These birthday cookies are soft, chewy and full of sprinkles. The cookies are easy to make and only need 4 ingredients. They also don’t require any eggs. The cookies are ready in less than 30 minutes from start to finish. The cookies are easy to customize and can be made ahead of time.
Does it feel like you’ve been celebrating an endless number of birthdays lately? Nearly every weekend has involved a birthday celebration in my family these last few weeks. In honor of all the birthdays, I wanted to share these very easy and festive birthday cookies. They are so easy to make and you can customize with different colors or variations of sprinkles.
Ingredients
- Flour
- Sugar
- Butter
- Sprinkles
Flour: This recipe can be made with regular all purpose flour or with self-rising flour. Depending on the flour you choose, the cookies will be slightly different in texture and appearance. I explain more about the differences in the flour section of the post.
Sugar: The recipe use regular granular sugar to sweeten the cookies.
Butter: Make sure to use unsalted butter and the butter will need to be softened to room temperature before using.
Sprinkles: You can use any kind of sprinkles you like. You can use confetti sprinkles, regular sprinkles, nonpareils, etc. One thing to keep in mind is that some of the sprinkles are baked inside the dough and those sprinkles will bleed a little as they bake. I find that lighter colored sprinkles tend to bleed less so I prefer using lighter colored sprinkles.
How to Make Birthday Sprinkle Cookies
- The butter and sugar is first mixed together using a mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- The flour is then added in and very gradually mixed in at lowest speed until it becomes large clumps of dough.
- Half of the sprinkles are then added in and briefly mixed in until they are evenly incorporated throughout the dough.
- The dough is then scooped out using a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop and released onto the baking sheet.
- Add some of the remaining sprinkles onto the tops of each cookie ball and then they are ready to be baked.
Flour Variation
As discussed above, these cookies can be made with either all purpose flour or self-rising flour. I loved both versions so much that I am sharing both. It really comes down to personal preference.
All purpose flour: If you use all purpose flour the cookies will have crispy edges and and a chewy center. The cookies will taste like classic sugar cookies. They will also look like classic sugar cookies in that they will be round and flat. The cookies also don’t contain any salt so they will just be sweet sugar cookies. Some people like salt in their cookies but my family doesn’t. We prefer just sweet so we love these cookies.
Self-rising flour: If you use self-rising flour, which is flour that is already pre-mixed with baking powder and salt, the cookies will be soft and chewy and will not be crispy. The surface of the cookies will also have your classic soft and chewy cookie appearance with an uneven and crackled surface. The cookies also taste salty and sweet. The cookies in the pictures for this post are made with self-rising flour. Appearance-wise I do love the look of these cookies. These remind me more of bakery-style cookies with their crinkles.
More Fun Cookies
4 Ingredient Birthday Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1/3 cup (65 g) granulated white sugar
- 1 cup (125 g) self-rising flour or all purpose flour (see note section)
- 4 tbsp (46 g) sprinkles divided
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line a large cookie sheet with silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add butter and sugar. Using the flat paddle attachment, beat at medium speed until lightly and fluffy. You will need to stop and scrape the sides of your bowl once or twice with a spatula so that the butter mixture gets beaten properly. You should not need to beat that long. About 30 seconds total.
- Add in flour. Mix on lowest speed (stir setting on my mixer) until flour is completely incorporated. Your dough will look crumbly at first. Do not be discouraged and do not increase speed. Make sure to scrape down the sides a few times because the butter will stick to the bowl. As the flour is slowly beaten in, your dough should start to look less crumbly and clumps should begin to stick together. Continue mixing until the dough becomes a few big clumps.
- Add in 2 tbsp (23 g) of sprinkles. Mix dough on low speed for just a few seconds until the sprinkles are evenly spread throughout the dough.
- Use a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop to scoop out dough. Place onto prepared cookie sheet, spaced about 1.5 to 2 inches apart.
- Self-rising flour cookie version: Add the remaining sprinkles into a pile on your cookie sheet. Take each dough ball and gently press the top into the sprinkles, so that the top is covered in sprinkles (see photo in post for reference). Be careful not to flatten the dough ball too much when you do this because the cookies will spread during baking.
- All purpose flour cookie version: Pick up one of your dough pieces and roll it between your palms to form a smooth ball. Place it back onto the cookie sheet. Use the palm of your hand to flatten the dough ball into a 1/2 inch thick round disk. Because the cookies don't contain baking powder they won't spread as much which is why the dough needs to be flattened a little. Repeat with the remaining dough. Sprinkle each cookie with some sprinkles.
- Bake cookies for about 13-15 minutes (mine were done at 14 minutes) or until edges just start to turn a light brown. Let cookies cool completely on cookie sheet before trying to remove them. If you remove them while they are still warm, they will fall apart. The self-rising flour cookies will initially be quite puffy but will sink down a little as they cool.
Notes
- I share two versions of these cookies: one made with self-rising flour and one with all purpose flour. Please see post for the difference in texture and appearance depending on which flour you choose. Also read next note about self-rising flour.
- If you are making the self-rising flour version, make sure to use a self-rising flour that has a regular amount of protein (3 g per 1/4 cup). Some self-rising flour brands have a low protein flour (2 g per 1/4 cup) and we have not tested this recipe with low protein self-rising flour. Brands like White Lily and King Arthur use a low protein self-rising flour. If you only have low protein self-rising flour on hand, then please make a homemade self-rising flour to make the cookies.
- Homemade self-rising flour. If you want to make the self-rising flour version of these cookies but don't have any self-rising flour on hand, you can make your own. Whisk together 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/4 teaspoon salt. Make sure your all purpose flour contains 3 grams of protein per 1/4 cup serving. Then use the mixture to make your cookies.
- Be careful not to add too many sprinkles into the cookie dough. The sugar from those sprinkles will cause the dough to spread so if you use more than what the recipe calls for, your cookies will spread more.
- You can use whatever sprinkles you prefer but I have found that lighter colored sprinkles tend to bleed less and higher quality sprinkles tend to bleed less. I used a mix of a few different brands of natural colored sprinkles.
- The estimated nutrition is for the self-rising flour version and assumes that 3.5 tbsp of sprinkles are used (2 tbsp are given to be used on top but you shouldn't need the full amount and I usually have about 1/2 tbsp leftover).
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
