Birthday Cake Cookies Recipe

Course: cookie, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 15

Chill Time: 15

Total Time: 35

Servings: cookies

Calories: 227kcal

Author: Becky Hardin

There's no better way to say "Happy Birthday" than with these birthday cake cookies! They're soft, fluffy, and full of sprinkles!

Print Recipe

US Customary - Metric

Equipment

Kitchen Scale (optional)
Hand Mixer
2 Baking Sheet(s)
2-Tablespoon Cookie Portion Scoop
Piping Tip Set (optional)

Ingredients

For the Cookies

15.25 ounces Funfetti cake mix (1 box)
2 large eggs room temperature
⅓ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup rainbow sprinkles divided

For the Frosting

1½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup unsalted butter slightly melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the dry cake mix, eggs, and vegetable oil together on medium speed just until combined (do not overmix).
15.25 ounces Funfetti cake mix, 2 large eggs, ⅓ cup vegetable oil
Stir in (do not beat these in) ½ cup of the sprinkles. Set the remaining ¼ cup of sprinkles aside for now.
¾ cup rainbow sprinkles
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a 2-tablespoon sized cookie scoop, scoop balls of cookie dough onto the parchment lined baking sheet. These cookie dough balls will be about 35 grams each. It’s okay that the cookies are close together for this step but be sure that they aren’t touching or they’ll stick together.
The cookie dough is extremely sticky so the tray of scooped cookies must go into the freezer for 15 minutes before the next step.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Take the tray of cookies out of the freezer then use your hands to roll these into smooth balls of cookie dough. The dough is very sticky so you’ll need to lightly spray your hands with non-stick cooking spray so the dough doesn’t stick to your hands. The dough will also be sticking to the parchment paper so use a spatula lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray to lift the cookies from the parchment paper before rolling them into balls.
Line a second baking sheet with parchment paper and take some cookies out of the freezer and place on baking sheet. Cookies should be at least 2 inches from each other on the baking sheet to allow a bit of space for spreading. Place the rest of the cookies back into the freezer until you are ready to bake them. It is important to only bake one tray of cookies at a time to ensure an even baking temperature for all cookies.
Place one tray of cookies into the oven to bake. Bake each tray of cookies for 14-15 minutes. The baked cookies will look slightly undercooked (bottoms lightly browned but tops still looking very slightly wet) but they’ll continue to bake on the hot tray after you remove them from the oven. If the cookies are baked for too long, they’ll become dry and crunchy.
Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on the hot baking tray before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
While the cookies cool, make the frosting: Beat the powdered sugar, unsalted butter, and vanilla extract together on high for 3-4 minutes, until frosting is light and fluffy.
1½ cups powdered sugar, ½ cup unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place the frosting in a frosting bag with a large round icing tip and pipe frosting onto the tops of cooled cookies. Add sprinkles to the frosted cookies while the frosting is still wet so the sprinkles stick to the frosting well.

Notes

Do not prepare the cake mix according to the box. We're using it as a dry ingredient here!
Because we're adding more sprinkles to the batter, you can also use a vanilla, yellow, or white cake mix with the same result!
Use jimmies (long oval sprinkles) not the small round ball style. The small round ball style of sprinkles tend to bleed color into the batter and they’re too crunchy to be used in cookie.
Chilling cookie dough before baking helps prevent the dough from spreading in the oven. Plus, these cookies are super sticky and hard to handle at room temperature, so chilling makes them easier to shape.
My simple frosting recipe comes together in just minutes and is absolutely delicious, but store-bought will work if you're pressed for time.

Storage: Store birthday cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Nutrition