Sorry I have been a bit MIA! But, luckily for you it was my 30th birthday this weekend, which means tons of food and, of course, strawberry funfetti cupcakes.
I love pink, I love rainbow sprinkles and I love strawberries. Plus it was an 80s party. So strawberry funfetti cupcakes were kind of a no-brainer. (There was also a Ding Dong cake, which I will post later).

Back in the day, I baked many a funfetti cupcake. But they were always out of a box. So I wasn’t entirely sure how to do a homemade version. Turns out all you have to do is dump a bunch of rainbow sprinkles in the batter. You can also make this recipe without the sprinkles, if you have something against rainbowtasticness.

Since it was my birthday, these were actually baked by my mom. Some of them (like five out of four dozen) didn’t bake properly, not sure why. It may have just been a fluke, but please let me know if you have any issues making them.

You can kind of see one of the shady ones in the far corner of that photo. But whatever. They still tasted amazing. AND, my husband got me a cupcake tree for my birthday. And those super-cute cupcake decoration thingies.

This recipe makes a three-layer cake or a bunch of cupcakes (about four dozen). You will have a ton of frosting left over if you make the cupcakes, so you could probably just do half the recipe. Definitely make the whole thing for an actual cake, though.

Strawberry funfetti cupcakes (or cake)
Cake
4 1/2 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
5 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups pureed frozen strawberries
8 egg whites
2/3 cup milk
Red or neon pink food color*
3/4 cup oblong rainbow sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350. Line cupcake tins with paper liners. (Or butter three 9-inch round or 8-inch square cake pans. Line with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.)

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. Mix on low speed about 30 seconds (you may need to put a towel over the mixer so the flour doesn’t attack you). Add the butter and strawberry puree and mix to blend the ingredients. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

In another large bowl, whisk together the egg whites, milk and food coloring (If you don’t use any, it won’t be pink enough… I recommend adding a few drops or squeezes of gel at a time until this mixture is very pink). Add the mixture to the batter in two or three additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl well and mixing only to incorporate after each addition. Add the sprinkles and mix in.

Fill the cupcake papers about 3/4 of the way full with batter. (If making a cake, divide the batter evenly among the three prepared pans).

Bake the cupcakes for about 15 minutes, until tops of cupcakes bounce back if touched or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Bake about 30-35 minutes for cake).

Allow cupcakes to cool on a wire rack before frosting.**

Cream cheese frosting
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 to 5 cups powdered sugar*
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a mixer bowl with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a hand-held electric mixer), cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in vanilla. Add powdered sugar gradually, tasting occasionally to determine ideal amount of sugar. Store extra frosting in refrigerator.

*Recipes for cream cheese frosting usually call for sifting the powdered sugar, but that takes forever. It does make the frosting slightly smoother, but I don’t feel like it is a big enough difference to matter. Feel free to sift if you’d like.

**After you frost the cupcakes/cake, you should store them in the fridge. But let them sit out and come to room temperature before serving.