Dye-Free Confetti Cupcakes from Weelicious Pin

A birthday party simply wouldn’t be the same without yummy cupcakes to help celebrate. But what about the artificial colors found in most store bought cupcakes? These Dye-Free Confetti Cupcakes are my worry-free party solution. They’re so darn cute, and as you can see from Chloe’s reaction below, absolutely delicious!

Dye-Free Confetti Cupcakes from Weelicious Pin

My kids’ school has (thankfully) knuckled down this year on snacks, food-dye and artificial coloring and the amount of sugar that parents can bring for birthday celebrations. I’m all for moderation, so on occasion I will let my kids eat just about anything, however I’ve always made it clear to them that artificial food dyes aren’t good for their bodies. While my son has totally embraced this fact and exercises caution, my daughter has a hard time resisting anything featuring color.

Dye-Free Confetti Cupcakes from Weelicious Pin

When I first saw these cupcakes in Jessica Merchant’s new cookbook, Seriously Delicious, I knew both of my kids would go gaga for them as the cake is dye-free and I could top them with a dye free brand of sprinkles.

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

I planned to make them as soon as possible so I went to Amazon and typed “dye free sprinkles” into the search bar. A version from India Tree came up and I bought them. I was excited for them to arrive, given that many of India Tree’s products don’t contain dyes, however when I received the sprinkles they looked unusually bright for something that was supposed to be dye-free. Much to my surprise the sprinkles were made with artificial dyes.

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

At this point Chloe, who had been with me at the mailbox when my Amazon package arrived, was begging me for a cupcake with rainbow sprinkles while Kenya wanted one using the organic Let’s Do Sprinklez brand I also had ordered, which is made from all natural vegetable dyes. Vegetable dye sprinkles are not as vivid as what we’re all conditioned to expect rainbow sprinkles to look like, but they taste delicious, come in a variety of colors (which you can see in the first three images here), and most important, are safe for our bodies.

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Trying not to be an overbearing mom I allowed Chloe have her cupcake with the unnaturally bright sprinkles making her oh-so-happy. I then threw away the rest of those sprinkles and sent Amazon a not-so-happy note asking them to remove the India Tree Sprinkles from the “dye-free” section of their site.

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

As much as I could go on and on about sprinkles, the best part about Jessica’s cupcake recipe is the light and moist vanilla cake — it’s like vanilla air. Her book, Seriously Delish, is filled with 150 glorious recipes as well as some of the funniest anecdotes I’ve ever read in a cookbook. Her thoughts on life and food make me laugh out loud, and as I cruised through the book it reminded me to always have a sense of humor about food and cooking.

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

No matter what type of sprinkles you use these Dye Free Confetti Cupcakes are a winner for a birthday party, celebration or as demonstrated by Chloe below.. anytime!

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin

Confetti Cupcakes from WeeliciousPin
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Dye-Free Confetti Cupcakes

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Print Recipe
Author: Catherine McCord
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients  

  • Cupcakes:
  • 1 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large whole egg
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/3 cup assorted colored sprinkles
  • Vanilla Cream Frosting:
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon whole milk, or as needed
  • 1/4 cup assorted colored sprinkles

Instructions 

For the Cupcakes:

  • Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
  • In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  • Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat it until creamy. Add the sugar and beat with the butter in high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg and egg white, mixing well on medium speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Add the oil and vanilla extract, beating on medium speed for another minute. With the mixer on low speed, add half the dry ingredients and blend. Pour in the milk and blend. Add the other half of the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until the batter is combined. Use a large spatula to gently stir in the sprinkles.
  • Fill the cupcake liners two-thirds full. Bake until the tops are set, 10 to 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the Vanilla Cream Frosting:

  • Add the butter and cream cheese to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high speed until creamy and combined. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the powdered sugar. Beat until the sugar is incorporated, and then add the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Beat the frosting on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until fluffy and creamy. If the frosting seems too thick, beat in the milk for 1 to 2 minutes, until combined. Frost the cupcakes and top them with the sprinkles.
Did you make this recipe?Mention @Weelicious or tag #weelicious!

