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featured cotton candy cake

Cotton Candy Cake Recipe

Course: Cake, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 12 slices
Calories: 1072kcal
Author: Becky Hardin
Fun and colorful cotton candy cake is perfect for birthdays and showers. This cotton candy flavored cake will be the star of any celebration!
Print Recipe
US Customary - Metric

Equipment

  • Kitchen Scale (optional)
  • 3 8-inch Round Cake Pan
  • Stand Mixer
  • Piping Tip Set (optional)

Ingredients

For the Cake

  • 4 cups cake flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1¼ teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature (2 sticks)
  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 5 large eggs room temperature
  • 1¾ cups milk room temperature*
  • 1½ teaspoons cotton candy flavoring (2 drams LorAnn)**
  • Blue and pink food coloring optional***

For the Buttercream

  • 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature (4 sticks)
  • 7 cups powdered sugar
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¾ teaspoon cotton candy flavoring (1 dram LorAnn)
  • Pink and blue food coloring optional

Instructions

Bake the Cakes:

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 3 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper and spray them with nonstick spray. Set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
    4 cups cake flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1¼ teaspoons kosher salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda
    dry ingredients for a cake in a white bowl.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high for about 1 minute.
    1 cup unsalted butter, 3 cups granulated sugar
    butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.
  • Add in the eggs, milk, and cotton candy flavoring. Beat on high for another 1 minute.
    5 large eggs, 1¾ cups milk, 1½ teaspoons cotton candy flavoring
    eggs and milk added to cake batter in a stainless bowl.
  • Add in the flour mixture and stir just until the flour has been incorporated. Divide evenly into 2 smaller bowls and color with blue and pink food coloring if desired.
    Blue and pink food coloring
    pink and blue cake batter in separate bowls.
  • Alternately spoon blue and pink batter into the cake pans and gently swirl them together. Don’t swirl too much or the batter will turn purple and bake into a brown color. Place into the oven to bake for 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, or with moist crumbs. Once baked, remove from the oven, place onto a cooling rack, and let cool to room temperature.
    swirled pink and blue cake batter in a round cake pan.

Make the Buttercream:

  • While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, powdered sugar, salt, and cotton candy flavoring together. Beat first on low for about 2 minutes, or until the powdered sugar is almost completely incorporated, to avoid it from flying out of the bowl. Increase speed to high and let it whip for 4 minutes to create a smooth buttercream.
    2 cups unsalted butter, 7 cups powdered sugar, ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt, ¾ teaspoon cotton candy flavoring
    fluffy frosting in a stand mixer bowl.
  • Separate the frosting evenly into 3 bowls. Color 1 bowl pink, 1 bowl blue, and leave the last bowl uncolored.
    Pink and blue food coloring
    pink, blue, and white buttercream in bowls.

Decorate the Cake:

  • Once the cakes are cooled, place 1 layer onto a cake stand or plate. Top with about ¼ cup of buttercream and spread to the edges.
  • Place a second layer of cake on top and frost. Place the last layer of cake on top.
  • Frost the top and sides of the cake with buttercream. Alternate between white, blue, and pink frosting for a cotton candy, rainbow effect.
  • For neat multi-colored frosting swirls, alternately spread some pink and blue buttercream onto the sides of a piping bag fitted with your choice of tip. Once you are happy with the mix of colors, fill the remainder of the bag with white buttercream. Pipe in a clock formating, piping 1 swirl each at 12:00, 6:00, 3:00, and 9:00. Continue in that fashion around the perimeter of the cake.
  • If desired, top with clouds or pieces of cotton candy.
  • Once the cake is frosted, slice and serve!

Notes

*I recommend whole milk, but any kind of milk will work here.
**If you can’t find it locally, I recommend ordering some from LorAnn.
***While totally optional, I used pink and blue food colorings to make both the cake and the frosting super vibrant! I added a little bit of yellow in mine, too, but doing just pink and blue is the easiest!
Tips:
  • If you want to make this recipe with cake mix, swap the cake ingredients for 2 boxes of white or yellow cake mix (check below for further instructions).
  • Make sure the cake is fully cooled before frosting, or the frosting will melt off.
  • I like to bake the cakes a day ahead of time, then assemble and decorate it the next day.
  • Be sure to use active baking powder--check the expiration date!
  • Measure dry ingredients using the spoon-and-level-method; or use a kitchen scale.
  • Make sure your dairy ingredients are room temperature. Adding them cold straight from the fridge can lead to a lumpy batter and improper mixing.
  • If you plan to top your cake with cotton candy, wait until just before serving. The moisture from the buttercream will start to melt the cotton candy pretty quickly.
Storage: Store cotton candy cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Nutrition

Serving: 1slice | Calories: 1072kcal | Carbohydrates: 152g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 50g | Saturated Fat: 30g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 194mg | Sodium: 512mg | Potassium: 138mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 120g | Vitamin A: 1576IU | Calcium: 134mg | Iron: 1mg