Birthday Cake Cookies // Featuring The Hummingbird Bakery

Last week saw myself celebrate turning another year older, keeping to the theme I thought I'd share one of my favourite Cookie recipes with you all. Over the years I've whipped up many of The Hummingbird Bakery recipes, though their Birthday Cake Cookies remain a firm favourite of our family and friends. If you have a birthday coming up, these buttery cookies bursting with colourful shards are the perfect way to celebrate OR perhaps, you just need a little pick up through these difficult times. 

Method and Ingredients:

Cookies

120g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 tsp butter extract (purchase online, or use vanilla)

190g plain flour 

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

130g sprinkles

For the filling

115g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

375g icing sugar

2-3 tbsp milk

80g sprinkles (to roll)

Pre-heat your oven to 175C and line 3 Baking Trays with greaseproof baking paper. Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat by hand or with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Next, beat in your large egg yolks (one at a time) along with the vanilla/butter extract. Follow by folding in the plain flour, baking powder, salt and lastly, the sprinkles once a dough has been formed.

I find it best to refrigerate the dough, for at least a couple of hours, especially when the weather is so warm. Once chilled, weigh the dough into 30g balls and space out on greased baking trays, before baking for 9-12 minutes. You want the cookies to loose their shine and have firm tops. Leave the cookies to cool before transferring to a metal cooling rack. 

Whilst your cookies are cooling, if sandwiching together, you’ll need to prepare some frosting. Add all icing ingredients (apart from sprinkles) to your mixer and beat until smooth. Once made, take two cooled cookies, apply a generous amount of frosting to the flat side of one cookie (a piping bag is recommended), before popping on the second to create a sandwich. Next, pour the sprinkles into a dish, roll the exposed edges of frosting into the sprinkles and TADA, you have the ultimate birthday cake cookie.

Of course like all recipes on Lucyy Writes, you can easily make them gluten and dairy free. You’ll need to swap out the flour for gluten free (I use Dove Farm) and recommend using the Hard Baking Block by Stork (which is naturally dairy free). If you are coeliac, remember to read the ingredients on sprinkles as a lot still do contain wheat starch. I don’t use ‘butter extract’, I personally use vanilla extract as I always have that in. You also don’t need to sandwich the cookies together, they’re perfectly deliciously alone, to be dunked in a cuppa tea OR shared with a greedy Harry - whose little black nose always detects the freshly baked tray of cookies. You could also coat the bottom of the cookie in white chocolate.

Have you turned to baking or cooking during the pandemic? Lucy x

Recipe: The Hummingbird Bakery - Life is Sweet cookbook.