Published August 4, 2022 by Catherine McCord

Categorized in , , , , , , , , ,

About the Author

Catherine is a mama of three. A Kentucky girl living in California. Here’s what I know: all kids can be great eaters and mealtime must be easy. I create simple, healthy recipes the whole family will love.

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Comments

  2. Saw Seriously Delish in B & N and it looks amazing! Hope I win and thanks for giveaway!

  5. I have struggled to find a good whole foods cupcake! Looking forward to trying this one!

  6. This year my husband and so are making Christmas dessert. I can’t wait to see what we end up with.

  7. I love baking my grandmother Pankies Christmas Cookies at any time of the year for any holiday or special occasion! They are a rolled out and cut with the appropriate cookie cutters and frosted with a petit four glaze.
    Thank you for the chance to win. Love your blog, recipes and cookbooks.

  10. Crème brûlée! time consuming, but it’s worth it; especially since my son LOVES it too… we’ll make a pumpkin version for the holidays!

  14. I love to make cupcakes and I’m definitely going to order your dye free sprinkles for our holiday cookie baking as well. Thanks!

  16. hi, i have a granddaughter’s birthday that these cupcakes will be perfect for, thanks so much

  17. Can’t wait to make these cupcakes! They will be a hit in our house I’m sure!

  19. your cupcakes are dye free!!! thanks for this. we will use in our next batch..plus this cookbook is getting lots of hype..and rightly so.
    thanks
    floridagld at yahoo dot com
    vickie

  21. For my son’s first birthday I tried making rainbow cupcakes with natural coloring…not such a bright rainbow. Lol, it looked more like a rainy day. Hey, but it was healthier!

  24. I love making chocolate chip cookies, but I’m excited to make these cupcakes for my boys.

  27. I love to bake, but lately I’ve been making a lot of pumpkin and chocolate chip desserts!

  30. My favorite sweet treat to make is anything that includes both chocolate and peanut butter!

  36. The cupcakes look “Seriously Delish”! And the cover of the book does too!!

  38. Cake. Chocolate, vanilla…..only problem is my small family can’t finish the whole thing 🙂

  39. Do I have to choose just one sweet treat? 🙂 Love making cookies and chocolate covered almonds..

  44. My 4 year old daughter and I love to bake. Today we made chocolate chip cookies with white whole wheat flour to send into Daddy’s office tomorrow! They were delicious. We kept a few for ourselves!

  45. I love brownies, or anything chocolate! But these cupcakes look fantastic…I don’t think I’d say no to one of those 🙂

  47. We are a dye free family as well, and it is NOT easy!
    I like to make chocolate chip oatmeal bars for my kids (with a little fax seeds that I sneak in!)

  51. I love baking cakes for my family. It was just my daughters birthday today and I made her a 3 layer vanilla cake w pink frosting, choc ganache and of course sprinkles 🙂

  54. I love making Cookie Cake Pie with buttercream icing 🙂 I usually add some fun sprinkles and colors to the icing to make it look cute and bright. I usually have enough cake batter + cookie dough left over and so I’ll make cookie stuffed cupcakes with the leftovers….brb need to make some now 😉

  58. My favorite sweet treat to prepare are pumpkin muffins with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top!

  71. Nice to know these sprinkles exist. I have a son who puts sprinkles on everything.

  72. My husband loves pink sprinkle donuts and I’m sure he would love these cupcakes too!

  74. My favorite dessert is straight-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies 😀 I just checked the India Tree sprinkles I just bought today and they are dye free. They must make two versions????

  77. What a fun looking cookbook. These look yummy! Chloe looks very happy to be having one!

  78. You inspire me so much, catherine, precisely because of your moderation when it comes to feeding your kids healthy. And I think that’s what makes you a great mom! You’re not forcing them into eating only what you want! My daughter’s bday is coming up and this is just the cupcake I wanna bake with her!

  83. Those cupcakes look yummy! I have a lot of sweet treats I like to make, but my favorite is triple chocolate cookies. They’re absolutely delish!

  87. I love to make the cake that my Mother makes for all of our birthdays. It’s called Chocolate Shadow Cake and has a delicious butter frosting with a chocolate ganache blanket. Delicious!

