Can’t decide between cake and cookies for a birthday? Make both!

Funfetti Cookies make me happy and are so much fun. Plain and simple. It’s tough to be sad when you’re noshing on a soft, chewy cookie full of sprinkles.

This version is made with cake mix and gives the cookies that extra birthday cake flavor. The one you might remember from childhood. Sweet, a little bit buttery and brimming with vanilla.

Just because they taste like birthday cake, doesn’t mean you have to save these cookies for a big birthday celebration. Go ahead and make them any time you want to add a little more fun to your day. They really are the perfect cookies for any occasion.

Kids love these cake mix cookies, of course. But make sure to set aside plenty for yourself! Grown ups need sprinkles sometimes, too.

Did I mention how easy it is to make Funfetti Birthday Cake Cookies? All you need are a few ingredients and 25 minutes.

I went ahead and added a homemade cream cheese frosting to these cookies too. Because what’s a birthday cake cookie without frosting?!

If you wanted to, you could swap out the cream cheese frosting in this recipe with your favorite Buttercream Frosting or even a Marshmallow Frosting instead. I happen to love the tang of the cream cheese on these sweet sprinkle cookies–and I know you will too!

What do I need to make easy funfetti cake mix cookies?

Here are the ingredients you need to make this Funfetti recipe:

• Box of Funfetti cake mix – You’ll need the whole box for today’s recipe!
• Baking powder – Helps the cookies bake puffy and soft.
• Rainbow sprinkles – The long “jimmies” shape, not nonpareils.
• Melted unsalted butter
• Eggs

For the cream cheese frosting, you will need:

• Cream cheese, room temperature
• Butter
• Vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar
• MORE sprinkles!

This recipe goes ALL in on the sprinkles. What’s the point of making Funfetti Cake Cookies if there aren’t sprinkles in absolutely every single bite?

How do I make these colorful cookies?

First, combine your dry cake mix with baking powder and sprinkles.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and melted butter with an electric mixer. Mix in the dry ingredients to form a dough.

Scoop the dough onto two lined baking sheets. I used a 3 TBS cookie scoop to shape dough and got 12 cookies total–6 cookie dough balls on each baking sheet.

Bake the cookies at 325°F for about 12 minutes, or until the bottoms are golden brown. Place your freshly baked Funfetti cookies on a cooling rack while you prepare the frosting.

Simple steps to make Confetti Cookies Frosting

• Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract.
• Gradually beat in powdered sugar until the frosting is smooth, with no lumps.
• Transfer the frosting to frosting bags or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.
• Pipe the cream cheese frosting onto cooled cookies. Top with extra sprinkles!

Funfetti Recipes

If you love these cake mix cookies, here’s another Funfetti Cookie Recipe you’ll love. You don’t need cake mix or frosting for that recipe, just a little cake batter extract! Funfetti Ooey Gooey Bars are another delicious sprinkle-packed dessert. I love the soft, melt-in-your-mouth center and rich vanilla flavor.

Today’s recipe puts Funfetti cake mix to good use! I almost never use cake mix to make Funfetti cake or cupcakes anymore. I discovered that these Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes taste so much better with hardly any extra effort.

When you’re in the mood for something truly decadent, nothing fits the bill better than these Funfetti Oreo Cheesecake Bars. Chocolate, Oreos and cheesecake all in one easy recipe!

I keep all of my recipes as easy to make as possible, but this Funfetti Puppy Chow might be the easiest Funfetti dessert of them all! It takes only a few minutes to make with sweet cake flavor and sprinkles.

Cake Mix Recipes

Why is it that I often use cake mix for everything but actual cake? Because I’m a huge fan of cake mix cookies and a box of cake mix makes it so easy to make lots of different desserts, that’s why! Some people may call it “cheating”, but I’m all about anything that makes our lives easier… and more delicious in the process.

These Lemon Cake Mix Cookies are another favorite with bright citrus flavor and crinkly edges dusted with powdered sugar. You’ll want to save this Peppermint Gooey Bars recipe for the next holiday season, but they’re too good to eat only one time a year!

Okay, sometimes I do use cake mix for cakes. Like this Lemon Marshmallow Poke Cake and this Patriotic Poke Cake! I always add my own twist, to make it a little extra special. Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake comes together with just four ingredients, cake mix included! It’s one of my go-to lazy desserts that no one can get enough of. I love mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Cookie Recipes

You want cookie recipes? We’ve got cookie recipes! Here are a few I’ve been particularly loving lately.

• Bourbon Toffee Cookies
• Copycat Crumbl Reese’s Peanut Butter Cookies
• Brownie Mix Cookies
• Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal M&M Cookies
• Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies
• Peppermint Frosted Sugar Cookies
• Chocolate Dipped Orange Cookies
• Linzer Cookies

Give these easy Funfetti Cookies with fun colorful sprinkles a try.
I bet you won’t be able to hold back a smile when you bite into one.
Happy Baking!

