After taking several weeks off from the Magnolia Bakery Handbook, I decided that I was in the mood to make a cake. Frankly, I used the need to do a practice run with a new recipe before making a cake for an engagement party later in June. But, if you’ve been reading this blog for long enough, you’ll know that I never need an excuse for cake!

Since the Super-Rich Chocolate Cake recipe from the MB Handbook has became a family favorite and and the first true recipe in my “repertoire,” I decided to try the cake that is the chocolate cake’s counterpoint: Everyone’s Favorite Vanilla Cake.

But, I decided to make this cake even better! By adding only one additional ingredient, I was able to make this otherwise white cake look spectacular. And the special ingredient is probably something you already have in your pantry: rainbow sprinkles!

Making the Cake

Adding sprinkles to cake is super easy. First, you make the batter as directed. You typically would add rainbow sprinkles to a white or vanilla cake recipe. It’s also the final ingredient you add just before pouring the batter into your pans. This way the sprinkles are less likely to break up and bleed into the batter.

For this recipe, I used standard vanilla cake ingredients, including sour cream to give it a little bit of tang. But other than that, there weren’t really any other unusual ingredients. Sometimes buttermilk is used instead of the sour cream, but I would test that before serving, just to make sure it all comes out all right in the end.

Baking the Cake

I’ll admit, I overbaked this cake slightly. Probably only a minute or two. But that actually makes a big difference! It cake dry out the cake and make it taste as such. It’s still edible, don’t get me wrong. But it’ll just be a bit dry.

After the cake rounds came out of the oven, I let the layers cool in the pan for 30 minutes before removing. Then, I let them cool on their rack for a few hours before I made the frosting and built the cake.

I was really impressed with how much color the cake layers got. And I really enjoy seeing the little flecks of color peeking behind the cake’s crumb.

Decorating the Cake

Once the cake layers were completely cool, I started making the frosting. I decided early on in the process that I wanted to make an American buttercream, for simplicity’s sake. But regular white frosting can be a bit drab, so I decided to brighten it up with a color.

Eventually, blue became the color of choice.

I decided to keep the decoration simple and didn’t do any piping. But, this left the top of the cake looking a little lame. There needed to be something on there. Otherwise it looked like a cake that one would find at a Frozen themed birthday party without the Elsa doll and sugar ice shards.

Answer to this conundrum? More sprinkles!

It seems that sprinkles on top of a cake are becoming more or less my trade mark, lately.

After allowing it sometime to chill in the fridge, I sliced into the cake and was very pleased with the result!

I swear! Matching the plate with the frosting color was totally, not on purpose!!

So there you have it! An easy was to turn any cake into a celebration cake: Just add sprinkles!