Birthday Cake Cookies! 🎂
Alright, here’s the deal. It’s always somebody’s birthday somewhere, right? Which means it’s totally permissible to eat birthday cake any day of the year. 🥳 But baking a full birthday cake can be time consuming. That’s why the world invented birthday cake cookies. This birthday cake cookies recipe is my go-to when I want to pump a little sugar into my sweet tooth. These are super soft cookies but they’re also satisfyingly chunky. Rainbow sprinkles add a festive flair to the whole mix. Spoiler alert: they taste like that coveted lick of batter off your mixing spoon when making a birthday cake.
What Makes Cookies More Cakey?
Adding cake flour to your cookie dough can result in a more cakey cookie. They’re not too crispy or chewy. The texture is soft and light. But don’t be fooled – the cashews give some heft to these birthday cake cookies. Cake flour has a lower percentage of protein and gluten compared to all-purpose flour. Cake flour also is ground much finer. All these attributes result in a lighter, more tender cookie.
More brown sugar also helps create a cakey cookie. For example, this birthday cake cookies recipe has a ratio of 2:1 brown sugar to granulated sugar. Brown sugar contains acidity that activates baking soda, helping the cookies to rise more while baking in the oven.
Finally, chilling cookie dough in the fridge or freezer prevents the cookies from spreading out as much while they bake. The more cookies spread, the thinner they’ll be, edging towards a crispier cookie. These dough balls are frozen for at least an hour, to get them nice and chilled before baking. Therefore they hold onto their cute, chubby shape in the oven.
New York Style Cookies
I was inspired by recipes I’ve seen all over the internet for NYC cookies or New York style cookies. Similar to cruffins in San Francisco, New York City’s Levain Bakery created an internet sensation with their chunky, “softball-sized” cookies. Their cookies are as tall as the skyscrapers that line NYC’s skyline! And they are massive – I’m talking 6 ounces of cookie dough! 🍪 That’s over a third of a pound! No wonder there’s an eternal line out the bakery’s doors. I’d camp out the night prior just to be first in line for some of those bad boyz.
Why Are Levain Cookies So Good?
If having a 6-ounce cookie in your hand wasn’t reason enough to fall in love with Levain Bakery NYC cookies, here’s just a few more. They’re crispy on the outside and basically gooey melted dough on the inside. It’s the best of both worlds in the cookie game. And they’re jam packed with mix-in’s like nuts and chocolate chips.
I personally have never had the pleasure of indulging in Levain Bakery’s cookies, but I do know a few bakers who have. This recipe was inspired by Cupcake Jemma’s renditions of New York style cookies.
Creating New York Style Cookies
I didn’t weight my dough balls for this birthday cake cookies recipe, but I can guarantee you that they’re smaller than 6 ounces. I’d rather have more cookies to munch on and share than a few gigantic cookies that will all end up solely in my tummy. But these are still the tallest, softest cookies I’ve ever made, inspired by New York style cookies.
And just like Levain Bakery’s cookies, they are studded with nuts. Cashews, to be specific, so they don’t overpower the birthday cake flavor. But if you’re not a fan of nuts, you can substitute white chocolate chips to still get a wonderful crunch in each bite.
Enjoy!!
Birthday Cake Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cubed and cold in the fridge
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup cashews or white chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup rainbow sprinkles
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1¼ cup cake flour
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 large eggs, whisked in a small bowl
- 1 tsp almond or vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add the cold cubed butter into a bowl and break it up just for 30 seconds with a wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment in a stand mixer.
- Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Mix for another minute until the sugar is distributed and coating the butter. Add the cashews (or white chocolate chips) and rainbow sprinkles. Mix just for 10 seconds to distribute.
- Add the all-purpose flour, cake flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix for about a minute or two, until it forms fine crumbs. It's okay if there are larger chunks as well.
- Add the whisked eggs and almond or vanilla extract. Mix just until the dough comes together, for about another minute. It should still be chunky and not entirely smooth.
- Gently press the dough into 12 evenly-shaped balls in the palms of your hands and spread them out on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.Freeze for at least an hour, or until you're ready to bake your cookies.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. I like to take the baking tray out of the freezer and let it sit on the counter at room temperature for 5 – 10 minutes. The cookie dough will still be frozen, but the baking tray can warm up a bit so the temperature difference isn't too drastic. Bake the cookies for 15 – 20 minutes, just until the bottom edges become golden. Let cool for 5 minutes, then enjoy!
The photography is absolutely STUNNING! Way to go! 🙂
Aww thank you, Annie! That means so much!! 😊
OMG, these look so fun!
Thank you!! They were even more fun to eat! 😝