Some things you never grow out of. Things like cotton candy at Walt Disney World and flannel on Christmas morning or even treats like these funfetti cookies remind me that there’s a childlike nostalgia in all of us that will never die. Some things are relevant forever.
HBD, JESS!
My best friend Jesse turned 30 yesterday. We met as self-conscious 6th graders back in the late 90’s (cough, what?), and since then we’ve celebrated nearly 20 years of irthdays as BFFs. That length of time does something to a relationship. After a while, you start feeling less like a friend and more like a sister, or maybe a crazy aunt who is terribly overbearing but loyal enough to throw eggs at your ex-boyfriend’s house. Our friendship has evolved over the years and it’s rarely presented itself perfect and shiny like a new penny. But after 20 years, it’s one that is worn in and fits snug in all of the right places of my story. She’s the present that has meshed with nearly ever part of my past, the instant classic that I’ve never grow out of.

“In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.”
When Jesse and I get together, it’s like we’re in middle school again. Instead of sentences, we speak in strings of inside jokes and outlandish “What If?” scenarios. There’s laughter and sarcastic banter, full freedom to say or do whatever feels right, even if that means absolutely nothing at all. There’s a certain vulnerability that comes with spending time with a person who has known you through nearly every season of your life. And there’s safety to share secrets and expose the hidden parts you think no one else will understand, because you’re confident that, ultimately, that person is there for keeps.
So I find myself from time to time, even as a wife, mother, and almost 30 year old woman, crawling like a child into the lap of my dear friend who I know will always make room for me, no matter what I bring to the table. That, my friends, is irreplaceable.

I feel obligated to embarrass Jess (and myself) with a few photos from years past. If a girl will stick by you through a half-dozen or so break-ups, braces, AND the unibrow phase, you know she will forgive you for a few old photos. Happy Birthday, Jess. Ride or die forever.


Funfetti Cookies
Like an old friend, these funfetti cookies give me all the feelings. You never grow too old for cookies, sprinkles, or the nostalgic delight that comes with the taste of box mix cake batter. These cookies are a simple, a one bowl recipe that bake up chewy, crinkled, and colorful every time. Perfect for the kids you love and the kid in you.
Making the Cookies
To make them, first cream a little room temperature butter with sugar, sugar, and more sugar. Eggs are added for moisture and fluff, and a splash of clear vanilla ensures that the cookies have that delightful bakery taste that we all know and love. Flour and a few other dry ingredients get just barely mixed in before we toss in loads of sprinkles- totally fun and incredibly necessary.
These funfetti cookies bake into perfect little rounds. The cream of tartar helps to achieve those pretty little cracks on the tops, and the high ratio of granulated sugar to brown sugar makes for a crisp-edged, chewy cookie. This recipe requires less than 10 minutes of prep work, so you can spend less time baking and more time enjoying these hot little numbers with the ones you love.
Give these funfetti cookies a try this weekend. Bake them with your kids, your bestie, or even on your own. There’s no shame in enjoying some cookie dough solo. On another note, the SAVEUR blog awards are underway and I would LOVE if you would consider nominating this sweet little site. Follow the link, type in thewoodandspoon.com and consider nominating it for the “Best New Voice” and/or “Best Baking and Sweet” category. I’d adore your support. Be sure to nominate your other favorite sites too! Have a terrific weekend and happy baking!
If you like these funfetti cookies, consider making:
Lavender Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies
Funfetti Cookies
These funfetti cookies are chewy, crinkle topped sugar cookies with loads of sprinkles and box mix cake batter flavor.
- Author: Kate Wood
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 25
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 30
- Category: Cookies
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons (140 gm) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200 gm) sugar
- ½ cup (100 gm) brown sugar
- 2–1/2 teaspoons clear vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups (260 gm) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 cup (160 gm) rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare sheet pans by lining them with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla and egg, beating on low until incorporated. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar, and beat on low speed just until the dry ingredients are combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the sprinkles. Beat just until combined.
