My soft, chewy, buttery, and sprinkle-packed Funfetti Cookies are made completely from scratch–no box cake mix required! This recipe can be prepped without a mixer in just 20 minutes. Recipe includes a how-to video!
100% From-Scratch Funfetti Cookies
Like a funfetti cake in cookie form, my soft, chewy funfetti cookies are perfectly sweet and loaded with colorful sprinkles. They’re simple (sort of like drop sugar cookies) and so much fun to make! The sprinkles add a surprisingly addictive texture and lots of color, and the buttery, vanilla flavor comes 100% from scratch. You won’t even miss the cake mix!
My favorite thing about these funfetti cookies (besides the sprinkles!) is that they come together without a mixer. Using melted butter makes it easy to mix everything by hand and replaces the traditional creaming step. Of course, this means you will need to chill your cookie dough before scooping and baking–but they’re worth the wait!
Important Tips for Perfect Cookies:
- Make sure the butter isn’t too warm before adding the sugar. Butter that’s too warm will melt the sugar, leaving you with a greasy cookie dough and cookies that spread far too much.
- Let the dough chill! 30 minutes is the bare minimum, but 60 minutes is even better.
- Roll your cookie dough before placing it on the baking sheet for more uniform, round cookies.
- Remove the cookies from the oven while they still look slightly underdone. They’ll finish baking on the hot cookie sheet as they cool, leaving you with perfectly chewy funfetti cookies. Over-baking makes cookies that are tough, dry, and too-crisp, as opposed to soft, buttery, and chewy!
What You Need
This recipe uses pantry staples to make super buttery and soft funfetti cookies. Here are a few of the most important ones you’ll need:
- Melted butter. Using melted butter ensures the cookies stay soft and chewy instead of cakey. It also gives them an incredible flavor (even better flavor if you use European butter!). I like to let my butter cool for about 10-15 minutes after melting to ensure that it’s no longer warm to the touch.
- Vanilla. A hefty pour of vanilla provides that cake mix flavor without all the additives. For even better flavor, use homemade vanilla extract!
- Cornstarch. Cornstarch helps these funfetti cookies hold their shape and stay soft. I use this in my funfetti Christmas cookies too, as well as many of my other cookie recipes. It’s one of my favorite secret ingredients!
- Sprinkles. Pretty much any kind will do–I use a mix of different types for a fun and whimsical look.
SAM’S TIP: Use unsalted butter! I have a separate post on why I like to use unsalted vs. salted butter, so I’ll be brief here, but essentially, you can better control the flavor of your cookies by adding the salt separately. It’s hard to know exactly how much salt is in each stick of salted butter (especially since there’s so many brands!), so using unsalted butter allows for precise and consistent results.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Funfetti Cookies
- Stir together the cooled melted butter and sugars.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and stir well.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients.
- Stir in the sprinkles, then cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge.
- Scoop chilled dough and roll into smooth balls before placing them onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, then let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet before enjoying.
SAM’S TIP: Don’t add all of your dry ingredients at once! If you do, you could end up with a dry, crumbly dough. Adding the flour gradually allows it to absorb properly and makes your dough much easier to work with.
Frequently Asked Questions
Funfetti simply refers to the well-loved boxed cake mix that’s loaded with colorful sprinkles. The final product has a buttery, vanilla flavor and lots of colorful sprinkles throughout, just like these funfetti cookies! You could also call these confetti cookies! I actually incorporate funfetti cake mix in a few of my recipes, like my funfetti cinnamon rolls and funfetti cheesecake squares.
Yes! This is the only (very minor) downside to using melted butter, but it’s SO important. Chilling helps the flavor develop and prevents the funfetti cookies from spreading too much on the baking sheet.
It sounds like you may have accidentally over-measured your flour or over-baked your cookies. Remember to pull your cookies out when they still look a bit underdone, since they’ll finish cooking on the baking sheet. If you let your cookies bake completely in the oven, they’ll end up over-baked after cooling. I know it seems weird, I found this is the best way to get soft and chewy funfetti cookies.
I hope you have as much fun making (and eating!) these as I did!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Funfetti Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled until no longer warm to the touch
- 1 ⅔ cup (333 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- ⅓ cup sprinkles nonpareils, quins, jimmies, or a mix
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine melted, cooled butter with sugar and stir until combined.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 ⅔ cup (333 g) granulated sugar
- Add eggs and vanilla extract, stir well.2 large eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until thoroughly combined.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon table salt
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
- Stir in sprinkles until well-distributed through the dough.⅓ cup sprinkles
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 5 days (dough chilled longer than a few hours may need to sit at room temperature for a bit to become soft enough to scoop easily).
- When nearly ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop dough by rounded 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized scoops and drop onto baking sheet (or roll the dough into smooth balls between your palms for rounder, more uniform cookies) spacing cookies at least 2” (5cm) apart.
- Transfer baking sheet to 350F (175C) preheated oven and bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Cookies may look slightly underdone when they come out of the oven, this is fine and makes them nice and chewy as they continue to cook on the baking sheet as they cool. Let them cool completely on the baking sheet before removing as they’re fragile when warm!
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Carol Lemieux
These are wonderful cookies. Recipe is easy and yields a big batch of cookies. I made them for a Pride event last month, and the looked beautiful on the dessert table. Making them today, and then making them again in June for Pride month. I’m a great ally!! Thanks for the recipe.
Andrea
Sam, have you ever tried making this as a bar recipe?
Sam
Oh geez, I probably have, but I can’t remember. They would probably work just fine in a 9 x 13, but I can’t remember a time. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
TMC
I made these Funfetti cookies this weekend. They were a big hit! I split the dough in half and used two different kinds of sprinkles, one jimmies, one dots, both worked great although the jimmies were better because the dots themselves were a little “crunchy”. I’ve tried a few funfetti sugar cookie recipes and never been quite happy until now. This one was so great! Ill definitely add to my cookie rotation now!
Nichole Hidlebaugh
Awesome recipe! Always a hit when I bring them to events. Making them again now for a friends birthday treat basket! Can’t praise you enough for putting the measurements in the directions like that, made it much easier! Thanks so much!!!
Kathy
My last post had a few boo-boo’s in it. Sorry!! These cookies were great. I made them earlier today without any sprinkles just to see how they were. Delicious, soft, chewy and yummy. Can’t wait to make them for the 4th of July with red, white and blue sprinkles!!!!!!.Next the chocolate chip, red white and blue cookies also for the 4th of July. Thanks so much for the simple and fun recipe.