  89. My Mom encouraged my fearlessness in the kitchen at a young age. One sweet treat that I love to bake, especially because of the fond memories, is cereal cookies. As it uses unsweetened cereals, I like to pretend that they are good for breakfast 🙂

  92. I love Jessica and her blog, so I KNOW I’d love her cookbook! These cupcakes look delightful…I could definitely go for one right now.

  93. I love the advice on how to cook dye free and where to purchase the items needed!

  99. I would LOVE to win her book, but i do have the weelicious lunch book which has bee so helpful with getting my kids to eat healthy! I am so excited to say that my two year old and four year old are now asking for veggies!! 🙂 thanks!

  103. Love your newsletters. Always unhealthy, fun and delicious ideas for special treats and dishes for our whole family!
    Thanks for all you do!

  104. I love baking chocolate chip peanut butter cake with chocolate ganache

  108. I was happy and excited to share #WeeliciousGiveaways, on my Facebook page! Fantastically fun!

  109. Nothing beats homemade chocolate chip cookies, but those cupcakes look delish too! I’m saving it for my kids bdays!

  111. Brownies top my list followed by chocolate chip cookies, and then rice crispie bars (I use more cereal so they’re not so sugary from the marshmallows. I like to put sprinkles on top for the holidays so I love your tip and will get some dye free! Wonderful. Would love to win. Thank you for your wonderful sharing!
    With love and gratitude, Laura

  112. We love baking cookies as a family. Making cookies is a fond childhood memory of mine that I’m sharing with my kids.

  115. #weeliciousgiveaways with your awesome recipe posted on my Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Woohoo

  116. Cookies! Nothing beats the entire process….mixing up the batter, sneaking bites, and the whole family hovering around the stove when you take a batch out! And every time you see the cooling rack there seems to be less and less of them 😉

  123. I’m currently experimenting with carrot cake for my twins second birthday! Yum.

  125. Cheesecake is definitely my favorite if I’m going all out…in a pinch almost any dessert will hit the spot though! 🙂 me and my major sweet tooth!

  128. I can’t believe the info about India Tree. I was going to order them for christmas baking. Now I may try the King Arthur flour brand. Thanks for the tip!

  134. Love love love your recipes! These cupcakes look delicious! It’s so nice to use all natural ingredients to add some sparkle!

  138. That’s ashame that the so-called dye free sprinkles, turned out not to be! Glad you warned Amazon! your cupcakes look delicious though:)

    My fave thing to bake is cupcakes actually lol…and brownies & cakes haha

    Thank you for the chance to win this awesome book!

    Joey J.

  144. I like to make banana bread. Did not know that there were dye-free sprinkles. Thanks for letting us know.

  146. What beautiful cupcakes! Thanks for giving us ways to remove artificiality from our food at home.

  147. We love to mix up some organic brownie mix. We cook it just halfway and then ladle out the hot, chocolate, ooey-gooey goodness and put it on top of vanilla ice cream. Yum. : )

  148. I absolutely adore Joy the Baker’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I make them for every event I attend!

  152. We love baking at our house. Cookies are a favorite, and our oldest daughter (5) adores anything with sprinkles.

  154. I try to use the India Tree “Natures Colors” food coloring, and sprinkles.

  155. My favorite is chocolate chip cookies. My recipe is from the Iowa State Fair winners cookbook and has a ton of chocolate chips in it, however, after seeing this recipe, I may have to change my mind!

  160. A vegan chocolate zucchini cake which my entire family loves. Super easy & yummy!!

  162. Our favorite 1? I have a 2 year old who loves discovering treats & helping to cook so they are ALL our favorite. Each one brings a new, fun, experience of a new taste! 🙂

  165. Thank you for the post. My daughter is 3 and I have never given her sprinkles because I didnt know a dye free version was available. I’ve ill be searchimg for them.

  167. I try to add extra goodness to my recipes, so our new favorite is zucchini carrot muffins with hemp and chia seed, so good!!

  172. Thanks for the great and safe recipe!
    In our house we love to bake banana bread!

  173. Chocolate Chip Cookies or around the holidays my family’s recipe for sugar cookies. It’s a tradition that we have these sugar cookies at Christmas time!
    Pinning this recipe to use for my son’s birthday in his preschool class next spring!

