Copycat Crumbl Holiday Birthday Cake Cookie

The perfect versatile treat for any occasion, Crumbl’s Birthday Cake Cookie is a the perfect sugar cookie on steroids. Crumbl most likely makes their birthday cake cookies with artificial cake batter flavor. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have artificial cake batter flavor in my pantry, but I found vanilla with a dash of almond created a really similar, dare I say slightly better, cake batter flavor.

Ingredients 

• ½ cup salted butter, softened
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅛ tsp almond extract
• 1 ½ cups AP flour
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder

Frosting:

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Decoration:

2 Tbsp Non-Pareils

Cookie Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, around 2 minutes if you’re using a mixer. 

Add egg, vanilla, and almond extract and mix until fully combined.

Add flour, cornstarch, and baking powder and mix until fully combined. Dough will resemble playdough.

Split dough in 4, and roll into balls. Arrange on a silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet with ample space in between, and smoosh with the bottom of a glass until the dough balls are roughly an inch thick.

Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until edges begin to brown slightly.

Remove and let cool on a cooling rack.

Cake Directions

Beat softened cream cheese and butter together until completely smooth.

Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and mix on low until combined.

Add milk, 1 teaspoon at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Fill a piping bag with frosting and pipe onto cookies.

Sprinkle with nonpareils. 

Tips/Tricks: 

• Cornstarch helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much, giving them that crumble shape. 
• Make sure your cream cheese is completely softened before whipping to avoid any lumps. 
• If you don’t have a convection oven, you’ll have more consistent baking if you bake at a smaller size for a little less time. And be sure to rotate the tray halfway through baking! 

Variations:

• For minis, split the dough into 4 balls, and then divide each of those into 3 or 4 smaller balls. Reduce baking time by at least 5 minutes, and bake until the edges are just browning.
• If you want to make a confetti cookie, be sure to use the larger more bar-shaped sprinkles in the dough, as nonpareils will bleed their color too much.