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 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.
Aliana Gallentine
This is a terrible recipe. Taste like popcorn.
Sam
Hi Aliana! Is it possible your butter is bad? The cookies shouldn’t taste anything like popcorn. 🙂
Cynthia
I agree that this is not a good cookie. All of my ingredients were fresh.
M.H.
Great recipe! It would so be delish with white chocolate chips. I didn’t use nonpareils and substituted with sprinkles. Turned out good.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the cookies! 🙂
Caroline
Is the 1 cup butter measured before melting or after?
Sam
Before would be the easiest way to do it, one cup is two sticks of butter.
Connie
When I clicked on printable recipe link and then clicked on print recipe again, it went to coconut macaroons recipe. Something is amiss! I haven’t ever had any problem printing your recipes before and after this Funfetti Cookies recipe. Help! 😂
Thanks bunches,
Connie
Sam
Hi Connie! So I just tried this on two different computers and had my husband try it too and we can’t seem to replicate this problem. Could you try it one more time and let me know if it works for you? I definitely would want to get this fixed but I can’t seem to find the problem to know what to fix. Sorry you are having trouble with this!
Margot
Made these half a dozen time and they’re always great! I usually add extra sprinkles just because I like the look and sometimes will put royal icing on top for a bit of an extra treat.
Sam
I’m so happy to hear you enjoy them, Margot! Thank you for commenting! <3
Amy
The flavor of these were so good! But ours baked up really flat.. is that how they should be?
Sam
They shouldn’t be really flat. They may have needed just a little more flour.
Sophie
EVERONE loved these – better than Milk Bar (in my opinion!!) will be making again!
Chelsea
Would you be able to half the recipe and if so would every single ingredient just be divided?
Sam
Yes that should work just fine! 😃
Belle
Amazing recipe! I made these for a party last night and it was such a hit. I’m making them again today for some guest that we have over. Will be making them over and over again 🙂
Sam
I am so happy to hear this, Belle!! Thank you for commenting 🙂
nana
Your cookies were amazing. The recipe had no flaws! Thanks so much
Faye
Is it 1 and 2/3 cup sugar ?
Sam
Yes
Carli O'Brien
Can you use raw sugar instead of white?
Sam
I don’t think that would be a problem! 🙂
Kate
This recipe was awesome. I just added a tsp of almond extract and white chocolate chips. I’ve made these twice now and everyone loves them!
Sam
I’m so glad they were such a hit!
Deana
Can you use salted butter? I don’t have any unsalted butter on hand.
Sam
Yup, just cut the salt called for in the recipe down from 1 tsp to 1/2!
Jillian
How long are these good for? If I make them Thursday night will they be good through the weekend ?
Sam
They’ll definitely still be good — just keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. Enjoy! 🙂