detail a few of the steps below, but make sure to check our guide if you are new to making cake pops.

Step 1: Make your cake

Cake pops start with cake! Ideally, you will plan ahead and make the cake the day before you want to make your cake pops. This goes for homemade cake as well as box mix. You want to make sure your cake has plenty of time to cool before you mix it with your icing. Otherwise, warm cake will make your icing melt. It’s a mess!

Step 2: Make your icing

After your cake has cooled, make icing! You can also use storebought icing but I prefer the homemade variety.

Step 3: Mix your cake and icing

Next up: mix your cake and icing! We go into detail on this step in our guide to making cake pops, but you are looking for a playdough-like consistency. We add sprinkles during this step for our funfetti cake pop recipe, which changes the texture a bit.

You will find that you may use more icing for funfetti than you do in other cake pop recipes because of the sprinkles. They soak up a bit of the icing, so add icing until you get to that desired playdough-like consistency.

Sometimes I let the finished dough sit for a few minutes before taste-testing it again. I typically end up adding an additional teaspoon or two of icing when I do this.

Step 4: Roll your cake dough into balls + chill

We like to use a size 40 Vollrath cookie scoop to portion out cake pop balls. This ensures consistency across the cake pops. After scooping, roll the dough with your hands and place the balls on parchment paper.

After you have done this for the whole batch, pop your cake pop balls in the refrigerator to allow them to harden up a bit. Otherwise, your cake pops may fall off the stick into your chocolate melt.

Step 5: Dip your cake balls into chocolate and top

The last step and the one where these cake pops get their signature look.

  1. Dip the end of a cake pop stick in your melted chocolate. Place the stick into a cake pop ball. Repeat until all cake pop balls have sticks.
  2. Dip a cake pop directly in your melted chocolate. Send it straight down and pull it straight up. Don’t wiggle it, don’t spin in. Down, then up.
  3. Let your cake pop hang over the melted chocolate for excess to drip off. We give our cake pops a gentle shake when doing this to help additional chocolate come off.
  4. Add sprinkles or other toppings. You can either place your cake pop ‘head-down’ on parchment paper to dry or flip them over and place the stick in something. We have used floral foam blocks and even cardboard boxes with holes poked in them in the past without issue. You could also purchase a cake pop stand. However you place your cake pop down, you’ll want to add sprinkles or other toppings immediately before your chocolate coating dries.
  5. Let cool and enjoy. To speed the process up, you can place your finished cake pops in the refridgerator for a few minutes. This also helps the chocolate shell to develop a beautiful sheen.

What sets these funfetti cake pops apart?

Funfetti cake pops with sprinkles next to rainbow ball garland
  • The combination of multiple extracts can’t be topped! We developed the perfect blend of three of our favorite extracts: butter extract, vanilla extract and almond extract. Alone, each of these extracts are great. Together, they are unstoppable!
  • Salt in the icing!! I know that may sound crazy, but salt helps to bring out all of the flavors. It also helps to tone down the sweet, sugar flavor. I hate when desserts just taste ‘sweet’ and don’t have an underlying flavor. Not the case with these funfetti cake pops!
  • The rainbow sprinkles inside the cake pop really stand out against the white dough of the cake and icing.

Pro tips for making the best funfetti cake pops

  • If your cake browned a bit in the oven, scrape off the brown bits! This is definitely optional, but it will give your cake pop dough a beautiful light/white color instead of a more brown/yellow color.
  • Don’t swirl your cake pop around in the melted chocolate. You’ll want to dip your cake pop straight down into the chocolate and then lift it straight up to prevent it from forming too thick of a shell.
  • Use jimmy-style sprinkles (like this!) inside of your cake pop dough instead of non-pareils for this recipe. These hold their shape better and don’t add an additional crunch like the ball kind of sprinkle.
  • Let your cake fully cool before crumbling it and adding icing.

Best Ever Funfetti Cake Pop Recipe

Prep Time: 2 hoursCook Time: 20 minutesTotal Time: 3 hours + time for cake to coolRecipe Yield: 40 cake pops

Recipe Description

Delicious birthday cake and tasty icing make for the best funfetti cake pop. Top your cake pops with sprinkes for the happiest dessert around.

