How to Make a Sprinkle Cake

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Sprinkle cakes are super festive cakes that are decorated with sprinkles either on the outside only or on both the inside and the outside.

Sprinkle Cake

Sprinkle cakes are so much fun! And, the best part about them is that you don’t need to be a cake decorating whiz to make them because sprinkles can totally hide a bad frosting job. Cake decorating guru Lia Weber taught me how to make this sprinkle cake that is a perfect for birthdays or as a July 4th dessert!

You most typically see rainbow sprinkles on sprinkle cakes, but you can use any kind that you love. We went with red, white, and blue for ours!

Let’s take a look at how to make a sprinkle cake!

How to Make a Sprinkle Cake

Stefani and Lia

To make a sprinkle cake, chill the cake thoroughly. If the cake isn’t cold, it will fall apart when you roll it.

Place a cake board on top of the cake (so you have something to hold onto when you are rolling the cake).

Fill a cookie sheet with sprinkles, and roll the cake back and forth in the sprinkles until well coated.

Rolling Sprinkle Cake

You can make a cake with sprinkles only on the outside or put sprinkles on the inside as well!

How to Make a Surprise-Inside Sprinkle Cake

Surprise-inside sprinkle cake

A surprise-inside sprinkle cake has sprinkles hidden inside the cake that come pouring out when you cut into it! To get the sprinkles on the inside of the cake like Lia did:

  • Use a cookie cutter to cut holes in the centers of the middle tiers. Surprise Inside Cake
  • Ice the layers as you normally would, leaving the holes unfrosted.
  • Fill the hole with sprinkles.Sprinkle Cake
  • Place the next layer on top of the tier to cover up the hole.
  • Frost and sprinkle the whole cake!

The sprinkles will be a total surprise when someone cuts into the cake!

You can use the same technique to make a piñata cake filled with candy. 

Can I Mix Sprinkles Into The Cake Batter?

Stirring sprinkles into funfetti cupcake batter

When you mix sprinkles into cake batter, it’s called a funfetti cake or a confetti cake. That type of cake was created in 1989 by Pillsbury. It’s totally fine to mix sprinkles into any cake batter. The cake doesn’t have to be a box mix. See my funfetti cupcakes for an example.

(While we are talking about it, you can also mix sprinkles into cookies and candy to funfetti dessert nachos or funfetti salt water taffy.) 

What Type of Cake Works Best for a Sprinkle Cake?

You can make a sprinkle cake out of any cake that you like! I always suggest my ultimate vanilla cake because the taste can’t be beaten!

Did you make this recipe? Leave a review!
Sprinkle Cake
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4.77 from 13 votes

Sprinkle Cake Recipe

A sprinkle cake tutorial to make an easy sprinkle cake.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 32 servings
Calories 521kcal
Author Stefani

Ingredients

  • 6 six-inch round cakes optionally dyed different colors
  • 8 cups frosting approximately
  • 5 sprinkle containers 7.5 ounces each

Instructions

  • Place the bottom cake round on a cake board the same size as your cake.
  • Frost and top with the second layer.
  • Cut holes in the centers of the middle two tiers using a round cookie cutter. Frost between the two tiers up to the holes.
  • Fill the hole with sprinkles.
  • Place the next two layers on top of the tier to cover up the hole, frosting between them.
  • Crumb coat and lightly ice your cake. It does not have to be perfect! You will be covering the entire cake with sprinkles so imperfections are totally okay.
  • After the cake is iced, chill it completely until the icing is firm when you touch it. The cake must be cold for the next step.
  • Prepare a sheet pan or jelly roll pan with parchment paper on the bottom. Pour sprinkles on the parchment paper, covering the entire surface.
  • Place another cake board the same size as the cake on top of the top layer. Carefully lift up the cake, place it on its side and roll into the sprinkles.
  • Once the sides are coated, take off the cake board from the top of the cake and cover the top of the cake with sprinkles.
  • When you cut into the cake, you'll get a surprise of sprinkles pouring out!

Video

Notes

The time estimate does not include baking or chilling the cakes.

