Funfetti Cookies from scratch

Remember funfetti cakes when you were a kid (or perhaps just last week..)? There was something remarkably delightful about the fluffy cake-batter taste, the bright colors of the sprinkles, and not to mention the creamy funfetti frosting on top.

The best part of anything funfetti related-- the sprinkles!

 Last weekend I was at Shaw's, looking for something probably more important and healthier than what I ended up seeing-- a box of funfetti cake mix! But instead of cake, I had cookies on the brain; these thoughts combined with some googling resulted in tada! funfetti cookies made from scratch.

Apparently I was not the only one to be astonished at the lack of from-scratch funfetti recipes-- several other bloggers had already commented on this and came up with their own. Thanks to them, I mashed together several recipes to come up with the final product here. enjoy!

 

Funfetti Cookies with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
(makes approximately 2 dozen 2" diameter cookies)

adapted from chewy funfetti cookies (The Teenage Taste) and funfetti cake (Annie's Eats)

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Mix together evenly.
3. Add oil, eggs, vanilla, and almond extracts to the dry ingredients. Mix together slowly-- do not overmix.
4. Fold in sprinkles.
5. Roll into golf-size balls and place ~1" apart on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper*. Using the palm of your hand, flatten each ball down slightly (to desired size**; mine were about 1cm thick).
6. Bake for 9-10m. The center of the cookie should still be slight soft (yield under gentle pressure) when they are removed from the oven. Let cool on the sheet for 5-10m.
7. Frost and decorate as desired. I went with chocolate buttercream and more sprinkles :)

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp warm milk***

1. Cream butter with cocoa powder and sugar. Add in milk to desired consistency.
2. Store unused buttercream in freezer.

* I didn't do this, and when I took my cookies out I had to scrape them off the sheet because the bottoms burned a bit (even though the tops looked fine).
** These cookies don't spread very much.
*** Warm is important. If the milk is cold, the butter re-hardens when you mix the frosting and you end up with frosting that has little chunks of unmelted butter floating in it. If the milk is hot, the butter melts and you end up with runny frosting.

happy funfetti-ing!