Funfetti Cake Ingredients

210g

all-purpose flour (1 ½ cup)

½ t

baking powder

1⁄4 t

baking soda

1⁄4 t

salt

1 stick

unsalted butter, softened (8 T)

150g

granulated sugar (¾ cup)

1

large egg (room temperature)

1⁄4 t

240g

buttermilk (1 cup)

Funfetti Icing Ingredients

56g

butter, softened (½ stick)

200g

powdered sugar (1 cup)

1 T

milk (cream also works)

1⁄4 t

Note: real or imitation almond and vanilla extracts can be used

Other Ingredients Needed

White chocolate melting wafers (plan to use 2-3 bags)

Tools Needed

Cake pop sticks

Silicone spatula

Cookie scoop

Handheld or stand mixer

Kitchen scale (not required but nice to have!)

Depending on your desired cake pop format you will either need a cake pop stand or parchment paper.

> A cake pop stand is needed if you want your cake pops to be in the traditional lollipop format. You can buy a cake pop stand or make your own using a foam block.

> Otherwise, you can place the cake pops directly on parchment paper. The tops will dry flat, but this will make it so they can stand with the sticks pointing up on a platter.

Funfetti Cake Directions

*This recipe can also be doubled and baked in a 9×13 pan. Increase bake time to 40 minutes.

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Coat an 8×8 pan with cooking spray.
  2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
  3. Cream butter and sugar with a handheld or stand mixer until light and creamy (3-5 minutes on high).
  4. Add egg and mix thouroughly, scraping the side of the bowl as needed.
  5. Add extracts. Mix to combine.
  6. Alternate adding the sifted flour mix and buttermilk until just combined.
  7. Pour batter into the greased pan.
  8. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, rotating once halfway through. To confirm the cake is fully baked, prick it with a toothpick or knife once the timer has gone off. It will come out clean if the cake is done. Otherwise, check again after another 5 minutes.
  9. Let cool completely.

Funfetti Icing Directions

  1. Beat the butter on high until creamy, about 3 minutes.
  2. Add the powdered sugar and mix until combined.
  3. Add the milk and extracts.
  4. Mix until smooth and creamy.

Funfetti Cake Pop Dough Directions

  1. Crumble the cake into a mixing bowl using either a food processor or mixer. Wait until it has cooled before doing this.
  2. Add ¼ cup icing to the cake crumbles. Mix until fully combined.
  3. Add sprinkles and mix.
  4. Continue adding icing a teaspoon at a time until the dough comes together. You are looking for an easy-to-roll dough, similar to playdough. Add more icing if your cake pop balls crumble a bit when rolling. You can read more about cake pop consistency here.
  5. Divide the dough into golf ball sized pieces, roll into balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. We use a size 40 Vollrath cookie scoop to ensure consistency.
  6. Chill the cake pop balls for a few hours before assembling.

Cake Pop Assembly

  1. Pull cake pop balls from the refrigerator and gather your melting wafers, cake pop sticks and peppermint bits.
  2. Melt your white chocolate. Follow the melting directions on your white chocolate wafers. We use a Pyrex measuring cup when making small batches of cake pops because it’s deep and allows for us to fully dip the cake pops.
  3. Put a stick in each cake pop. We like to dip the sticks in the melting chocolate before inserting into the cake pop balls. To do this, dip the very end of a cake pop stick in the white chocolate and then gently place in the middle of a cake pop ball about halfway through. Repeat for all cake pop balls.
  4. Time to dip and decorate! Grab the stick of a cake pop ball and plunge the ball into the white chocolate. Dip it straight in and pull it straight out (don’t stir it around or double dip it.) Hold it over the cup while excess chocolate falls off of it. We give ours a gentle shake and after it looks like the flow has stopped, flip your cake pop over and give it a gentle shake to smooth it out.
  • You can either set the cake pops down on parchment paper with the sticks pointing up or place them in a cake pop stand or foam block to keep them in the traditional cake pop format.
  • If setting straight on parchment paper, do that first and then sprinkle the cake pops while the chocolate is still wet. If using a cake pop stand, you can sprinkle the tops and sides with colorful sprinkles and then place in the stand to fully dry.

How do you know if a cake pop is the right consistency?

We spent a lot of time perfecting this over the years and I think we have an easy way to explain it. To put it quite simply, go slow!

You’ll notice when your crumbled cake and icing are combining into a dough. Sample a piece and see how it is rolling. You are looking for a playdough-like consistency.

If your cake pop dough is too crumbly, then you’ll need to add more icing (slowly!) Continue to add icing until you can easily roll the dough into balls. When you are getting close, add the icing a teaspoon at a time because you don’t want to miss the window of perfect cake pop consistency.

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