Nutrition

Calories: 521kcal | Carbohydrates: 91g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Sodium: 262mg | Potassium: 65mg | Sugar: 77g | Vitamin A: 25IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 0.8mg
Have you tried this recipe?Click here to leave a comment and rating!

Lia Weber

Lia Weber, Owner of MADE. BY LIA, creates custom-designed, from-scratch wedding cakes and specialty sweets in St. Louis, Missouri. She is an accomplished pastry chef, cake artist and winner of TLC’s Next Great Baker, Season 4, with Buddy the Cake Boss. Lia is the Baking Ambassador for AB Mauri North America, an innovative baking & technology company. She runs her business out of their BakingHub located in the Cortex district in the Central West End. MADE. BY LIA has received The Knot best of 2017 and Wedding Wire’s Couples Choice Award and is the recent winner of the Feast Magazine-Midwest Readers Choice Awards, “Pastry Chef of the Year, 2017.” Lia’s love for baking began in her mother’s kitchen & she hopes to pass on the same passion to her daughter, Ella. Someday soon, Lia plans to start a YouTube channel teaching the ‘at home baker’ simple yet delicious from scratch recipes. Until then, stay up to date on the latest cake trends by following her on Instagram @madebylia, Facebook MADE. BY LIA, and on www.madebylia.com.

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Recipe Rating




17 comments:

  1. Quicken Technical Supportsays:

    I love sprinkle cake. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

  2. Amandasays:

    5 stars
    This cake is so festive! I always see these beautiful sprinkle or candy-filled cakes on Instagram and always want to make them, but wasn’t sure how to do it. Great tutorial! This will be a hit at my next summer party.

  3. Sarahsays:

    5 stars
    I’m not sure that I’ve ever even frosted a cake at all, so this totally speaks to the nervous baker in me. This seems so easy and low stress! Cover the bad frosting job AND look gorgeous? I’m sold!!! (And the hidden sprinkles are so fun!)

  4. Danasays:

    5 stars
    I’m awful with making cakes, but this has me wanting to at least give it another go. I can only imagine the surprise and excitement that ensues after someone cuts into this bad boy. How fun!

  5. Juliasays:

    5 stars
    What a gorgeous and festive cake! It’s so tall and beautiful! I can see it also in green and red colours for a show-stopping Christmas dessert. Or nice pastel colour sprinkles for Easter. Just so many possibilities. I like your tip about cooling the cake before rolling it in sprinkles.

  6. Amandasays:

    5 stars
    This cake is so cool! I love surprise sprinkle cakes so much and it’s the perfect way to celebrate the 4th of July!

  7. Jennifersays:

    5 stars
    I have been trying to figure out how to put sprinkles on the side of a cake for years. Now I know! Thank you for sharing this! My kids are going to love this.

  8. Tinasays:

    5 stars
    Oh my gosh this looks like so much fun! I’m going to send this to my daughter, this is right up her alley. Her friends would LOVE this. The step by step photos were super helpful, thanks for this!

  9. Kathysays:

    5 stars
    What a fun cake! This cake has party written all over it! I am sure my kids would love to have this cake any time of the year! So creative and delicious!

  10. Gloriasays:

    5 stars
    This is such a FUN cake to make. I remember the first time I tried it, I was so worried I would squash the cake as I rolled it through the sprinkles. My grandson loves sprinkles, and he LOVED his cake!! Win for gramma!!

  11. June Hinklesays:

    You picked THE perfect music… says this piccolo player (who by the way has played Stars & Stripes a bizzillion times.. not exzagerating)! My dad and I played our local fireworks display every year together and he too is gone. So I’ll have some drippy watermelon and says cheers to two great guys! Then I’ll have a piece of this amazing cake!!!!

  12. Lisa Lottssays:

    5 stars
    I’ve never seen that technique for decorating a cake and I never woud have thought to chill the cake like you did. Genius tip! My nephews would have so much fun with a cake FILLED with sprinkles — might have to surprise them with that one.

  13. Jennsays:

    5 stars
    Y’all are the cutest and could this cake be any more fun and festive?! I cannot wait to try my hand at it this week – so fun!

  14. Shihosays:

    5 stars
    WOW this cake is just the next level! I have never made like this tall decorated cake before. Looks fantastic!

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