Birthday Cake Shortbread Cookie Bites

Birthday cake shortbread cookie bites are bite-sized, buttery cookies filled with birthday cake flavor and rainbow sprinkles. They're made with just a handful of simple ingredients and look festive and fun on the dessert table!

We love shortbread cookies around here. Chocolate chip shortbread cookie dippers have been a reader favorite for years! I think you'll love these birthday cake shortbread cookie bites just as much - they're cute, eye-catching, and perfect for parties.

If you've never had shortbread cookies before, they're tender and crumbly, made with a large amount of butter and no leavening agents. They have a slightly crunchy exterior and a soft, melt in your mouth interior.

You'll love this recipe because you only need six ingredients, most of which you already have on hand. What makes these shortbread cookies special is the blend of vanilla extract, almond extract, and high quality butter - they taste just like a yellow birthday cake!

These adorable birthday cake shortbread cookie bites are the perfect dessert treat for your next birthday party or celebration. Plus, they're easy to customize with your favorite colors to match holidays, sports teams, or school colors. For a more traditional 'chocolate chip cookie' texture, try my recipe for birthday cake cookies.

Ingredients and substitutions

• Butter - Unsalted butter and salt can be substituted with salted butter if needed. Since this recipe contains so few ingredients, I recommend using a high quality butter, like Kerrygold, if possible. Butter needs to be room temperature - not cold, not melted.
• Confectioner's sugar - Can be substituted with granulated sugar. For ¾ cup (85 grams) of confectioner's sugar, use ½ cup (99 grams) of granulated sugar. I find that confectioner's sugar, or powdered sugar, incorporates more readily into the dough, and readers seem to have an easier time with it. However, either option will work.
• All-purpose flour - I have only tested this recipe with AP flour, so I don't recommend making substitutions. I highly recommend measuring your flour using a kitchen scale rather than scooping with a measuring cup. Since this recipe contains so few ingredients, it is very important to accurately measure the flour - otherwise, the cookies can turn out crumbly and dry.
• Salt - Enhances the flavor of your cookies without making them "salty". Can be omitted if you're using salted butter.
• Sprinkles - Can be substituted with mini chocolate chips, like in my chocolate chip shortbread cookie dippers recipe. I find rainbow jimmies are best used in baked goods because the colors don't run when mixed into the batter. Nonpareils (tiny round sprinkles) are not my favorite choice because their color tends to run as soon as they're mixed into the dough.
• Extracts - We're using a combination of vanilla and almond extracts today to mimic that yellow birthday cake flavor. If you don't like almond, you're welcome to substitute it with more vanilla extract instead.

Properly measured flour

Because shortbread cookies contain so few ingredients, it is critical to properly measure the flour for this recipe. This is the most common mistake I see in shortbread cookie reviews (whether it's my recipe or on other websites) and can ruin an entire batch of cookie dough.

To properly measure flour, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale and measuring by weight. You can find the gram measurements in the recipe card below.

Don't have a scale? Give your flour a stir, then scoop using a spoon into a measuring cup. Use a knife to level off the surface of the flour. This ensures you're not packing extra flour into the cup. I find this method the most accurate way to measure flour outside of using a kitchen scale.

By scooping flour using the measuring scoop, this compacts the flour into the measuring cup and adds up to 25% extra flour to your recipe. If you've ever had cookies that didn't spread, felt too cakey and thick, or tasted bland, this is likely the reason why.

I did an experiment on measuring flour using four different methods. To see the results, check out my post: 10 tips for baking cookies

Why is my dough crumbly?

Shortbread cookie dough is very thick and crumbly, which in turn makes a very buttery, dense, and tender cookie. While your dough will look a bit crumbly while mixing, it should stick together when pinched between two fingers.

If your dough looks so crumbly that it won't form into a ball, it is likely that too much flour was added to the dough. You can try adding a tablespoon or two of water to help the dough come together, although this is not ideal.

To prevent crumbly dough, I highly recommend measuring your flour using a kitchen scale, rather than measuring with cups. If you're scooping flour out of a bin using the cup, this compacts the flour into the cup, adding up to 25% extra flour to the recipe. This makes the dough turn out dry and crumbly.

Variations

• Slice into rectangles - Birthday cake shortbread cookies can be sliced into larger rectangles and baked, much like my chocolate chip shortbread cookie dippers or mint chocolate shortbread cookies.
• Use cookie cutters - Or, use a cookie cutter to create shapes, like my strawberry shortbread cookies.
• Slice and bake - This dough can also be rolled into a cylinder and sliced into round cookies, like my recipe for iced lime shortbread cookies or brown butter shortbread cookies.

Larger cookies will take longer to bake, so expect to add anywhere from 2-6 minutes to your baking time to account for this.

Storage

Baked cookies will keep for about 5 to 7 days in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. To help keep cookies fresh for longer, store them with a slice of bread, replacing as needed when the bread dries out.

Baked cookies (and dough) can also be frozen for up to three months in a tightly sealed, freezer-safe container. To thaw, allow to set on the countertop for a few hours until room temperature. If thawing frozen dough, transfer to the refrigerator to allow to thaw overnight. Or, slice and bake from frozen, adding 1-2 minutes to your baking time.

Recommended

📖 Recipe