Confetti Crumbs are the perfect addition to birthday cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. These are super quick to make and taste like a slightly crisp, birthday cake streusel. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Fun & Easy Birthday Cake Streusel
Want to take your funfetti cake to the next level? Add confetti crumbs! These are fun and colorful, perfectly sweetened bits with a vanilla cake batter flavor. They have a slightly crisp exterior with softer interior and taste like birthday cake crumbled into a streusel. Add them to any cake or cookie for an instant party (I’m going to be using them in a fun spin on my Lofthouse cookies later this week!)!
I found inspiration for this recipe over in my Facebook Baker’s club when a member shared a photo of her funfetti crumble. I knew it would be the perfect finishing touch for a birthday cake cookie recipe I was working on (coming soon), so I immediately began developing my own version.
Mine ended up being quite similar to Milkbar’s Christina Tosi’s cake batter crumbs, though I use a few different ingredients and a different methodology (if you’ve ever had those, I’m sure you love these too!).
What You Need
These confetti crumbs are SO easy to make with just a few ingredients. Here’s what you need:
- Cake flour. I found that cake flour provided the best texture here, but you can use all-purpose flour if needed–just substitute properly!
- Unsalted butter. I recommend unsalted butter, but if all you have on hand is salted, just omit the salt.
- Sugar. I use a combination of granulated and light brown sugar for a rich flavor.
- Vanilla. A good dose of vanilla extract adds lots of flavor to give these that birthday cake taste!
- Sprinkles. You can’t have birthday cake crumbs without sprinkles! Use whatever kind you like; I like to create my own blend.
SAM’S TIP: While I typically make this funfetti crumble to use over frosted cupcakes or cakes, you can also just enjoy it as a fun snack (Zach calls this “sugar cookie popcorn”)! It’s delicious as-is once cooled from the oven, or you could even toss it in with a batch of kettle corn–yum!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Confetti Crumbs
- Cream together the butter, sugars, and vanilla.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the butter/sugar mixture until incorporated.
- Add the sprinkles and use your hands to create clusters.
- Spread onto a parchment lined baking sheet, bake for 10-12 minutes, and let cool completely before using.
SAM’S TIP: Before using it, I usually will put a handful of the crumble in a bag and smack it a few times with a rolling pin to make the crumbs softer and more like cake crumbs rather than clusters.
Frequently Asked Questions
These will be fine at room temperature in an airtight container for three to five days; if you’d like them to last longer, you can refrigerate them.
The traditional pairing would be a funfetti cake or birthday cake, but confetti crumbs would also be great on my confetti cupcakes, lemon cake, strawberry cake, or vanilla cake.
You could, but I find the flavor and texture is best with cake flour. If you use all-purpose flour, make sure to substitute properly (if using weights, it’s the same!).
I can’t wait to hear how you use these! 🥳
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Confetti Crumbs
Ingredients
- 5 Tablespoons (71 g) unsalted butter softened
- ⅔ cup (130 g) granulated sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (25 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cups (150 g) cake flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ heaping teaspoon table salt
- 3 Tablespoons sprinkles I like to use a mix of nonpareils and jimmies but one or the other would work fine
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 315F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream together butter, sugars, and vanilla extract until light and thoroughly creamed.
- Separately, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- With electric mixer on medium-low, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture until combined. Mixture will be very dry and sandy, but if you pinch it with your fingers it should cling together.
- Add sprinkles, then use your hands to incorporate the sprinkles and to pinch together the dough, creating clusters. I usually create large clusters that I break into smaller pieces. Ultimately it should resemble streusel with varying sizes of clumps when you’re finished.
- Spread evenly onto prepared baking sheet and bake on 315F (155C) for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool completely on baking sheet. The crumbs will be soft while warm, but will become firm once they’ve cooled completely.
- Use as desired over cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or even just enjoy by the handful.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Maggie
Do you think we could replace the sprinkles with mini chocolate chip and add in a dash of pumpkin pie spice to make a pumpkin chocolate chip crumb?
Sam
Hi Maggie! While I haven’t tried it, I do think that would work. It sounds delicious! Let me know how it turns out if you try it 🙂
Maggie
They turned out beautifully! And were the star of the cake. Thank you for responding and for sharing this recipe!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear this, Maggie! Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out for you!
Jennifer Livelsberger
Would these work to mix into ice cream?
Sam
Hi Jennifer! That sounds delicious! Enjoy! 🙂
Barbra
Could this be frozen?
Sam
Hi Barbra! These should freeze just fine. 🙂
S
If you crushed these small enough, could you fold it into a frosting? I want to make birthday cake macarons and was hoping to use this as a filling…
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Definitely! We think that sounds yummy 😊
Kristi
Could one add cocoa powder to make it chocolate?
Sam
Hi Kristi! It would be a little more difficult than just adding cocoa. You would need to make other adjustments and without having tried it I would be hesitant to say exactly how to do it.