- Scoop out 1-1/2 tablespoon sized scoops (I use a medium cookie scoop) and roll each dough ball briefly in your hands to smooth out the rough edges of dough. Place on the prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies have just begun to crack and the edges are set. Allow to cool on the sheet pans for about 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to complete cooling.
Notes
- Clear vanilla extract give these cookie that classic funfetti box cake mix flavor that we all know and love. Pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste can be substituted, however, the flavor will differ.
- I used 1-1/2 tablespoon sized balls of dough for this recipe. If you use larger or smaller balls of dough your baking time will differ. Bake until the tops have small cracks running throughout.
- If at any point in time you dough gets too soft (or if it gets too hard in the fridge), the baking time and final appearance of the cookies may differ. If your cookies don’t spread enough, it could mean that your dough is too cold. If they spread out too thin, try cooling the rest of the dough briefly in the fridge.
44 thoughts on “Funfetti Cookies”
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Hi Kate, I wanted to ask if it is possible to refrigerate the cookie dough overnight, then make balls and freeze for a month and bake straight from freezing? And is it possible to add chopped white chocolate?
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Brings back the nostalgia from baking box funfetti cake cookies. This recipe is perfect and so easy to make!
★★★★★
Maybe the best cookie I’ve ever made? Baked these for an office baby shower and I got so many messages of how good these were! Chewy and perfect. I just had regular vanilla so I added a little almond extract to give it that “bake shop” taste.
★★★★★
Hi Kate! I never wanted to be a person who changes a recipe and then reviews them but alas, that second baby I had has an egg allergy. That being said I feel like I have a pass on substitutions lol. I just finished making these cookies, I did use an egg replacer, otherwise I followed this recipe to a T. They are perfect! The flavor is great, they are soft and chewy perfection. Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Hey Kate! Have you tried these with white chocolate chips? I’m thinking about doing it!
I haven’t, but totally worth trying!
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Hi Kate!
Just attempted baking these but it spread like crazy and just got really flat.
I chilled the dough and even the baking sheet.
It spread a lot and even the sprinkles melted 🙁
Do you know what the problem could be here?
It tastes great but I assume a crunchy/ chewy thin cookie is not what it is meant to be?
Thank you!
★★★★★
oh no! I’ve not had that result with these cookies. My first thought is that the oven may run a little hot. Have you ever checked the temp of your oven or have you ever had any issue with other cookies heavily melting and spreading?
You likely over-creamed your sugar and butter in the beginning.
I’ve not used clear vanilla before so happy you shared this recipe with us (in the last 7 days I’ve gone to Starbucks 4 times to buy a confetti cookie, they frost half of the top for added fun)
★★★★★
YES! oh, the clear vanilla makes all of the difference in the world!
Can’t wait to bake these for our daughter, but also for me haha! They look so fun and scrumptious 🙂
oh, I hope you will! my kiddos just LOVE them.
I made these cookies yesterday on a whim and they are PERFECT! They only took about 30 mins from start to finish and have the most beautiful genuine cookie flavour to them. Next time I’ll use slightly larger and more vibrant sprinkles than the small ones I had. They spread beautifully and are very even in colour. Thank you for a recipe that will no doubt be a fave of mine for a while!
★★★★★
Emily, I’m thrilled to hear this!! Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂
These taste lovely. I had to pick out the red and white sprinkles from a Christmas blend to make them more Valentine’s Day appropriate. As I said, the flavor is lovely…but I had a hard time getting these to spread. I kept the dough out of the fridge and they still didn’t seem to want to spread out. I ended up over-baking them a little while I waited for them to stop being to spherical. Any advice? I realize this post is a smidge older, so no rush on an answer! Cheers!
interesting. it could be that we measure out flour a bit differently. you can weigh your ingredients for the most accuracy, or I would recommend to flatten your cookies a bit prior to baking. you could also decrease oven temp just a hair. 🙂
Thank you! I baked another batch this evening and they came out lovely. I’m using a different oven so maybe the temp is a bit more exact in this one. Either way, they’re just perfect. Rainbow sprinkles this time and excellent flavor 🙂
★★★★★
Oh hooray! I’m thrilled to hear this! Thank you for sharing!
