Birthday Cake Cookies embrace that classic birthday cake flavor, but without the need for a boxed cake mix. These birthday cookies are soft, chewy, buttery, and filled with white chocolate chips and sprinkles.
Sometimes, birthdays need cake and cookies. That’s where my birthday cake cookies come in. Filled with flavors reminiscent of a classic yellow cake with buttercream frosting, your cookies will be the hit of the birthday party.
Looking for a cupcake to pair these cookies with? Try my Homemade Classic Vanilla Cupcakes and Whipped Buttercream Frosting. Two of my favorite birthday recipes!
You will love these birthday cake cookies because they embrace that classic birthday cake flavor – without a boxed cake mix. If you’ve been looking for a birthday cake cookie that’s not made with a boxed cake mix, look no further!
Birthday Cake Cookies From Scratch
Birthday Cake Cookies From ScratchI have been looking for the perfect Birthday Cake Cookies recipe for quite some time now. My cookie dough base was solid, but how do you get that cake flavor without adding a boxed cake mix?
After some research, I found that other bakers used a combination of different extracts: vanilla, imitation vanilla, almond, and even a butter flavored (artificial) extract to achieve a birthday cake flavor.
Not being a fan of artificial flavors, I went to work using the vanilla and almond extract only. If you aren’t sensitive to artificial flavors, feel free to give the other options a try. Tell me how it goes in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you!
I decided to try 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. The almond flavor tastes a bit strong in the dough, but turns out beautifully once baked.
Birthday Cookie Tips
Birthday Cookie TipsWith most of my cookie recipes, chilling the dough before baking it is a must. You’ll want to do this because chilling gives the ingredients a chance to meld together.
The firmer consistency also keeps the cookies from spreading as much when baking.
I like to make my cookie dough the day before and let the dough chill for 24 hours. This splits up your cookie making time into two smaller sessions, and it becomes much less daunting of a task.If you don’t have time, one hour of chilling is just fine.
Not making these for a birthday? Rainbow sprinkles are great any time of year, but you could also try matching your sprinkles to your favorite sports team, school colors, holiday colors, or party theme colors.
I also love to scoop my cookie dough using an OXO Medium Cookie Scoop. This helps to perfectly portion your dough, so that each cookie is the same size.
Looking for more cookies? I have plenty of tried and true recipes that I know you’ll love:
- Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa Cookies
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Strawberry Cookies
- Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- Ranger Cookies
- Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
- Christmas Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
Birthday Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 and 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles
- 1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips one 12 ounce bag
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Beat for a full 3 minutes, mixture will look fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, whisk (or sift) together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined.
- Add white chocolate chips and sprinkles and stir until just combined.
- Cover bowl or wrap dough in wax paper. Chill for at least 1 hour (up to 24 hours) in the refrigerator. Refrigerating will help the flavors meld and also create a firmer dough to roll into balls.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Scoop dough using a 1.5 tablespoon scoop or shape by hand into 1.5 inch balls.
- Place cookie dough balls 2 inches apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned around edges. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Your cookies will keep for 5-7 days in a sealed container. To help keep cookies fresh, you can place a slice of bread in the container with the cookies. Replace the bread slice as needed. You can keep raw cookie dough in the refrigerator for 3 days.
- Cookie dough balls (and baked cookies) freeze well, up to 3 months in a sealed plastic container or freezer bag. Allow frozen balls to thaw for up to 10 minutes on the baking sheet before baking, or add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
- Try using sprinkles to match your favorite sports team, school colors, holiday colors, or the party's theme colors.
Can you make this into a giant cookie? Like a giant cookie cake kind of cookie? If I did that, what would the baking time be? And would I use a 9-in round cake pan?
Any suggestions would be great!! Thank you!
Hi Tiffany,
If you’d like to make this recipe into a giant cookie, there are a few options.
By cutting the recipe in half (the amount for 18 cookies), you can do two things:
– Form a 9 inch round disc on a lined baking sheet, bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes, making a 12 inch round giant cookie.
– Or, press into a 9 inch pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20+ minutes or until lightly browned across the top to make a cookie pie.
Using the full amount of ingredients (for 36 cookies) you can:
-On a pizza pan, spread cookie dough and bake at 350 for 22+ minutes to make a 14 inch round pizza sized cookie.
-Or, make your cookies into bars in a 9×13 pan like this recipe:
https://thetoastykitchen.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-bars/
Hope this helps!
Absolutely it does! Thank you so much! I’m making this for my soon to be 6 year old’s birthday party in a few days, this is his choice instead of a cake 😄