Funfetti Birthday Cookies

Soft vanilla sugar cookies crowded with rainbow sprinkles.

Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time10 mins
Total Time1 hr 15 mins
YieldMakes 18 cookies
Funfetti Birthday Cookies
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Before You Start

Birthday cake as a cookie: soft, thick, vanilla-forward, and visibly celebratory. The texture secret is cornflour in the dough and a deliberate underbake, which keeps them pillowy for days. Use the long jimmies-style sprinkles. The tiny round hundreds-and-thousands bleed their colour into the dough and turn it grey.

Instructions

  1. 1

    Beat the butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy, 3 full minutes. This aeration is the lift these cookies rely on.

  2. 2

    Beat in the egg, yolk and the vanilla. A whole tablespoon of vanilla is correct: it is the birthday flavour.

  3. 3

    Fold in the flour, cornflour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until nearly combined, then fold in the sprinkles with three or four strokes only.

  4. 4

    Chill the dough 45 minutes. Heat the oven to 180°C / 350°F and line two trays.

  5. 5

    Roll into 18 balls and press a few extra sprinkles onto the tops. Bake one tray at a time for 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are just set and the tops still look pale and underdone.

  6. 6

    Rest on the tray 10 minutes. Pale and puffed is the finish line. Golden brown means birthday biscuits, which is a different, sadder thing.

💡 Baker's tips

  • Minimal folding once the sprinkles go in. Overmixing streaks their colour through the dough.
  • These cookies should never brown beyond the faintest gold at the edge. Set a timer for the low end and trust the rest.

🔀 Make it your own

  • Fold in ½ cup of white chocolate chips alongside the sprinkles.
  • Sandwich two cookies around vanilla buttercream for a birthday cookie sandwich.

📦 Storing & freezing

Airtight for 5 days, staying soft thanks to the cornflour and underbake. Dough balls freeze for 3 months.

❓ Frequently asked

What sprinkles are best for baking into cookies?

Long waxy jimmies. They hold their colour and shape in the oven. Nonpareils (tiny balls) bleed dye into the dough, and sugar strands dissolve entirely.

Why put cornflour in cookie dough?

A small amount softens the gluten structure, giving a more tender, thick-set crumb. It is the same trick shortbread pulls with rice flour.

Baking in a different unit? Use the cups ↔ grams converter or the recipe scaler to halve or double this recipe.

More to bake

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Cookies Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Deeply toffee-ish, crisp at the edge, chewy in the middle. Chewy Oatmeal Cookies Cookies Chewy Oatmeal Cookies Soft and chewy in the middle with lightly crisp edges. Soft Peanut Butter Cookies Cookies Soft Peanut Butter Cookies Thick, tender and full of roasted peanut flavour, with the classic fork marks.
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