Print

Funfetti Birthday Cake Cookies

Funfetti Birthday Cake Cookies are a dessert that's ready to party! Made with Funfetti Cake Mix, simple ingredients, and cream cheese frosting, this easy cookie recipe can brighten up a birthday party, baby shower or any day.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Funfetti Birthday Cake Cookie

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 10 cookies

Calories 517kcal

Author Lynne Feifer

Ingredients

• 15.25 ounces Funfetti Cake Mix
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles jimmies, not non pareils
• 6 tablespoons butter melted
• 2 large eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• additional rainbow sprinkles for garnish

Instructions

Funfetti Cookies

• Preheat oven to 325°F, and prepare 2 baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
• In medium mixing bowl, whisk together the cake mix, baking powder and sprinkles.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter and eggs. Add the dry cake mixture and mix with a spoon until a dough forms.
• With a large cookie scoop (about 3 tablespoons) scoop 6 dough balls evenly spaced onto the baking sheet.
• Bake for 12-15 minutes. Completely cool on a wire rack before frosting.

Frosting

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla extract together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar until completely combined. Place the frosting into a piping bag and pipe a spiral onto each cookie. Top with additional rainbow sprinkles.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 517kcal | Carbohydrates: 74g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.5g | Cholesterol: 90mg | Sodium: 420mg | Potassium: 129mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 60g | Vitamin A: 708IU | Calcium: 83mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Funfetti Birthday Cake Cookies appeared first on 365 Days of Baking.

I’ve always enjoyed celebrating birthdays.

Especially when they’re mine. 😉

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However, one special lady in our family will be celebrating her 25th in just a few weeks.
How am I old enough to have a daughter that old?? Seriously?? I feel just 25 myself at times. Ok, 28. I hated turning 25.

Yet, it seems like yesterday she was a toddler coaxing her baby sister as she would the cat – bending down, rubbing her fingers together, and clicking her tongue. “Here, Emma, Emma.”
Granted she’d seen me call the cat that way, but I never used that method on any of my children.

Then there was the day she grabbed our Jeep exhaust pipe after we’d come home from shopping. Yeah, that wasn’t fun. I took her out of the car and was taking the groceries into the house when I heard her scream. That darn shiny pipe on our new car smack dab at her eye level was just too good to not reach for. Doggone it!

She’s not scarred and fortunately, that’s the extent of her childhood trauma.

In August, my baby leaves for Germany to become an au pair. She’s excited and I’m extremely excited for her. It’s time for her to fly and spread her wings. I know this is a great opportunity and something she is very much looking forward to. It truly is the chance of a lifetime and I’m so excited that she’s going for it.

To celebrate her and because the two of us won’t be home for her birthday (more on that to come!), I decided, of course, to make her a cake. Yet, I couldn’t choose between this one of Oreos, this yummy cinnamon one, the Easy Tiramisu Poke Cake that we all really liked, or one of chocolate. Decisions, decisions.

I’d never made an ombre cake and wanted her cake to have all the colors, so to this Citrus Layer Cake, I added the lemon and orange to match the hues.

Lately, I’ve had the urge to roll a cake in rainbow nonpareils and when you have that urge, you just sort of go with it. I used this frosting recipe entirely with shortening because I knew it would be perfectly white, but you can use the combination of butter if you don’t mind slightly yellow tint.

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Also, balloons. You certainly can’t celebrate a birthday without balloons no matter how old you are. Am I right? They just make it more fun and festive, so I purchased a Balloon Time Helium Tank.

It comes with a small, lightweight pink tank filled with helium, 30 9-inch latex balloons, and ribbon. Absolutely perfect for what I needed and the balloons were so easy to fill, too! All you have to do is twist the green knob at the top, place a balloon over the black nozzle and press down.

Voila! 

30 helium balloons filled in a matter of minutes, adorned with ribbon and ready to go. Just note to self for next time, turn the ceiling fans OFF before you let the balloons drift to the ceiling. Things could certainly become a little precarious.

I also decided that since the cake was so colorful that it only made sense to attach the balloons to it. How much fun is a cake that has balloons on top of it? SO much fun!! All of the colors just went perfectly with the sprinkles and candies I’d decorated it with and it made the cake look like it was going to float away. Reminded me of the movie, “Up”. I loved that film.

To hold the balloons securely to the top of the cake, I cut small pieces of white floral wire. I tied the ribbon to it as you can see above, folded the edges down and inserted it into the cake. I used 5 balloons for the cake and then placed the rest of them around the room. It was so cool and such a fun presentation for her birthday cake and celebration.

Just remember to remove the balloons from the cake before lighting any candles!

