Funfetti Birthday Cake Cookies
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Do you love birthday cake? Do you love cookies? Why not have both! These Homemade Birthday Cake Cookies taste like birthday cake batter wrapped in a soft, chewy sugar cookie. These are perfectly soft cookies with a great texture and gooey middle.
They’re fun, festive, and insanely scrumptious.
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Truthfully, I’m not much of a cake person, but I am always in the mood for a good cookie. And believe me when I tell you that, aside from chocolate chip cookies, these funfetti cookies are my new favorite recipe.
What makes this easy funfetti cookie recipe stand out is the addition of cream cheese! This magic ingredient produces super soft and chewy cookies that are so buttery and sweet and melt in your mouth!
“Confetti cookies” are perfect for birthday parties, baby showers, or celebrations of all sorts, especially for folks who don’t like cake. These cream cheese funfetti cookies also make for great ice cream sandwiches.
It’s a great recipe that’s also such a fun recipe (because it’s loaded with colorful sprinkles), it can’t help but make you smile!
Why You’ll Love These Homemade Funfetti Sugar Cookies
- This is an easy recipe for birthday cake cookies from scratch that tastes like delicious funfetti cake mix
- Great for parties or birthday celebrations and folks who don’t like cake.
- They can be made ahead and keep really well
- These easy funfetti cookies are 100% from scratch and taste better than Pillsbury
- Soft and chewy and incredibly delicious
- Great for ice cream sandwiches! Try them with a scoop of homemade vanilla or strawberry ice cream!
Ingredients for Birthday Cake Cookies
This funfetti cookies recipe uses simple ingredients, and no box of cake mix is needed.
- All purpose flour – I prefer trusted brands like Gold Medal or Pilsbury to prevent the cookies from spreading in the oven.
- Baking Powder – Make sure it’s fresh for best results with rising
- Coarse Kosher Salt
- Unsalted Butter – softened but still cool. I let it sit out about 30 minutes.
- Cream cheese – Softened but still cool.
- Granulated Sugar
- Large egg
- Vanilla extract
- Rainbow sprinkles
Step by Step Instructions
Follow these step by step instructions for the best chewy funfetti cookies from scratch every time.
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350º and line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.
Step 2
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small or medium bowl. Set aside.
Step 3
In the large bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
Add the cream cheese to the smooth butter and beat on medium low speed until smooth, 45-60 seconds.
Next, add in the sugar and stir on low til mostly combined. Turn up the mixer’s speed to medium and mix for 1 minute until smooth and creamy.
Step 4
Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated.
Give the sides and bottom of the bowl a good scrape with a rubber spatula to get anything the mixer didn’t reach.
Step 5
With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix until almost fully mixed, but streaks of flour still show.
Pour in the sprinkles and gently stir by hand, until the batter is just combined and the sprinkles are evenly distributed.
Scoop the batter one heaping tablespoon at a time (I like a cookie scoop for this job) onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Make sure to space the cookie dough balls 2 inches apart so they don’t spread into each other.
Gently flatten the center of the cookies using two fingers. This will ensure they’ll bake and flatten evenly.
Tip: This Funfetti cookie dough is a little sticky, you may need to wet your fingers a little or give them a spritz of cooking spray before pressing.
Step 6
Bake the cookies in the preheated 350ºF oven for 11-12 minutes.
Bake until the cookies are barely brown around the edges and the centers have puffed and no longer jiggle or look wet. Your kitchen will smell like sugar cookies and rainbows and puppies.
Substitutions and Variations
- You can use a gluten free flour like Bob’s Red Mill for gluten free sprinkle cookies
- Try different color sprinkles for festive seasonal cookies. Red and green for Christmas; green for St. Patrick’s Day, red, white, and blue sprinkles for…you get the idea.
Tips & Tricks For The Best Birthday Cake Cookies
- For best results, the butter and cream cheese should be softened slightly, but not room temperature before mixing. This will help keep the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
- It seems like a simple thing, but don’t confuse baking powder and baking soda. You won’t get the same results.
- Make sure you leave enough space for the cookies to spread a little so they don’t all bake into each other.
- Add the sprinkles at the end of mixing so that the colors do not start to run in the batter.
- Making an indent in the center of the cookies will ensure the cookies bake and flatten evenly (this is an old trick I learned from working at a bakery!)
How to Serve
Serve these cookies on their own or try some of these other great ideas:
- Spread a little frosting on each and add some extra sprinkles
- They make amazing ice cream sandwiches! Try them with some homemade strawberry ice cream or homemade vanilla ice cream
- Dip them in a little chocolate sauce or chocolate ganache
How to Store
These cookies will keep for up to 5 days stored in an airtight container or zip top bag at room temperature. I personally love a chilled cookie, so for even longer storage (and deliciousness), keep them in the fridge or freezer and consume chilled.
It’s not necessary to chill them at all, I just love them that way. However you store your cookies, just make sure to store them in an airtight bag or container.
Freezing Baked Cookies
To freeze after baking, simply allow the cookies to cool completely and then transfer to an airtight and freezer safe bag or container. Pop the cookies in the freezer and store for months. When you’re ready to eat, allow them to thaw to your liking and enjoy.
Freezing Cookie Dough:
If you’re looking to freeze raw dough to be baked off later, simply scoop out your cookie dough and place on a cookie sheet as the recipe instructs. But instead of baking the cookies, pop them into the freezer to freeze completely. Once the cookie dough balls are solid, transfer to a freezer safe bag or airtight container and store for a month or two in the freezer, until ready to bake.
When you’re ready to bake cookies, take out the quantity of dough balls needed and place them on a cookie sheet, spaced 1-2″ apart. Allow the dough to thaw at room temperature for about an hour. Once the dough has thawed, pop the pan into a preheated 350° oven and bake for 13-15 minutes.
FAQs
Yes! See above.
Nope! Because the butter and cream cheese are still cool, the dough doesn’t spread a lot in the oven. No chill needed!
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From Scratch Birthday Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
- 1/2 cup 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened but still cool
- 3 oz of cream cheese softened but still cool
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup of rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add cream cheese to the butter and beat on medium low speed until smooth, 45-60 seconds.
- Add the sugar to the mixer and mix on low until combined. Then turn up the speed to medium and mix for 1 minute until smooth and creamy
- Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated. Give the sides and bottom of the bowl a good scrape with a rubber spatula.
- With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix until almost fully mixed. Some streaks of flour should still show.
- Pour in the sprinkles and gently stir by hand until the batter is just combined and the sprinkles are evenly distributed.
- Scoop the batter, a heaping tablespoon at a time onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Make sure to space the cookie dough balls 2 inches apart so they don't spread into each other.
- Gently flatten the center of the cookies using two fingers. This will ensure they'll bake and flatten evenly. *This dough is a little sticky, you may need to wet your fingers or give them a spritz of cooking spray before pressing.
- Bake the cookies in a 350ºF oven for 11-12 minutes, until the cookies are barely brown around the edges and the centers have puffed and no longer jiggle or look wet.
- Let cool and enjoy!!
Rainbow chip cake is a favorite of mine. I will definitely make these. Thank I’ll for sharing
SO GOOD!! I hop you love them!
These would be prefect for my triplets second birthday coming up!!! Thank you so much, I can’t wait to make them!!
I hope they’re a hit!!! And a very Happy Birthday to your little babes!!