Greetings! I’m so excited to make a Valentine’s color scheme of these for a Valentine’s Day obsessed friend. 🙂
If I don’t have cream of tartar on hand do you feel swapping baking powder in place of both the called-for baking soda and cream of tartar would work well here? If so, how much baking powder shall I use in place of these two ingredients? If not, any other recommendations to replace cream of tartar for this recipe? Thanks warmly!!
Hi there! I can’t wait to see your cookies! 1 teaspoon of baking powder is equivalent to 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar. So to be honest… I have no idea. 😉 The cream of tartar is what gives it those pretty crackles and slightly acidic taste (helps cut through the sweet!), so I’m unsure what to recommend to you! If you have baking soda I would use maybe 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of soda. But truly, I’m unsure! LMK what you find!
Hi Kate! Thank you so much for getting back with me, I really appreciate your educated guess here! I took your advice and feel these cookies turned out amazingly; I think the baking powder for tartar swap totally worked! I’ve never made this recipe with cream of tartar, so I can’t say that my slight variation does not affect the recipe in a noticeable way, but I certainly didn’t find these cookies too sweet! 😉 They also crackled nicely, although perhaps not as much as the beauts in these photos. Apart from that swap I otherwise followed your recipe for these scrumptious cookies.
I was sillily forgetful to take a picture before packaging them up to send to my valentine, so I only have a view of them through a plastic bag, but boy oh boy, they are tremendous! I really struggled with not eating the entire batch before sending some her way! I consider my restraint a huge act of selflessness. 😉 I’m not sure how to post the photo here but would love to…?
Thank you so much for this delightful recipe and your kind expert help! These cookies will be a staple in my kitchen without a doubt!!! I’m excited to swap out sprinkles for the next event these bake to the occasion!
hooray! katie, i’m so glad to hear this!! thank you so much for sharing. sometimes swaps in recipes are tricky, and i’m thrilled to hear that you loved the outcome. very best to you!
These colorful yummy cookies made for a fun sweet baking evening with my little babe!!! (We may or may not had one with breakfast today!) Delicious recipe Kate! Keep doing what you’re doing!!!
I love love LOVED seeing your results. That little gal of yours is adorable. Thank you for sharing!!!!
These are DIVINE!! I just made them and put chocolate chips in half the batch (I know it’s not true funfetti with chocolate chips but I’m a sucker for that chocolate!) I’ll be adding this to my list of go-to treat recipes. Thank you so much, Kate!!
★★★★★
HOORAY! I am thrilled to hear it. There is no shame to adding chocolate to anything. I’m totally with you. Send me a photo next time! I love to see what everyone is baking. Thank you for sharing your successes and happy baking! <3
Wow, they are wonderful!!! So much fun, my children would love this recipe, we’ll definitely try it. Thanks for sharing!
Oh, hooray! Please let me know how you like them if you get a chance to try them! 🙂
I love everything about this post! Friends who make it through those awkward years together are definitely friends for life. And funfetti cookies? Yes. Forever yes!
hahaha, I’m thrilled! Thank you for the kind words. 🙂
you have the best photos!! definitely wore matching mini skirts (our moms made us wear leggings underneath) with my middle school best friend to a dance, too. and that cheerleader picture looks like something out of a movie. seriously.
I think life was better when it was cool to wear the exact same outfit as your bestie. 😉
Love how you write about BFF. That is my friend, Debbie B. Your mom knows how wonderful Debbie is too. Keep blogging Kate, love you!
Debbie is a most excellent bestie. I’d say you probably make a great one too. 🙂
Clear vanilla? Oh lala, tell me more! Ive seen this cookies on your insta and wondered when you’d finally share – they look like the perfect summer treat, maybe even sandwiched with some ice cream. Hope you’re having a fabulous summer lady, xx
The thought of sandwiching these with ice cream just literally made my heart stop. PERFECT IDEA.