  176. i love to make cakes & cupcakes the most (probably because i like to eat them the most 🙂

  184. In our house, pumpkin is a favorite especially homemade pumpkin muffins! Can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks!

  191. My kids love my lemon blueberry muffins and my GF peanut butter mini-chocolate chip cookies.. I love the dye-free sprinkle recipe – will definitely look for those sprinkles!

  193. Our favorites are pumpkin muffins and dark chocolate brownies. Thank you for this recipe!

  194. Cupcakes are mine and my daughter’s favorite treat to make together.

  196. Chocolate popcorn! Just butter, cocoa powder and brown sugar. Bake it for a while and you have a great sweet snack!

  206. I love making Joy of Cooking rich roll cookies…secret ingredient is a little brandy in the confectioner’s sugar icing!

  216. It looks like a wonderful cookbook. I wish my children’s school would limit birthday treats. At the same time I write the previous sentence I know that I need to take a stand and suggest changes to the school. Don’t just complain about a problem….have a solutions!

  218. I love making Julia Child’s Brownies – so yummy! These cupcakes look great for my turning 9 year old niece’s birthday.

  222. Our favorite treats are usually chocolate chip cookies or your awesome graham crackers. Those never last long!

  223. My son created his own “pie” – cut apples and pears mixed with a little flour and sugar and cinnamon. We cut up bread cubes and mix them with melted butter and sugar and cinnamon and bake it. It’s like a fruit crisp, but with a bread cube “streusel”. He made it up when he was 5. It’s surprisingly good!

  225. We love chocolate chunk cookies in our house! Yum! These cupcakes look delicious too!

  227. I love to bake anything. Right now my favorites are anything with pumpkin in it.

  228. I would love this book. As a mother of two who cut out dyes a year ago.

  229. I love eating all sorts of baked sweets, but I like making apple crisp with my kids, esp in fall.

  230. I never thought about using amazon as a source for no dye food stuffs. I’ll have to give it a try! Thanks for the chance to win the cookbook- it looks amazing!!!

  233. I LOVE baking! One that I consistently get raves over is your Parsnip Muffins! Another is a pecan pie bar that I make for my dad.

  234. I just checked out the cookbook! Looks crazy good! I would love to try the Fleur de Sel Caramel Bourbon Brownie Milk Shakes. What!?!?!!

  237. Yay for healthy fall/winter birthday party ideas! I have a child born in the summer and another born in the winter. Rarely do I see creative fun ideas for my winter child. Thanks for the inspiration!!!

  238. We love your site and would really love this cookbook!!!! It would be so helpful to us.
    Thanks

  239. Thanks very much for the information. I have serious allergic reactions to dyes.

  241. I’m with you on the artificial colors… I do think you are right, that we are “conditioned” to expect uber bright colors. However, the natural colors are pretty beautiful, too! 🙂

  242. Thanks for the recommendation about dye-free sprinkles. I had yet to find them, and of course my kids ask for sprinkles when I make cupcakes.

  248. Chloe is so cute, enjoying her festive cupcake! The recipe is pretty simple, my toddler and I might have to tackle it this afternoon.

  250. We love dessert and I believe that we have a tie between chocolate cake and sweet potato pie.

  251. Love making cupcakes. The perfect amount of sweet treat in such cute liners!

  252. Stoned dates stuffed with marzipan. Now need to figure out how to make cashew marzipan as daughter is allergic to almonds.

  255. I LOVE her blog and have the book on my Christmas list… i’d be nice to get it early!

  256. Cookies are my favorite sweet treat to make as well as eat! I like a version called the Chunky Lola from Flour Bakery in Boston.

  257. I love to make chia pudding with coconut milk and a little maple syrup. Yum!

  258. Oh wow! Whatever is on the cover of Jessica Merchant’s book looks absolutely divine.

    What a great sounding book, and I’m glad that there is a place to find dye-free sprinkles. I will definitely be looking that.

    My favorite sweet treat to make is probably brownies, followed closely by Sunshine Bars (made by my grade school cook. She passed the recipe onto my mom and they are SO good!)

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