Cake Batter Cookies

In the height of the pandemic,  I got a snack box in the mail ahead of a big work meeting.  Immediately upon opening the box, my daughter zeroed in on the bag of birthday cake cookies from Ella’s Oven.   She ate a few and then begged me to try one--and she wasn’t wrong-- those cookies are addictive.  

After the bag was long devoured the wheels started turning in my brain about how I would approach a cake batter cookie.  I googled around, as one does, and I realized that a lot of the recipes involved using 1 cup of funfetti cake mix.  Which led to the obvious next question-- what are people doing with the REST of the cake mix?  Are they just tripling the recipe to use it all up?  If you’ve made cake batter cookies this way--I am dying to know the answer to this, please let me know in the comments. 

Jump to:

• Ingredients for Cake Batter Cookies
• Special Equipment
• How to Make Cake Batter Cookies
• Variations/ Recipe Notes
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Cake Batter Cookie Pairings
• Recipe

Ingredients for Cake Batter Cookies

The star of this recipe is the cake batter extract!  DID YOU KNOW CAKE BATTER EXTRACT IS A THING YOU CAN BUY?!? I did not.  Mind. Blown. I am still not 100% what it’s made of, but I will say these cookies taste shockingly like birthday cake, if a birthday cake was chewy and crunchy at the same time. 

The rest of the ingredients include: 

• Flour– All purpose and Cake Flour
• Sugars– Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar
• Butter– Unsalted butter, room temperature
• Egg– One large egg
• Raising Agents– baking powder, salt and cornstarch
• Vanilla Extract
• Sprinkles– Rainbow Jimmies

Special Equipment

• Cookies sheets
• Bowls, measuring cups and spoons
• Parchment paper to line the cookie sheets
• Cookie scoop 
• Mixer (stand or hand mixer) 

How to Make Cake Batter Cookies

Cake Batter cookies are a standard “drop” cookie.   Drop cookies are cookies that are dropped by the teaspoon full [or cookie scoop] directly onto a baking pan.  No need for cookie cutters or rolling pins!

First things first:  Y’all need to take that butter out of the fridge and set it on the counter.  

The butter needs to be room temperature by the time y’all are ready to cream the butter and sugar together.   A stick of butter can take up to 30 minutes to an hour to get to room temperature.  Ain't got time for all that? Speed up this process by cutting the butter into tablespoons and setting the butter on a plate. 

Next: Y’all need to set up your space. 

 Seriously, get all of the things you need and put them on the counter right now. It will help things go faster when you finally get to mixing.  So go ahead and  gather the ingredients, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350ºF. 

Third, y’all need to measure shit.

Seriously, take your time here and get it right.  If y’all don’t have the right ratio of flour to butter the cookies won’t turn out.  So grab a bowl and measure out the dry ingredients. The easiest way to do this is to use a kitchen scale.  If y’all are using measuring cups, make sure that 1) y’all are using dry measuring cups and not liquid ones and 2) scoop the flour into the measuring cup with a tablespoon to make sure y’all aren’t being heavy handed when y’all are scooping the flour.    Now whisk all of the dry ingredients together– all purpose and cake flour, baking powder, salt and cornstarch.  Obviously you need a bowl for this, a medium bowl will work nicely.  So now the fun is about to begin.  I like to line up my ingredients in order that they go into the mixer, so that I can move quickly. 

Fourth: cream the butter and sugar together. 

If you are using a stand mixer, this should take 3-4 minutes on medium speed.  The butter and sugars should be blended together nicely and starting to lighten in color.  Scrape the bottom of the bowl and then add in the egg, cake batter and vanilla extracts.  Turn the mixer on medium low speed and let mix for another minute.   Once the egg is combined, turn the mixer off and add in the flour.  Turn the mixer back on the lowest speed and mix until just combined. Y’all don’t over mix the batter here, it will cause a tough dense cookie.  Pour in the sprinkles and turn the mixer on low speed for 2-3 turns until the sprinkles are just combined.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a firm spatula to make sure the sprinkles are evenly distributed. 

Fifth: We’re near the finish line

 All that is left is scooping the cookie dough and baking them!   When y’all are scooping cookies try to make them uniform in size.  This can be accomplished by using either a tablespoon or a cookie scoop.  If the cookies are close to the same size they will bake evenly in the oven and then you won’t end up with that weird burnt one.  This recipe makes 20-22 3-inch cookies. 

Place the cake batter cookie dough onto a cookie sheet leaving 2 inches around each cookie to allow them to spread.  Bake time is relative to the size of the cookie dough balls and the heat of your oven.  If the cookies are smaller, they need less time in the oven and if they are larger they will need a few minutes more.  Once y'all put the cookies in the oven, start a timer for 8 minutes and check every couple of minutes.  The cookies should come out of the oven just as the edges begin to brown.  This could be anywhere from 8-13 minutes.  If you’re worried about the timing, do a test batch– with fewer cookies before committing to the timing in the oven. 

Variations/ Recipe Notes

• I found the cookie batter to be a little sticky, so I chilled my dough for at least 1 hour before baking.  Chilling cookies help manage spreading when you bake them and if you’re really patient, allows the dough to develop a more complex flavor. 
• Other Mix-Ins: Y’all could add some white chocolate chips to go with the sprinkles!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why are we whisking the flour separately when everything is going to go into a mixer? 

A: Great question.  We will put all of the flour into the mixture towards the end, but you should whisk in the salt, cornstarch and baking powder to make sure you don’t forget an ingredient  when everything starts moving quickly towards the end.  Have you ever had a cookie with too much baking powder?  It’s not great.  The other reason you should whisk is just in case you spill the flour– you prevent the potential calamity of spilling only the baking powder onto the counter.

Q: What kind of sprinkles are best? 

A:  Any sprinkles that are made for the oven will work. Most sprinkles will say “safe for oven use” on the label somewhere.  If you didn’t check the label before you baked them, make sure you use parchment paper!  That one time I baked non- oven safe sprinkles was only a minor disaster because I lined my pan with  parchment paper first.  So I only had to throw away the cookies and not the pan too.  Jimmies are always a safe choice. 

Cake Batter Cookie Pairings

These cake batter cookies are great for parties or mailing them in care packages!  They pair incredibly well with Chocolate Chip Cookies and Biscoff Cookies in cookie boxes.   During the holidays, switch up the sprinkles to more festive colors and add them to a box full of Gingerbread Biscotti and Molasses Brown Butter Cookies for a festive cookie box. 

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