Bubble cakes, unicorns and naked tiers may come and go, but sprinkles are forever. That’s why we’re grown-ass adults on the hunt to find the best confetti cake mixes you can buy. We tasted our way through two dozen eggs and more vegetable oil than we’d like to admit to find our favorite mixes on the market.
What’s the Best Confetti Cake Mix? We Tested Our Weight in Sprinkles to Find Out
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Published May 4, 2022
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The Criteria
When testing confetti cake mixes, here’s what we looked for:
- Value: All things considered, is it worth the price?
- Ease of assembly: Are the instructions straightforward and convenient?
- Flavor: Does the cake have a nice balance of sweetness and vanilla, or is it cloying and artificial?
- Texture: Is the cake fluffy and moist with a delicate crumb, or is it dry?
- Sprinkle-factor: Are the sprinkles big, bright and evenly dispersed, or do they sink to the bottom?
6 Six Confetti Cake Mixes We Recommend
1. Betty Crocker Delights Super Moist Party Rainbow Chip Cake Mix
Best Moist Cake
- Value: 18/20
- Ease of Assembly: 19/20
- Flavor: 16/20
- Texture: 19/20
- Sprinkle Factor: 16/20
- Total: 88/100
We almost never make cake from scratch, because most boxed mixes are just as good. And thanks to its ultra-moist texture and vanilla flavor, this mix might be, dare we say it, better than homemade. The secret is right on the box: There’s pudding in the mix, which is a tried-and-true trick for adding moisture to cakes. We were equally impressed with the sprinkles—they were subtle, but evenly distributed.
2. Duncan Hines Rainbow Confetti Cake Mix
Best Fluffy Cake
- Value: 17/20
- Ease of Assembly: 19/20
- Flavor: 15/20
- Texture: 18/20
- Sprinkle Factor: 15/20
- Total: 84/100
We found the Duncan Hines mix to be the fluffiest of the bunch. In fact, it verged on angel food cake. Importantly, though, it wasn’t dry or crumbly either, and it had a good (albeit slightly artificial) vanilla flavor. Our one qualm? The sprinkles blended in with the batter more than other mixes.
3. Annie’s Organic Confetti Cake Mix
Best Organic Cake
- Value: 16/20
- Ease of Assembly: 19/20
- Flavor: 18/20
- Texture: 17/20
- Sprinkle Factor: 16/20
- Total: 86/100
If transparent ingredients are a concern, Annie’s boxed mix contains no artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors or synthetic colors, as well as no hydrogenated oils.
Aside from the recognizable, short ingredient list, we were impressed with the home-baked flavor and texture. The sprinkles are made with natural dyes like turmeric and blueberry juice, so they’re not as vibrant as their artificial counterparts, but it’s a tradeoff we’re willing to take.
4. King Arthur Baking Company Gluten-Free Confetti Cake Mix
Best Gluten Free Cake
- Value: 17/20
- Ease of Assembly: 18/20
- Flavor: 17/20
- Texture: 16/20
- Sprinkle Factor: 17/20
- Total: 85/100
Because alternative flours absorb moisture differently than all-purpose, gluten-free baked goods always run the risk of being dry. Not this mix, though: It wasn’t quite as moist as the Better Crocker mix, but if we hadn’t baked it ourself, we wouldn’t know it was sans gluten. It had a delicate crumb and a light vanilla flavor. The instructions noted to give the batter a good scrape to distribute the sprinkles, and we were pleased to find that they didn’t all sink to the bottom of our cupcakes.
5. King Arthur Baking Company Gluten-free Single Serve Confetti Cake
Best Individual Cake
- Value: 16/20
- Ease of Assembly: 20/20
- Flavor: 15/20
- Texture: 15/20
- Sprinkle Factor: 17/20
- Total: 83/100
Whether you don’t like to share or you can’t wait more than a minute for a bite of cake, these individual dessert cups will quell a craving nicely. The single-serve cake requires nothing more than a bit of water and 50 seconds in the microwave, and it has “frosting” chips in the batter for an extra hit of sweetness. We found the texture gooier than a classic slice of cake, but the convenience is hard to beat. (Bonus, it’s also gluten free.)
6. Pillsbury Funfetti Premium Cake and Cupcake Mix
Best Sprinkles
- Value: 15/20
- Ease of Assembly: 19/20
- Flavor: 16/20
- Texture: 16/20
- Sprinkle Factor: 19/20
- Total: 85/100
Texture and flavor are always important, but we’re not afraid to admit that we’re in it for the sprinkles. Pillsbury’s classic Funfetti mix delivers with its “candy bits”—we don’t know for sure if they’re different from regular sprinkles, but they colored the cake with rainbow speckles in a way that gave us instant nostalgia. If we were on classroom bake sale duty, this is the box we would choose.
