Confetti Birthday Cake by Pretty Sweet
Prep 15M | Bake 45M | Enjoy in 3Hr 30M
Just four years ago, in April 2017, Life’s Simple Ingredient was born to celebrate covering your hands in flour and getting involved in making your food. Due to current social distancing protocol, those of us with birthdays in April aren’t able to celebrate like we are used to, so we asked our friends at Pretty Sweet to share the perfect confetti birthday cake that you can make at home.
Ingredients - Cake:
1 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk (or milk alternative)
Confetti sprinkles
Ingredients - Buttercream Icing:
1 lb salted butter, softened (if you use unsalted butter add ½ tsp of salt)
3 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 drop food coloring (optional)
Directions – Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine canola oil, granulated sugar, eggs, vinegar and vanilla into a mixer and mix on medium speed until all ingredients are combined and looks fairly smooth.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, alternating the dry mix with milk.
- Fold in confetti sprinkles. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl and give it another good mix on medium for about 30 seconds.
- Spray two cake pans and line with parchment. We used 7–inch pans but you can use 8–inch pans, one 10–inch pan, or a square pan! Mix it up and be creative with it!
- Bake at 350°F for 35-50 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool for an hour before taking out of the pans. Wrap with saran wrap so the edges of the cake don’t get crispy, let sit for a minimum of 2 hours, or you can let sit overnight to fully cool before icing. Just make sure the cake is not warm when you ice it.
Directions – Buttercream Icing:
- Whip butter on medium speed until it looks very soft and smooth. Add icing sugar and mix in on low speed. Add in vanilla and food colouring and then whip on medium to high until very light and fluffy. Add more icing sugar if you like it extra sweet.
- When the cake is fully cooled, cut the top of each cake off. If you’re wanting a 4–layer cake cut each cake in half lengthwise. Keep cake on the counter and move knife lengthwise until the cake is cut. Watch your fingers!
- Add a dollop of icing to the bottom layer of cake and smooth out with a palette knife or a butter knife, top with the next layer of cake and repeat steps until the top layer. Smooth a thin layer of icing on the top of the cake and around the sides of the cake. You can make it as smooth or textured as you like!
- Finished! We like a rustic look with not too much icing on the sides. But if you want to cover the sides a bit more, pop in the fridge at this point and do another layer of icing in 30 minutes until you are happy with the finished product.
