When I was growing up, I had a lot of birthday cake. The same old store-bought waxy frosting and overly-sugary white cakes with pale flavorless frosting. I had a one-track mind for chocolate. One day I tried yellow cake. A more rich, yellow base with a thick, homemade chocolate frosting. I loved the combination of yellow cake with chocolate. In the first month of college, I helped make confetti cake for the first time for my roommate in a bare dorm kitchen. I was mesmerized by the way the rainbow sprinkles melted into the cake. This is my chocolate confetti cake with dark chocolate sprinkles, which combines my love of yellow cake, chocolate, and funfetti cake. 

Adventures + Chocolate Funfetti Cake Making

This week brought a lot of personal challenges. I’ve been feeling all over the place with life’s changes and unexpected turns and adjusting to finally treating my ADHD again. I’ve carved out a lot of time for being creative, and my goal was to celebrate little things. To treat myself and to take care of myself. Some of my favorite things are sitting outside and listening to music, going to a cold Maine beach and collecting unique rocks, grocery shopping and going to farmers markets, and simply making a nice meal and watching TV. So, I’ve been leaning into that, going outside as much as possible and taking little adventures in my car throughout Midcoast Maine. So, as difficult as this weird period of brain-melting change has been, I’ve felt like celebrating. This chocolate confetti cake came at the perfect time. 

The biggest thing I’ve celebrated lately is a great personal joy of mine. I grew up intensely passionate about food, but had no outlet. I had no friends to share that love with. So, one night when distracting myself from the next day’s busboy job in intense heat, I found a cooking competition show with over 100 episodes. Masterchef Australia. I gave it a shot, and put on season 1. They started in a huge room, like an airplane hangar, at countless cooking benches. They had to chop onions as fast as possible and immediately entered an intense cooking competition. However, the more episodes I watched, the sweeter and more passionate the show revealed itself to be. The more I rooted for the contestants. And the show became somewhat of a home for me. 

Masterchef Australia and Creative Cooking

With each new season I watched, more characters emerged as heroes to me. They were artists who desperately wanted to cook and hid their love of baking. Grandmothers who made huge cakes on Sundays. They were 19 year olds who had a burning fire of creativity and passion for life. I was so captivated by the people, the judges, the challenges. They would drive around to different fishmongers and farms and butchers and learn where their local food came from. Filet fish on the spot. They had wooden mystery boxes filled with random ingredients they had to make something out of. It was the most inspiring and magnificent show I’d ever seen. 

This week, the show returned, so my chocolate confetti cake was a perfect celebration. I have spent a lot of time reconnecting with myself lately and asking myself what I’m passionate about. Reconnecting with my childhood. And I knew the second Masterchef started again that I would find that magic and creativity again. When it returned, I was hesitant at first. I never watched last season, which was very unlike me, but it was because the show became incredibly sad for a period. A year ago I stuffed away all of my own personal needs and creativity and focused on growing a business. Being a leader and a director. The day the show was set to air, my favorite judge died. 

Celebrating with Chocolate Confetti Cake

I feel a bit silly grieving someone I never met. It feels insulting and appropriative sometimes. But he was a huge part of the show, and became a bit of a culinary idol to me. He was a Scottish and Italian man who held anxiety beads and had a beautiful, boyish friendship with the other judges. He was a complete powerhouse of a chef, but also had a tender heart. The day I found out he died, I was having a horrible day and I went for a walk. I found a baby turtle on the side of the road and tried to find its mom. It was a weird experience on an emotional day. So, last season was his last season, and every time I tried to watch the show I cried. 

Now that the show is back, I got through the first episode, adjusted to the new judges, and that magic passion for cooking and creativity is back. And it’s inspiring me, the same way it did when I was a kid. So, this chocolate confetti cake is a bit of a birthday cake for my favorite show, and my favorite time of the year. And I’m glad I made it, because I forget sometimes that you can celebrate and make a big chocolate funfetti cake for no reason. 

