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Light, fluffy, and perfectly moist birthday cake muffins make a mouth-watering, fun treat for birthday parties, birthday breakfasts, or any special occasion! Ready in under 20 minutes, kids and adults will love these pretty rainbow muffins!
I love this super fun and festive sprinkle birthday cake muffins recipe! They are the perfect fusion of fluffy cake-like texture and portable convenience, making them a hit at any birthday party or a delightful surprise for your loved ones.
With their vibrant colors and rainbow sprinkles, these muffins look and taste just like the Little Bites party cake muffins, but have no artificial colors or flavors, and are made with more wholesome ingredients! They're a total upgrade on those store-bought funfetti muffins.
Kids will LOVE these birthday cake mini muffins. They really are the best birthday breakfast treat! But honestly, they're also just fun treats for whenever. No matter the occasion, these pre-portioned mini muffins are a delicious, moist baked snack that will be a hit at your next party.
The best part? These party muffins are incredibly easy to make, allowing you to whip up a batch in no time.
👩🏽🍳 Why This Recipe Works
- Perfect Treat For Special Occasions: With a taste kids love, you can't go wrong serving these party muffins anytime you want to celebrate!
- Quick And Easy Recipe: Made with simple ingredients, and with easy to follow steps, you'll end up with perfect muffins every time.
- Great For Busy Families: These sprinkle muffins make ideal school snacks or lunch snacks and will last for up to a week in the fridge, so you can make a big batch and use them for meal prep!
- Copycat Entenmann's Little Bites Party Cake Mini Muffins: Looks like confetti cake but in muffin form, and tastes just as good as the store bought version!
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🥘 Ingredients
Not only are they bright and colorful, this recipe for birthday cake muffins is super easy - all you need are some simple pantry ingredients!
- Flour: These happy birthday muffins will be best with all-purpose flour. If you need to make substitutions, keep reading for more info on alternatives.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: Baking powder and baking soda gives you those fluffy muffins we all love. It helps them rise while they're baking.
- Sugar & Salt: Sweeten up these birthday muffins with granulated sugar. You can substitute other types of sugar, but keep in mind that amounts may vary. Salt helps bring out the sweetness of these party mini muffins!
- Milk & Greek Yogurt: These two ingredients helps combine all the ingredients and creates a moist, soft texture for these healthy birthday cake muffins. Make sure to get unflavored Greek yogurt!
- Eggs & Melted Butter: These two ingredients enhance the rich flavor of these sweet treats and help bind all the ingredients together.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Adds a touch of vanilla to your birthday cake muffin batter and helps enhance the flavor of the other ingredients.
- Sprinkles: Yummy sprinkles are what bring a festive feeling to these favorite day birthday cake muffins!
🍲 Substitutions & Dietary Adaptations
- Flour: You can use whole wheat flour, oat flour, or whole wheat pastry flour when making this happy birthday muffin recipe, but keep in mind the texture of the muffins will change slightly, and the muffins may be darker in color. If you change the flour I recommend testing for doneness at around the 10 minute mark.
- Sugar: You can use brown sugar or coconut sugar, but it will change the moisture, color and texture of the muffin slightly.
- Vegan: Use vegan butter, a flax egg, vegan yogurt and a plant based milk. You can also use applesauce instead of the yogurt - I recommend starting with 1/4 cup of applesauce and increasing if you need more moisture.
- Dairy-Free: Use nondairy milk and vegan butter.
- Egg-Free: Use flax eggs!
- Gluten-Free: Use a 1:1 gluten free baking flour with xanthan gum added that's meant for baking muffins.
- Added Sugar Free: You can omit the sugar, but keep in mind these confetti muffins won't really be sweet and will taste more like a biscuit!
🔪 Instructions
Prep & Combine Dry Ingredients: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180 C. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl until well combined.
Combine Wet Ingredients: In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt, eggs, vanilla and melted butter.
Mix Wet And Dry Ingredients: Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently stir to combine. Do not over-mix.
Add Sprinkles: Gently fold in ¾ of the sprinkles into the batter, reserving some to top the muffin batter before baking.
Add To Muffin Tray: Evenly divide the batter between a mini muffin pan and sprinkle reserve sprinkles over each of these bakery mini muffins.
Bake, Cool & Enjoy! Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the muffins are golden brown. Allow these cake like muffins to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before removing and cooling completely on a cooling rack.
💭 Expert Tips
- Don't overmix sprinkles. Gently fold the sprinkles into the batter, do not over mix as the color from the sprinkles will begin to run through the batter. Don't forget to top each muffin with extra sprinkles before baking them!
- Don't overmix batter. For best results, do not over mix the batter as this will result in chewy, tough muffins.
- Make sure muffins don't stick. Be sure to use a well greased muffin tray, non stick tray or muffin liners.
- To make 12 standard size muffins, you'll need to increase the baking time to 15-16 minutes (or until an inserted toothpick or skewer comes out clean).
- I like using naturally colored sprinkles to avoid artificial colors. But those sprinkles aren't as bright as standard sprinkles - so feel free to use whichever kind you like!
📖 Variations
- Mix-Ins: Feel free to add in all kinds of mix-ins to these delicious birthday cake-flavored mini muffins like mini chocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries, chopped almonds, chopped walnuts or pecans, or a little bit of orange zest for additional flavor.
- Toppings: For a more decadent feel, pipe vanilla icing on top with additional sprinkles. You can also use a cream cheese frosting or add a drizzle of chocolate or caramel sauce on top.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
Allow these muffins to cool completely before serving. Enjoy as a sweet morning treat with a warm mug of coffee or as an easy dessert for a birthday party. Kids typically love these birthday party muffins with a tall glass of cold milk or plant based milk!
These birthday cake muffin bites also pair well with oat milk hot chocolate or this cinnamon flavored healthy hot chocolate! For a more adult version, serve them with this mocha latte, Biscoff latte, beetroot latte, or golden latte!
🫙 Storage Directions
At Room Temperature: Let these breakfast birthday cake muffins cool completely. Transfer them to an airtight container and store them in a cool dry place for up to 4 days.
In The Fridge: To extend the shelf life of these muffins, you can also store them in the fridge where they will keep for up to 7 days! Let them come to room temperature on the countertop before serving.
To Freeze: Let the muffins cool completely. Transfer them to a freezer safe container and store them in the freezer for up to 1 month. To defrost, simply leave them out at room temperature until they have thawed, then warm in the microwave for 10-20 seconds until slightly warmed through.
❓Recipe FAQs
Are birthday cake muffins healthy?
It depends on how you make them! The Little Bites party cake muffins, or Little Debbie birthday cake muffins aren't really healthy as they use artificial colors, flavors, and are made with processed ingredients. They're more of an occasional indulgence!
But these birthday muffins are made with whole food ingredients, are very low in sugar, and have nothing artificial added, making them a sweet treat you can feel good about eating (or giving to your kids!)
Are muffin and cake batter the same?
Not exactly! While cake batter and muffin batter use similar ingredients, there are differences in the proportions of each ingredient used. Cake batter typically uses more fat and sugar than muffin batter, and muffin batter has more flour and liquid than cake batter.
What is the most important rule to follow when baking muffins?
The #1 rule to follow when baking muffins is to make sure you don't over-mix your batter!! Do not beat the batter until it's completely smooth and lump free. A few lumps are ok - you want to mix that batter until it's just combined.
