Crumbl Birthday Cake Cookies
These Crumbl Birthday Cake Cookies start with large cake batter cookies packed with sprinkles. They are topped with a rich cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. An easy Crumbl copycat recipe!
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Mm, these cookies are cake in cookie form. Crumbl describes their Birthday Cake Cookie as “a warm cake batter cookie topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and sprinkles”. These cookies will hit the mark with a tender sugar cookie and a special ingredient that transforms the typical flavor.
I’ve opted to use my Funfetti base cookie for these cookies, which includes cake batter flavoring. It’s a magical little ingredient that makes any baked good taste like cake/cake batter. I’m a fan.
I’ve also added the cake batter extract to the cream cheese frosting, because why not?
If you’d like to make these cookies, but don’t have cake batter flavor on hand, you can pick it up on Amazon OR omit it in place of vanilla extract. However, if you omit it the final cookies will taste more like a typical sugar cookie and won’t have any cake batter flavor.
Love these copycats? I’ve got a growing list of Crumbl Copycat Recipes I can’t wait for you to try!
Ingredients You Will Need
These Crumbl Birthday Cake Cookies are two-part cookies. First, the birthday cake base and then the soft cream cheese frosting. I’ve added sprinkles to the base as well as on top of the frosting, but you may omit them from the cookies if you’d prefer.
For the cookies:
For the cookies you will need unsalted butter, confectioners’ sugar, granulated sugar, an egg, cake batter flavor, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and sprinkles (optional).
Here’s a couple quick things to take note of before starting!
Cake Batter Flavor – This is such a fun ingredient! If you don’t have any, you can use more vanilla extract in place of it, but you’ll miss the cake batter flavor. The flavor really does make the cookies taste like cake. Note that the cake batter extract will turn the frosting yellow. Don’t panic–once it’s all mixed in it’ll be a light creamy color like in my photos.
All-Purpose Flour – I use all-purpose unbleached flour for my cookie recipes. I prefer to weigh the flour with a kitchen scale for accuracy. Dry cookies usually mean too much flour has been added. Without a scale handy, I lightly aerate the flour (use a whisk), spoon it into a measuring cup, and level it off with a butter knife.
Sprinkles! – Sprinkles are optional, but if you’d like to use them stick with rainbow sprinkles in the long thin cylinder shape. Skip nonpareils (the tiny round sprinkles) which will bleed.
For the frosting:
For the frosting, you’ll need unsalted butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, cake batter flavor, vanilla extract, and (optional) heavy cream or whole milk in case it is too thick.
The recipe makes quite a bit of frosting, but you’ll use a lot more than you think when piping on top of the cookies. I had about 1/2 cup leftover (great on cinnamon rolls or similar treats!), but if you’d like cookies that aren’t so indulgent you could also make just half the frosting recipe and use a spatula to spread a smaller amount onto each cookie.
How to Make the Birthday Cake Cookies:
These are the same recipe as my Funfetti Cookies. The sprinkles inside the cookies are totally optional!
Heads up! This is just a recipe overview. Find the complete recipe at the end of the post in the printable recipe card.
Cream: Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and cake batter flavor.
Mix in dry ingredients: add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the dough and combine. Use a spatula to fold in any remaining dry ingredients. Fold in the optional sprinkles.
Chill: Just 30 minutes in the fridge to stabilize the cookie dough.
Scoop: Use a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop cookies and gently flatten just the top of each cookie with your fingers to get a flat surface for frosting.
Bake: Slightly underbaking is the key to these soft and tender cookies. Pull the cookies when they begin to turn golden brown on the edges.
How to Make the Frosting:
Prep the frosting while the cookies are baking and then pop it in the fridge until they are cool enough to frost. Crumbl says they serve this cookie warm, but you do have to be cautious about adding a homemade frosting to a warm cookie. Too warm and it’ll just slide right off.
I prefer to top the cookies when they are completely cool. Also see storage notes since it can be easier to store the frosting and cookies separately/unfrosted.
Use a hand mixer and beaters to cream together softened cream cheese and butter. Keep mixing until the frosting is completely free of lumps.
Slowly beat in the confectioners’ sugar in intervals (about 1/2-3/4 cup at a time) until completely smooth. Add in the cake batter flavor, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt. Mix until combined.
Too thick? Use a tablespoon of cream or whole milk to thin down the frosting.
Too thin? Make sure the frosting chills in the fridge for an hour or two before using.
Pipe frosting onto cooled cookies with a large round tip and top with sprinkles!
This is a lot of frosting!
This amount of frosting makes about 3 cups. I used only 2.5 cups, but you might use more or less depending on the piping tip you use and how close to the edge of each cookie you go. Leftovers are great on top of cinnamon rolls, more cookies, or thinned down and drizzled over breakfast breads (coffee cake, scones, etc.).
