Filled with sprinkles and vanilla, these Gluten-free Funfetti Cupcakes are an easy, fluffy and moist recipe; the perfect dessert to make for any celebration!
I love Funfetti.
One of my favorite desserts growing up was the out-of-the box Funfetti cake mix. My Mom doesn’t make things from a box often, but for some reason she made an exception for Funfetti and it NEVER disappointed!
Filled with that simple delicious vanilla, butter-y flavor and decked out in sprinkles, Funfetti Cupcakes were my dessert choice for my birthdays!
I think part of the reason that I loved Funfetti so much was because it was a special treat, because we didn’t get things made from a box often. I know it sounds odd, but when you grow up with homemade everything it’s pretty fun to have box mix food sometimes!
We don’t have any birthdays coming up in our family, and rather than waiting till the last minute, this time I decided to get a head start. When birthdays start in a few months for us I’m READY to go with the perfect gluten-free Funfetti Cupcake recipe!
After scouring the internet for a few hours, I figured out what I wanted to do to make these Funfetti Cupcakes.
I found this recipe from Live Well Bake Often that gets killer reviews. Added bonus? It’s pretty easy, but not quite easy enough…
A lot of the vanilla or Funfetti cupcakes that I looked at had buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream, or other ingredients that I might not have in my fridge at all times. But, I wanted to create a gluten-free Funfetti Cupcake recipe that was so EASY because you already had everything in your pantry and fridge!
The ingredients for these gluten-free Funfetti Cupcakes?
- Gluten-free all purpose flour
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Coconut oil (or butter)
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Almond milk (or milk of choice)
- Vinegar (or lemon juice)
- Sprinkles
That is IT! My secret to keeping this recipe easy is to create buttermilk with almond milk and vinegar, for more of a moist cupcake. This also keeps the recipe dairy-free!
This recipe is simple to whip up too:
- Mix together your almond milk and vinegar to create “buttermilk” and let them sit for a few minutes.
- Mix together your dry ingredients.
- Separately, mix together your coconut oil and sugar. Add in your eggs, almond milk buttermilk, and vanilla.
- Lastly, gently fold in your sprinkles. Very briefly, or they could bleed into your cupcake batter and it won’t be quite as pretty.
Bake, cool, frost and you’re done!
I topped my gluten-free Funfetti Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting.
You can choose whatever frosting you like best. 🙂
I used a cream cheese frosting recipe from Sugar Spun Run because I wanted the frosting to hold up well on the cupcakes. My light Cream Cheese Frosting I save for cakes rather than cupcakes, as its a little thinner (due to less powdered sugar).
Add more sprinkles on top (of course!) and you’re done! 🙂
Don’t you love how easy that is?! Let me know in the comments below, whats your favorite go-to birthday celebration dessert?
Looking for more gluten-free, easy dessert recipes? Check out my gluten-free Gingerbread Cake or gluten-free Double Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 1/2 tsp vinegar (or lemon juice)
- 1 1/3 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted, room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup sprinkles
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Preheat your oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
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In a small bowl, combine your almond milk and vinegar to create “buttermilk.”
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In a small mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder).
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In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your coconut oil and sugar. Add your eggs and whisk together. Add in your vanilla and almond milk mixture and whisk everything together.
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Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir them together till all is well combined.
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Pour your sprinkles in and gently fold them into your batter, being careful not to over-stir or your sprinkle colors could bleed into your batter.
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Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 way full with batter.
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Bake for 19-22 minutes, or till the tops of you cupcakes are set, springy to touch, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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Let your cupcakes cool completely before putting any frosting on top.
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Devour!
Have you tried canola oil instead of coconut oil? I can’t have a lot of saturated fat and my friend has celiac disease so we are trying to find something we can both eat!
Hi Leslie. I’m sorry to say I haven’t.
Hi Chelsea! I made these and they were soooo good. I cut the recipe in half just as a tester run for her bday later. I ended up using coconut sugar because I didn’t realize I was out of granulated sugar. Anyways…they were veryyyy coconuty tasting. Do they have that distinct taste because of the oil or is that from the sugar?
Hi Angela. The coconut oil you used is probably the reason! I don’t think coconut sugar gives much of a coconut flavor at all, it should be very neutral. If you need them to be dairy-free, instead of coconut oil you could also use a dairy-free butter alternative like earth balance or country crock plant butter, and then you shouldn’t have that coconut flavor! Hope this helps.
Ok great I have Earth Balance I’ll try. Same amount, 1/2 cup?
Yes, exactly!
Have you ever tryed flax egg for this
Hi Lex. I have not tried making these cupcakes with a flax egg before. I would figure that it would work, but they would be a bit more dense with a flax egg instead.
Hi there! I’m been scouring the internet to try and find a good base for my daughter’s 4th birthday cupcakes. The last 3 years all she’s wanted was chocolate (for her 2nd birthday I just used Simple Mills chocolate mix as we were traveling, and formed a pair of boobs — she nursed till after 3 so she was ALL about attacking a boob cake 😛 and last year I made a chocolate paleo donut tower!) BUT this year, she’s all about rainbow everything. And, as you mentioned in your post, there is something so nostalgic about funfetti box mix! I can still taste it on the tip of my tongue if I think about it long enough! But, unfortunately, I just cannot bring myself to feed that to her at this point in time 😉 SO, your recipe/commentary has looked the most intriguing. I was wondering, though, exactly which GF blend you use–I pretty much only bake with almond and oat flour, haven’t experimented much with blends, so I’d love to get the exact one you use to achieve best results. And secondly, what do you think about subbing coconut sugar? I know they’ll be a little darker, and maybe a little more brown sugar-y, so I’m nervous..so then I thought maple sugar? That’s gaining popularity for lighter colored, alternatively-sweetened goods, BUT maybe it will taste too maple-y…Anyways, my daughter’s napping and I’m now rambling, just wanted to pick your brain. Thanks so much!!
Amelia
Hi Amelia! I would recommend using King Arthur Measure for Measure or Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1. I love both of those flours, and they’re easy to find. I think coconut sugar should work really well actually! They will be a touch less sweet, and like you said a tiny bit darker, but I think it’s one of the easiest and most neutral sugar substitutes. With maple syrup you would have to adjust the amount because its liquid and they would still turn out a little darker. Hope this helps, and I hope your daughter has a great birthday!!