These soft and chewy sugar cookies are loaded with fun, bright sprinkles and nostalgic birthday cake flavor. I think you will love them. They have a familiar, comforting flavor and a lovely texture. They are big people pleasers and will suit any age group. Birthday party that needs some color? Stressful office meeting and everyone could use a morale boost? These cookies have gotcha covered!

Why Are Birthday Cake Cookies So Good?

They are baked just to the point of done-ness, before the cookies turn golden. This leaves the centers nice and soft.
Almond extract is added to the dough for that kick of nostalgic birthday/wedding cake flavor from bakeries.
Butter, Butta, Buttah. That is all.
They freeze beautifully, baked or unbaked (see directions below)
When stored properly, they will keep their soft texture for several days.
They look so bright and cheery!

Do I Have To Chill The Cookie Dough?

I know it's annoying, but any cookie dough that's loaded with butter is going to benefit from taking a nice long rest in the fridge before being baked. Why do you chill cookie dough? Chilling the dough allows the softened/creamed butter in the dough to solidify and the cookies will spread less when baked. I know we've all had the frustration of cookies that have spread, flattened, and run into each other into one big MegaCookie (though... not an entirely terrible thing, eh?). I recommend letting the dough chill for at least an hour, but 2 or 3 hours is even better. In addition to always using cold dough, never bake cookies on a warm baking sheet! If you bake cookies in multiple batches, use a new, cool pan. I've even put my pans in the freezer prior to baking!

Does It Matter What Type Of Sprinkles I Use?

I think that confetti sprinkles (also called quins) work great for these cookies. The colors don't bleed into the dough and they are soft enough to bite into. Jimmies (the long colored rods) are also a good choice. I wouldn't recommend the little seed sprinkles (also known as nonpareils or hundreds and thousands) as they are super hard and crunchy and might feel off-putting in these cookies.

These are the confetti sprinkles I have! (find on Amazon)

How Do I Store Birthday Cake Cookies?

Keep these cookies stored at room temperature in an airtight container or a Ziploc-style bag (make sure you squeeze the air out each time you open the bag). When stored properly, the cookies should stay soft and chewy for up to a week. Adding a slice of bread to the container is a nifty little life hack I learned years ago - it helps cookies stay softer for longer. The cookies draw the moisture out of the bread!

Can I Freeze These Cookies?

Yes, you can! You can freeze baked cookies by letting them cool completely and then storing them in a freezer-safe storage bag, making sure all of the air is squeezed out (freezer burn will ruin the texture of the cookies). Just pull the cookies out as needed and let thaw on the counter - it doesn't take much time at all.

Alternately, you can freeze the cookie dough and bake the cookies fresh when you need them. This is a great hack if you need to make bunches of cookies for a party or special event. Form the dough into balls and place them onto a baking sheet (they can be close but not actually touching each other). Then put the whole baking sheet in the freezer for about an hour to flash freeze them. Finally, place the dough balls into a freezer-safe storage bag, squeeze out the air, and keep them frozen for up to 3 months. Flash freezing them prevents the dough balls from sticking together when placed in the bag. To bake frozen cookie dough, remove them from the freezer and prepare your baking sheet with parchment and dough balls spaced a couple inches apart. Preheat your oven as usual, but bake the cookies a minute or two longer. That's it!

Birthday Cake Cookies (from scratch!)

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5 from 1 review

Print Recipe

Bright and colorful sprinkle-loaded cookies that are perfectly soft and chewy with a lovely nostalgic flavor from almond and vanilla extracts. Funfetti, birthday cake, whatever you call it, you will love these!

Total Time: 24 mins
Yield: 16 cookies 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup confetti sprinkles, divided

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Instructions

Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and mix using a stand or hand mixer until pale yellow and fluffy. Don't rush this step - you want to be mixing for 5-7 minutes to make sure butter and sugar are properly creamed.
Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix until combined.
In a second bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 2-3 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition until just combined.
Mix in the sprinkles, reserving about 2 tablespoons for topping the dough balls.
Use a standard cookie scoop to make rounded dough balls (I got about 16 balls out of a single recipe). Place the balls onto a plate, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and press down ever-so-slightly to flatten the tops of the balls. Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place chilled dough balls onto the parchment and press down the reserved sprinkles on the top. This will let some of the colorful sprinkles show on top after the cookies are baked.
Bake for 8-9 minutes - the cookies will still appear light in color and slightly underdone. Remove from oven and allow to cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
If you need to bake a second batch, make sure to chill the remaining dough between bakes and let the baking sheet cool completely (or use a different sheet) before placing the dough onto the sheet.

Notes

I love these confetti sprinkles!
Freezing Instructions: see details above in this post for how to freeze these cookies baked or unbaked.

Author: Erin Browne
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 9 mins

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