For a more moderate amount of frosting, cut the frosting recipe in half and spread a small amount on each cookie. Don’t forget to add sprinkles!
How to Store These Cookies
The frosting does not set completely so these cookies can’t be stacked. It will even remain a bit soft when frozen.
Unfrosted cookies:
Unfrosted cookies can be stored at room temp in an air-tight container.
My preferred storage method is to store frosting separately in the fridge. Frosting can even be stored ready to go in a piping bag (though it’ll have to be re-filled as you frost cookies–this is a lot of frosting!).
Frosted cookies:
If you have the space, store frosted cookies in a single layer in large air-tight boxes. I like these large rectangle ones from Target. If you aren’t fussy, you could store a double layer with wax paper in between, but the frosting will squish!
How to Freeze Crumbl Birthday Cake Cookies
Unfrosted cookies: freeze the unfrosted cookies in freezer-safe storage for up to 1-2 months. Prepare the frosting when ready to defrost and eat. Frost the fully thawed cookies.
Frosted cookies: If you have already-frosted cookies you are wondering what to do with, here’s how to freeze them. “Flash freeze” the cookies by popping a tray of frosted cookies in the freezer for a couple hours. Then, pack in a single layer in freezer bags or containers.
The frosting won’t be impeccable after freezing the frosted cookies, so I don’t suggest this method if you’re planning to serve these somewhere where perfection is required!
More Crumbl Recipes to Try
- Crumbl Butterfinger® Cookies
- Crumbl Vanilla Sugar Cookies
- Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
- Crumbl Blueberry Muffin Cookies
- Milk Chocolate Chip Cookie for One
Crumbl Birthday Cake Cookies
Ingredients
Birthday Cake Cookies
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter softened to room temp, 8 ounces
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar 4 ounces
- ½ cup granulated sugar 3.5 ounces
- 1 large egg room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cake batter flavor (substitute for another 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla if you don't have this)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 10 ounces
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup rainbow sprinkles *see notes*
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (full fat) softened
- 8 tablespoons butter softened
- 3 ½ cups confectioners' sugar 14 ounces
- 1 teaspoon cake batter flavor (substitute vanilla extract if you don't have this)
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream optional
- additional sprinkles for topping
Instructions
Birthday Cake Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to cream together the butter and sugars until smooth. Beat 2-3 minutes until the mixture is lighter in color and fluffy. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and cake batter flavor and beat until just combined.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the dough and beat everything together on low. Don’t overmix here. Use a spatula to fold in any last streaks of flour.
- Pour in sprinkles and gently fold in with a spatula. Careful not to overmix as even “non-bleeding” sprinkles can start to transfer dye to the dough if overworked.
- Chill dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Divide dough into 19-20 cookies using a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop. Place the balls of cookie dough 2-3” apart on a baking sheet. To flatten the tops, gently press down the rounded tops with your fingers before baking.
- Bake cookies one tray at a time for about 10-12 minutes until starting to turn golden brown on the edges. The centers will still be soft. Don’t overbake.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Note: If you need to further soften your butter and/or cream cheese, I usually will cut it up and microwave for short intervals until just soft (not melted). You'll have to do this separately for the butter/cream cheese as they won't soften at the same rate.
- While cookies are baking/cooling, make the frosting. In a large bowl, cream together the softened cream cheese and butter using the beaters on a hand mixer until very smooth (no lumps).
- Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar in intervals (about 1/2-3/4 cup at a time) until completely smooth.
- Add in the cake batter flavor, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt, and mix until combined. Use a tablespoon of cream or whole milk to thin down the frosting if it's too thick. Alternatively, if it's too thin, you may add additional confectioners sugar or (my preferred method), pop it in the fridge for an hour or two before using.
- Fit a piping bag with a large round tip (I used a 1A tip which is about 1/2" in diameter) and fill with frosting. Pipe a swirl around each cookie, starting in the middle and moving out toward the edges. Don't have a piping bag? Use a large gallon storage bag and cut a small end off one of the corners. You can also frost the cookies with a off-set spatula.Top with sprinkles and serve! If you plan to store the cookies, you may want to wait on frosting them until directly before eating. See recipe notes about storing these cookies.
Hi! I was going to try to make the classic pink sugar recipe and a few others, but you have not included the amounts of all of the ingredients in the recipes.
Hi Paula, thanks for your message! You can find all of the ingredients and detailed instructions at the end of the post in the printable recipe card. The “how to” section earlier in the post just has an overview of the recipe.
Thanks for stopping by!
Ellen 🙂