Celebrate with these birthday sugar cookies! They're the perfect recipe for a special day. All you need are a few simple ingredients to make these birthday cookies that are loaded with colorful sprinkles. They're fun to look at - and eat!
The fun part about making these birthday cake sugar cookies is that they're just an easy "extra" for the day. Even if you plan on having cake or other treats, these cookies are a bonus to enjoy throughout the day.
Be sure to try my Birthday Cake Blondies and this Edible Sugar Cookie Dough for two other sweet treats.
Before You Get Started
- Have fun with the sprinkles. Whereas rainbow sprinkles are classic for a birthday party, you can also turn these into seasonal cookies by adding red and green sprinkles for Christmas or black and orange for Halloween. Pink or blue sprinkles also work for baby showers! They're fun, flexible, and perfect for just about any celebration.
- Combining extracts. This combination of vanilla, almond, and butter extracts gives a funfetti cake-type flavor. But you can use just vanilla or almond if you prefer. You can also add cake batter flavoring to taste. I also use this combo in my Little Bites Muffin Recipe.
- Don't overbake the cookies. You will remove them from the oven, and the middle of the cookies will still be shiny, but they will continue to cool while cooling on the baking sheet, and firm up. For the perfect chewy texture, you need to slightly underbake them.
Ingredients
- Salted butter - This needs to be melted before adding. If using unsalted butter, add an extra pinch of salt.
- Granulated sugar - For sweetness.
- Brown sugar - Adds warmth and coloring.
- Large egg - Binds the ingredients together to make the cookie dough.
- Vanilla extract - For vanilla flavor.
- Almond extract - For flavor.
- Butter extract - For flavor.
- All-purpose flour - The main ingredient to make the cookie dough.
- Baking powder - Keeps the cookies thick and soft.
- Baking soda - Helps the edges crisp.
- Salt - For flavor.
- Rainbow sprinkles - A fun way to add color.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Birthday Sugar Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add parchment paper to two cookie sheets.
Step One: Mix the butter and sugars in a large bowl. Add the egg and all the extracts. Mix well.
Step Two: Add the baking powder, baking soda, flour, and salt on top of the butter. Stir. Mix in the dry ingredients.
Step Three: Add the rainbow sprinkles.
Step Four: Stir in the sprinkles just until they are distributed. Do not overmix.
Step Five: Drop balls of cookie dough on the cookie sheets.
Step Six: Put the pan in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes or until barely set. Let cool on the baking sheets.
Top Tip
Press a few extra sprinkles on top of each dough ball right before baking. This makes sure there is plenty of visible color after they are baked.
Variations
- Chocolate chips - You can easily add semi-sweet or even white chocolate chips to the mixture for more fun flavors and tastes.
- Mix-ins - Other fun mix-in options are nuts, dried fruit, or chopped cookie pieces.
See this Small Batch Sugar Cookie Recipe for a fun option. Sometimes, you just need a cookie or two without an entire batch!
Equipment
To make these delicious sugar cookies, all you'll need is a large mixing bowl, a rubber spatula for stirring, two baking sheets, plus parchment paper.
Storage
After the cookies have cooked and cooled, store them in an airtight container to keep them fresh.
You can also add them to a freezer-safe bag or container and store them in the freezer for later.
Common Questions
Absolutely. If you want to add food coloring to these cookies to have them be a different color, go for it. Just a few drops is all that you'll need so that the color isn't too strong to overpower the fun pops of color that are there from the sprinkles.
One of two things happened. You either mixed the dough too much or baked it for too long in the oven. Be sure to pay attention to the cooking time as listed on the recipe card below. The cookies won't look fully done when you take the pans out of the oven, but that is all part of the process.
You can. If you're not a sprinkles fan, just leave them out. They'll then be regular sugar cookies and still have the same taste.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
- Pineapple Coconut Cookies
- Cookies and Cream Sugar Cookies
- Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
- Cocoa Blossom Cookies
📖 Recipe
Birthday Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter melted
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon butter extract
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugars.
- Add the egg and extracts and mix well.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on top of the butter. Give them a little mix. (This saves the step of mixing them in a separate bowl).
- Now, mix the dry ingredients in just until they are incorporated. Stop as soon as they are mixed in.
- Stir in the sprinkles.
- Using a medium cookie scoop drop balls of dough on the prepared trays.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until barely set. The center should still be a bit shiny.
- Remove from the oven.
- Let cool on the baking sheets.
Nutrition
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