To decorate the Citrus Layer Cake, I used

• different sized offset spatulas – made for easy spreading of the frosting

• rainbow nonpareils around the outside of the cake. I gently poured them onto a rimmed baking sheet so they wouldn’t fly all over my kitchen.

• 8-inch cardboard rounds to hold both the top and bottom of the cake as I rolled it in the sprinkles. They worked like a charm!

Print

Citrus Layer Cake

This ombre Citrus Layer Cake with vanilla, lemon and orange layers is colorfully decorated and adorned with helium-filled balloons - a fun birthday cake!

Author Lynne Feifer

Ingredients

Vanilla Cake Layer

• ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup milk
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup unsalted butter room temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg

Lemon and Orange Cake Layers

• 1 ¾ cups sifted cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
• yellow food coloring
• ½ teaspoon orange extract
• 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
• orange food coloring

White Frosting

• 2 ½ cups solid vegetable shortening
• 2 ½ teaspoons CLEAR vanilla extract
• 10 cups confectioners' sugar
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1 Balloon Time Helium Tank
• 26 gauge floral wire
• rainbow nonpareils
• colored candy for decorating

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. and prepare 3 8-inch round baking pans by lining the bottoms with parchment and spraying them with a floured baking spray.

Vanilla Cake Layer

• Sift the flour with baking powder and salt.
• In a mixing bowl, cream the butter until light. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add the egg and vanilla, and mix well.
• Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, add them to the butter, alternating with the milk.
• Mix until just smooth.
• Pour into one of the prepared baking pans.
• Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until the edges shrink from the sides and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack for 5 - 7 minutes. Remove from pan by inverting onto the cooling rack and then turn right-side up to cool completely.
• Clean the mixing bowl and continue with the remaining layers

Orange and Lemon Layers

• Sift the flour with baking powder and salt.
• In a mixing bowl, cream the butter until light. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well.
• Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, add to the butter/sugar, alternating with the milk.
• Mix batter until just smooth.
• Pour half of the batter into a medium bowl and add the lemon extract, lemon zest and enough yellow food coloring to reach the desired hue. I added about 5 drops.
• Mix until thoroughly combined.
• Pour into one of the prepared baking pans.
• For the batter in the mixing bowl, add the orange extract, orange zest and enough orange food coloring to reach the desired hue. I added about 8 drops.
• Mix until thoroughly combined.
• Pour into the the remaining baking pan.
• Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until the edges shrink from the sides and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack for 5 - 7 minutes. Remove from pan by inverting onto the cooling rack and then turn right-side up to cool completely.

White Frosting

• In a clean mixing bowl, cream the shortening until smooth and fluffy.
• Mix in the vanilla.
• Add the confectioners' sugar one cup at a time, scraping down the sides and the bottom of the bowl as needed. The icing will appear dry after all of the sugar had been added.
• Slowly add the milk and beat until light and fluffy.
• Cover with a damp cloth while not using.

Cake Assembly

• Place the Orange layer onto a 8-inch cardboard round.
• Using 1 - 1 1/2 cups of frosting, frost the top.
• Place the Lemon layer onto the frosted top of the Orange cake.
• Again use 1 - 1 1/2 cups of frosting to cover.
• Place the Vanilla layer onto the Lemon, but do not frost.
• With an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of frosting all around the outside of the cake, but not the top. This is the crumb coat and will prevent cake crumbs from being spread through the thicker frosting layer. At this point, be sure to evenly fill in any holes in between each of the layers.
• Refrigerate for at least half an hour to set.
• With a clean offset spatula, spread a thicker layer of frosting on the sides over the crumb coat.
• Carefully pour the rainbow nonpareils onto a medium rimmed baking sheet.
• Place an 8-inch round cardboard on top of the cake. Gently lift the cake and holding both the top and bottom, slowly and carefully roll the cake in the sprinkles until it is completely covered.
• Place cake on serving platter. Frost the top of the cake with a thin crumb coat and then with a thicker layer.
• Decorate cake with more frosting if desired using a 1M tip and additional colored sprinkles and candies.
• Fill the balloons with helium and tie them with assorted lengths of ribbon.
• Cut small pieces of the floral wire and tie the balloon string to it. Bend the edges and place into the cake. I placed 5 balloons, attached with wire into the top of the cake.

Your next birthday celebration will be that much more special when you make this Citrus Layer Cake and use a Balloon Time Helium Tank. Kids and adults will enjoy the fun and added excitement it brings to the party!

Don’t forget these other delicious cakes to go with a birthday or just because!

Cinnamon Roll Layer Cake

Banana Tres Leches

Easy Lemon Cake

Take a look at these fun videos of kids with birthday cakes…

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Balloon Time. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post Citrus Layer Cake appeared first on 365 Days of Baking.