The Reverse-Creaming Method

I started this recipe on one of those adventures to a local grocery store. A beautiful specialty store with vast rows of seafood and local sauces and baked goods. I saw chocolate sprinkles sitting on the counter with a sale sign, and instantly I thought of confetti cake. So I picked up a bottle and decided to make a chocolate confetti cake with chocolate sprinkles, which I haven’t really seen before. On the drive home I listened to music with the windows down, and then I quickly got to work.

I gathered eggs and our flour and sugar canisters and diligently cut parchment paper. I dug out old cake pans and listened to the hum of the stand mixer. This recipe is adapted from my yellow cake recipe, which uses the reverse-creaming technique. It’s a technique I learned from Claire Saffitz, and I was enamored by it. Instead of creaming butter and sugar and adding eggs then your dry ingredients, you start with your dry ingredients in the bowl of the stand mixer. You mix the flour with soft butter until it creates a dough. Then, you add your wet ingredients, and it melds into a beautiful, thick cake batter. I added the sprinkles at the end and folded them in by hand. 

Whipped Chocolate Frosting + Chocolate Funfetti Cake

When they went in the oven I made myself lunch and sat in the sun, waiting for the timer to go off. When the cakes came out of the oven, they were deeply golden brown and hadn’t risen into a typical hump, like cakes do, because of the reverse-creaming. The smell was deeply caramelized sugar and slightly melted chocolate. I let the cakes cool, then sliced them on a turntable cake stand. While they cooled, I made the chocolate frosting, which is incredibly simple. I’ve made whipped chocolate/caramel frosting before, and it’s the same process. Just make ganache and chill it in the fridge until slightly stiff. Then, you whip it. If you over whip it can split, like mine started to do, but you can always add an extra touch of heavy cream to fix it.

I love decorating cakes, and really enjoyed frosting each layer of this chocolate funfetti cake, smoothing it out with an offset spatula. I left the outside of the cake somewhat naked (mostly because I used too much frosting on the layers) but it ended up working well by leaving the crusty, caramelized cake exposed. It was my favorite part when eating. A golden, buttery, crispy cake edge paired with chocolate sprinkles (that taste almost like a chocolate chip cake) and a smooth, silky chocolate frosting. It’s a simple recipe, but it really does the trick, and would make a fantastic birthday cake. 

If you enjoyed this recipe, and my art, you can check out over 100 of my other recipes and paintings/art prints on Etsy! Use code THEFORKEDRING for 25% off. Thank you for reading!

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Chocolate Confetti Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

A chocolate version of the confetti cake we all love

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate frosting, confetti cake, pancake recipes, yellow cake

Prep Time 5 hours hours

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Author theforkedring

Ingredients

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 sticks soft unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs room temperature + 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup chocolate sprinkles
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tbsp butter
• Pinch of salt
• 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350° F
• In a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
• Add the soft butter and mix on low until combined.
• In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, and vegetable oil.
• On low-medium speed, add the wet ingredients until mixed.
• Remove bowl from mixer and fold in chocolate sprinkles with a spatula.
• Transfer batter to two greased and lined 9” cake pans.
• Bake for 35 – 45 minutes until the top of the cakes spring back and are golden.
• Remove cake from pans and chill.
• To make ganache, heat heavy cream with butter and salt until bubbling.
• Pour over chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl, and whisk to combine into a ganache.
• Chill ganache for 3-4 hours until mostly firm.
• Remove from fridge and whip with a hand mixer until soft peaks form. If the mixture is too stiff, add a touch of heavy cream.
• Cut each cooled cake in half, leaving you with 4 cake tiers.
• Frost each layer with about 1/3 – 1/2 cup of frosting and assemble cake. If you have leftover frosting, lightly frost the outside and decorate to your liking.
• Slice and serve!

Notes

• If your frosting is too stiff, whip while adding heavy cream or milk.
• I don’t trim the cake edges because they provide a great caramelized flavor. But feel free!
• Store leftover cake slices in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Thaw for 1-2 hours each time you want a slice and enjoy!