This simple but adorable vanilla sprinkle cake is perfectly cute and suitable for any occasion! Best of all, although it looks like a high-end and professionally done cake, you’ll find that it’s easy enough to make right at home and there no special skills are needed!
Have you ever sat and thought about what life would be like without sprinkles?
No, really! That sounds like the silliest question in the world, but they are the best decoration for any sugary treat. They just tie a whole dessert together, you know? Close your eyes and imagine your favorite ice cream, cookies, cupcakes, cakes…all without sprinkles. Impossible, right?
We don’t agree that sprinkles are childish. They’re cute and they are pretty. They’re even classy, sometimes. Versatile. All in all, they’re the cornerstone of everything we adore here at Sweets and Treats, and we’ve dedicated a whole cake to them!
This sprinkle cake is a simple vanilla cake with buttercream frosting and rainbow jimmies, and it’s simple to bake and decorate, too. Nonetheless, it’s the kind of dessert you can break out all year round. It’s one of those cakes that’ll bring smiles to all your loved ones! We hope you find it as precious as we do.
How To Make A Sprinkle Cake
Don’t look at the pretty cake in our pictures and despair, fellow bakers…it’s simple to make a cake covered in sprinkles just like our own! Let’s talk about it.
You will need…
- Your favorite vanilla cake recipe: Use a store-bought mix…or follow our own tried-and-true from-scratch easy vanilla cake recipe. We highly recommend it!
- 8-inch pans: Technically, you can use our instructions to make any sized cake, but we made an 8-inch cake with two layers.
- Buttercream frosting: This is another ingredient that you can grab from the store or follow our simple buttercream recipe that results in creamy smooth frosting every time!
- Rainbow Jimmies: You might have rainbow jimmies at your local grocery store, but we have them at our store, too! Our rainbow jimmies are vegan, gluten-free, super duper crunchy, and best of all…pretty!
- 2 cake boards: You’ll want these the same size as your cake (for us, about 8 inches around).
- Cookie sheet: You’ll use this to put sprinkles on your cake as we did in the photos.
- Piping bag and piping tip: You’ll use these to decorate your cake, of course. In particular, we used the Wilton 6B piping tip for the cake you see in the photos. If you want to copy ours, get that 6B tip!
Step 1: Bake your vanilla cake base.
As we said above, we recommend our vanilla cake recipe, which gives you wonderful from-scratch cake. (It’s easy, too!) Fold about 1 cup of sprinkles into the batter. And to make a cake similar to ours, you’ll want to also use two 8-inch cake pans. Overall, though, you can easily change up this recipe to bake a bigger or smaller cake that’s just like ours. It’s customizable!
Step 2: Stack and frost your cake layers.
When the cakes cook, frost a cake round with your homemade buttercream and plop one layer onto the round. Go ahead and add frosting on top of the first layer, then add the second layer of cake on top of the frosting. You should now have layers that essentially go round → frosting → layer 1 → frosting → layer 2. Use the buttercream to frost the entire outside of the cake.
Step 3: Add sprinkles to the outside of your cake!
Want to make a cake just like the one in our pictures? Here’s the step you’ve been waiting for…how to decorate your very own sprinkle cake! You’ll want to spread your sprinkles onto a cookie sheet and then add another cake round to the top of the cake. Lift your cake carefully, putting your palms on the bottom and the top of the cake, against the rounds. Roll the cake sides against the sprinkles on the cookie sheet for a gorgeous and even layer of sprinkles on the outside of your cake!
Step 4: Finish up with some final touches!
Remove your top cake round and add sprinkles to the top of the cake, as well. This is also the part where you’ll use a piping bag filled with the buttercream and the Wilton 6B piping tip to decorate the top of the cake, too. (Of course, you can use any tip you think might look good…but we used the 6B, just FYI!)
…and that’s how you make a sprinkle cake! Enjoy!
Sprinkle Cake: FAQs
Here are some questions we’ve been asked about our adorable rainbow sprinkle cake!
How many servings does this sprinkle cake make?
It makes an 8-inch cake with two layers if you follow our directions but depending on how big your slices are, you should have enough for 18-24 servings or so! If you need to make a different size cake, review this post to see how many bottles of sprinkles you need.
How long does it take to make a rainbow sprinkle cake?
This will depend on what recipe for a vanilla cake you use but we can say that adding the sprinkles and other decorations only takes about 20 minutes!
Do you have other rainbow sprinkles to use on this cake?
Absolutely! While we recommend the rainbow jimmies we linked above, you can also feel free to use:
- Natural Rainbow Jimmies (note that these are a bit more subdued than the other rainbow jimmies, but still cute)
- Rainbow Crispy Sprinkles
- Rainbow Nonpareils
- Natural Rainbow Nonpareils
Did you enjoy this rainbow sprinkle cake?
It’s one of those adorable cakes that’s useful for anything, but also for birthdays, baby showers, graduations, or even just because! Feel free to leave your comments down below on our sprinkle cake recipe. Did you have any trouble with the recipe, and did it go smoothly for you? What are your favorite kinds of sprinkles? We’d love to hear from you!
More cakes at Sweets & Treats!
You may think that there are times that don’t call for cakes but you’d be wrong! (Just kidding!) Seriously, though, fun cakes make any occasion worthwhile and we have a ton of recipes here on the blog:
Check out our birthday cake roundup too!
2 comments
How many grams/packets of sprinkles did you need for this cake?
Hello!
This post makes a 2 layer 8 inch cake using 2 bottles. If you make a different size or want different sprinkles coverage, check out our full post showing how much is needed for different sizes: https://blog.shopsweetsandtreats.com/covering-sprinkle-cake-how-many-sprinkles/