The best thing about primary school was always the school cake, but did you know you can make similar in the air fryer, like this air fryer sprinkle cake with pink icing?
Sprinkle cake which is also known as school cake, pink cake, hundreds and thousands cake or funfetti cake, is so easy to recreate in the air fryer.
Heads up! This sprinkle cake recipe is so so popular with our air fryer readers that they asked us to feature it in our air fryer beginner’s cookbook called Air Fryer Easy Everyday. You can get a copy here.
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Sprinkle Cake Recipe
I don’t know what it is about sprinkle cake, but its like that kid’s addiction, that brings the kid back out of the adult.
I just love the pink icing and the sprinkles that cover a vanilla sponge cake.
Yet, if I was offered just a vanilla cake, cooked in the air fryer, I doubt I would react the same way!
Also, this sprinkle cake is cooked in the air fryer, which makes such a big difference. The air circulates around the cake, creating a better, more tasty, and moist cake than what you would have achieved using a standard oven.
Plus, if you love old fashioned comfort food in the air fryer – then I have you covered. Also check out: air fryer Yorkshire puddings, air fryer sausage rolls, air fryer Cornish pasties, air fryer brownies, air fryer melting moments, air fryer mr kipling lemon slices and my personal favourite air fryer flapjacks.
Can You Bake A Cake In An Air Fryer
Yes, you can bake a cake in an air fryer, and we are going to show you exactly how to do it with this pink sprinkle cake recipe.
We are big fans of cakes in air fryer and have been cooking cakes the air fryer way for many years.
We also have a baked chocolate cake and a baked victoria sponge, in our debut air fryer cookbook which you can order here. Or our second cookbook also features a sprinkle cake recipe, and you can get book 2 here.
What Is A Pink Sprinkle Cake?
A pink sprinkle cake is a version of a vanilla school cake. Also known as a pink school cake, just as a school cake, funfetti cake (for those in the USA) or a hundreds and thousands cake.
Either way, it has a nostalgic association with school days and is a vanilla cake, that is coated in pink icing, following sprinkles, making the name pink sprinkle cake very logical.
Air Fryer Cake Pan
You will of course need an air fryer cake pan, to bake a cake in air fryer. We find the best option is these silicone cake pans. Each pack comes in a few different sizes, and you can use the smaller one for smaller air fryers, and the 7.5 inch version, is what we use when we make a cake in our air fryer.
They are also very sturdy, as we have found many air fryer accessories are now lacking quality. You can order them here on Amazon.
How To Bake A Cake In Ninja Dual Air Fryer?
If you have a Ninja Dual Air Fryer (or a small air fryer) then you are not going to be able to fit a 7.5 inch cake pan in your air fryer.
What we recommend instead is going smaller, so using the smaller cake pans, that I have mentioned above. Then you could have in the dual, 2 in each drawer. Then match the drawers, as you set the time and temperature and you have Ninja Dual Cake.
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Sprinkle Cake Recipe Ingredients
Baking – For baking a cake in an air fryer, you will need the usual cake ingredients. Including unsalted butter, self raising flour, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, and milk. We also recommend adding some olive oil to the batter for a lighter cake.
Icing – For the sprinkle school cake look, you will need pink icing and icing sugar (confectioners sugar in the US) along with some water to make a thick paste with.
Sprinkles – You can use any sprinkles you like. Our kids have a sprinkles jar and I always look for what they have in there, to sprinkle over the school cake.
Can You Recommend An Air Fryer?
I often get asked which air fryers I recommend and which one I use. In 95% of our air fryer recipes, we use either the Philips Air Fryer XL or the Cosori XL because they are the best ones, we have found out of many air fryers we have tried over the years. You can click on the links above and read up on them.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our air fryer recipes category as we have more than 500 tried and tested everyday air fryer recipes and have been air frying for 10+ years.
Best Air Fryer For Baking Cakes?
If you plan to make cake in the air fryer on a regular basis, then you want the best air fryer for the job. Which is the Philips Air Fryer. The difference with the Philips is that it has better air technology than other air fryers, and this means that the cake is cooking at the bottom as well as the top and sides.
Here is more info about the Philips Air Fryer XL.
How To Bake A Cake In An Air Fryer?
- Mix. Start by mixing the butter and the sugar with an electric hand mixer, until you have a light and fluffy mixture. Then add the eggs, the milk, the olive oil and the vanilla extract and continue mixing until smooth. Finish by mixing in the flour and you now have your cake batter.
- Cook. Pour the cake batter into a silicone cake pan, then place the pan into the air fryer basket. Cook for 30 minutes at 160c/320f, then cover, then cook for another 30 minutes at the reduced temperature of 150c/300f.
- Sprinkle. Whilst the cake is cooling, mix the icing sugar with a little water to create a thick paste, then add in pink food colouring, a little at a time until it reaches your level of pink. Pour the icing over the cake and then scatter with the sprinkles.
How Long To Bake Cake In Air Fryer?
This cake recipe for air fryer takes an hour. This is so that you can ensure it is fully cooked in the centre and we cook an air fryer sprinkle cake at a lower temperature to avoid overbrowning on top.
What Temperature To Bake Cake In Air Fryer?
We recommend for this air fryer cake recipe that you cook at 160c/320f and then reduce the temperature to 150c/300f, to avoid the overbrowning on top.
Listen To Air Fryer Sprinkle Cake
Every week this year on the Magic With Gadgets Podcast we are creating a podcast each week to accompany the recipe. You can listen to this week’s below, and then follow along with me at home as you make it.
Want to learn more about our Podcast? Then click here and you can browse through past episodes and subscribe to the Magic With Gadgets Podcast.
Air Fryer Cake Recipes
- Air Fryer Chocolate Cake
- Air Fryer Birthday Cake
- Air Fryer Christmas Cake
- Air Fryer Lemon Drizzle Cake
- Air Fryer Carrot Cake
- Air Fryer Victoria Sponge
- Check out all our 600+ air fryer beginner recipes!
Learn How To Cook Cake In Air Fryer below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Air Fryer Sprinkle Cake
Ingredients
- 180 g Self Raising Flour
- 170 g Unsalted Butter
- 200 g Granulated Sugar
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 6 Tbsp Whole Milk
- 1.5 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 100 g Icing Sugar/Confectioners Sugar
- A Few Drops Pink Icing
- 2.5 Tbsp Rainbow Sprinkles
Kitchen Gadgets
Instructions
- Place the butter and the sugar into a bowl and mix well with a hand mixer, until smooth and creamy.
- Then add in the rest of the wet ingredients – eggs, vanilla, olive oil and milk. Continue mixing until creamy and well mixed in.
- Finally, add the flour and mix to combine and scrape the edges with a spatula if you have any bits of flour that are not mixed in.
- Pour the cake batter into a silicone pan – we used a 7.5 inch one, and then place the silicone container into the air fryer basket.
- Cook the air fryer sprinkle cake for 30 minutes at 160c/320f.
- Cover the cake with foil to stop overbrowning on top and then cook for another 30 minutes at the reduced temperature of 150c/300f.
- Allow the cake to cool whilst you make your icing. Mixing the icing with a little water at a time until you have a thick icing paste. Slowly add a tiny bit of pink colouring at a time, then spoon the icing over the cake.
- Finish by sprinkling your sprinkles and then allow it to set before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
