Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These birthday Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the perfect blend of cookies and cake and make the ultimate treat for the indecisive sweet tooth and anyone who loves the flavor of cake but craves the texture of a cookie!

There’s this drink and cookie shop in my home state called Twisted Sugar that my family and I love to frequent. All of their cookies are amazing but one of my personal favorites is their birthday cake cookies. The only problem is that they are a limited edition cookie and I’ve only seen them featured twice for a month each time. They are so darn good and I’m just not okay with having them once a year, so I made a copycat and I have to say… I nailed it. Taste these just once and you’ll understand what all the fuss is about.

Here’s How You Make It

Prepare the Cookie Dough

1. First thing’s first, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cake mix, baking powder, baking soda, corn starch, and salt in a medium-size mixing bowl. 
2. Now take out a large bowl and cream together the butter and sugars for 2 minutes until they’re very light and fluffy. Then add the vanilla and eggs and mix it all together until it’s completely incorporated.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix the batter all together until it’s completely combined. Then, stir in the white chocolate chips and sprinkles.
4. Using a large cookie scoop, scoop mounds of cookie dough onto a plate. Using your fingers, gently shape the cookie dough mounds so that they are taller than they are wide. Cover the plate tightly and chill the dough mounds for 30 minutes. 

Baking the Cookies

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. When the oven’s ready, transfer the cookie dough mounds to a lightly greased or lined baking sheet. Bake the birthday cake cookies for 8-9 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. 
3. Allow the cookies to cool for 15-20 minutes on the pan, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

The Frosting

1. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter for 2 minutes on medium-low speed. Mix in the cake mix and powdered sugar (start with 3 cups first, then add more as needed).
2. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time to the frosting as you’re mixing until it becomes easily spreadable, then stir in a pinch of salt.
3. Spread the frosting onto the completely cooled cookies and top them with the sprinkles. Serve them immediately or store the birthday cake cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Why This Recipe Works

Yellow cake mix — I discovered after about 4 tries that there really was no substitution for the boxed yellow cake mix. This is the KEY to making these birthday cake cookies taste like, well, birthday cake! You use some in the batter and some in the frosting to really drive home that yummy birthday cake taste! 

Sprinkles — Could you make these cake batter cookies without sprinkles? Sure. But why would you want to? Sprinkles (I like the pastel version, but you could use rainbow as well) make the cookies look festive, and add just the perfect bit of texture and taste to the cookies to really make them feel like a birthday! 

Frosting — Okay this is a no-brainer too but frosting in these cookies is non-negotiable. Adding the cake mix gives the frosting the most perfect flavor and the butter and powdered sugar make it nice and fluffy. Add those sprinkles to really amp up the party effect. I like to keep the frosting white so the sprinkles stand out, but you could also add food coloring to the frosting to make it a nice pastel color to match the sprinkles, too. 
So tasty — This probably goes without saying too but you’re really not going to get a tastier, more addictive cookie than these birthday cake cookies. Whether straight out of the oven (okay let them cool a bit first) or the fridge (my favorite way to enjoy these cookies), they are SO GOOD I promise you won’t be able to stop at just one!

Expert Tips and Tricks

• Swap white chocolate chips for milk chocolate if you prefer (but using white chocolate helps the sprinkles to stand out more). 
• If you like nuts in your cookies, you can add chopped walnuts to the batter just before forming and popping in the fridge. Pecans would work too. 
• These birthday cake cookies are amazing served two ways: Immediately after being iced OR right out of the fridge. Mmmmm trust me on this one! 
• Store these birthday cake cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
• Here’s another fun idea: Make birthday cake cookie sandwiches by stacking two cookies between a layer of the yummy icing! 
• Or, swap out the icing for vanilla ice cream to hold two cookies together in a sandwich.

More Cookie and Cake Recipes

If you make these cake batter cookies, please come back and let me know what you think by leaving a comment and rating the recipe! And be sure to snap a photo and email it or tag me on social media, I love connecting with you and seeing your CDLC creations!