Birthday Cake Sugar Cookies

These birthday cake sugar cookies are soft, sweet, and loaded with rainbow sprinkles - everything you could ever want from an easy birthday themed treat!

These birthday cake cookies are perfectly soft, and just a tiny bit cakey. This recipe comes together in a flash, much faster than an actual birthday cake. So if you want something simple and sweet for your birthday, these cookies will without a doubt make your day a little extra special! 

For more cookie recipes, try Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brown Butter Snickerdoodles, and Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Jump to:

• Ingredient Notes
• Kitchen Equipment
• Step by Step Instructions
• Expert Baking Tips
• FAQ
• Storage Tips
• Baking in Grams
• Other cookie recipes you'll love
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

Ingredient Notes

Ingredient quantities are listed in the recipe card below. Here you'll find notes on why I chose certain ingredients, as well as ingredient substitutions. 

• All-Purpose Flour: You'll need about two cups of flour for this recipe.
• Baking Soda: Be sure your baking soda is fresh by testing it some vinegar!
• Salt: A must in all sweet recipes, so do not skip over it!
• Unsalted Butter: You'll need one stick of room temperature butter.
• Granulated Sugar: You'll need about ½ cup of sugar. 
• Light Brown Sugar: Just a touch of brown sugar makes the flavor and texture of these cookies perfect!
• Egg: You'll only need one egg for this recipe. Make sure it's room temperature so it will incorporate in the mixture properly!
• Vanilla: Vanilla is what makes birthday cake shine, so for the best birthday cake cookies, you'll want to use a good quality vanilla extract!
• Sprinkles: I recommend using only jimmies sprinkles, as the other types of sprinkles tend to bleed into the dough. 

Kitchen Equipment

• Kitchen Scale
• Electric Mixer
• Cookie Scoop
• Baking Sheet
• Parchment Paper
• Oven Thermometer

Step by Step Instructions

STEP 1: Cream butter & sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until light & fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

STEP 2: Add egg & vanilla. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated. 

STEP 3: Add dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl, then add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not over-mix!

STEP 4: Add sprinkles. Gently fold in the sprinkles. 

STEP 5: Portion & freeze cookie dough. Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop, portion the cookie dough and place on one baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze the cookie dough for 30 minutes. 

STEP 6: Bake. Place the frozen cookie dough on one prepared baking sheet placed about two inches apart. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet, and enjoy! 

Expert Baking Tips

• Use a cookie scoop. Use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the cookie dough into equally sized cookies!
• Freeze the portioned cookie dough. To ensure the cookies bake up to the right thickness, don't skip the freeze time!
• Scoot the cookies. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, use a large round cookie cutter or glass to scoot the edges and form a perfectly round cookie.

FAQ

Storage Tips

Store these birthday cake cookies in an airtight container for 3-5 days. You can freeze portioned cookie dough balls or baked cookies in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. 

Baking in Grams

All of the recipes on this blog are carefully developed to create incredibly delicious baked goods that you can easily recreate in your own kitchen with success. The only way this is possible is to standardize the way ingredients are measured - by weight. Volume measurements are extremely inaccurate and leave room for significant errors. Not all measuring cups are made equally, so your one cup of flour will be different from my one cup of flour. By providing precise measurements in grams (aside from minor ingredients, which are given in tsp/tbsp), I can ensure that you can make the recipe accurately and with less cleanup! All you need is this kitchen scale. 

If this still isn't enough to convince you, I have provided volume measurements in the recipe card. If you are interested in understanding the conversions, this is the best conversion chart.

But trust me, once you try baking in grams you'll never turn back!

Happy baking! x

Other cookie recipes you'll love

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