Go Back
No ratings yet

4 Ingredient Birthday Cookies

These fun and festive birthday cookies are soft, chewy and full of sprinkles. They are easy to make and only need four ingredients. They can be made ahead of time and customized with different decorations.
Servings: 12 cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Total Time: 24 minutes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

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.
  • I used Gold Medal self-rising flour* for these cookies.
  • *This product link is an affiliate link. This means I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
  • 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).
Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 143kcal, Carbohydrates: 16g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Sodium: 117mg, Sugar: 8g, NET CARBS: 16
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. This is not a comprehensive list of all the nutrients in the recipe (i.e., does not include vitamins, cholesterol, etc). I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Did you make this recipe?Please leave a star rating and review below!