Double chocolate birthday cookies

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Covered in sprinkles and packed with chocolate, these chocolate frosted chocolate funfetti birthday cookies are perfect even if there is no birthday to celebrate!

I love all things chocolate, and I feel like birthday treats are often taken over by vanilla. These cookies bring a fudgy, chocolate sugar cookie covered in rainbow sprinkles and they get topped with a rich and deeply chocolate frosting. Perfect for chocolate lovers like me who still want sprinkles in their life.

I recommend using a stand mixer for the cookie dough, but a hand mixer would work well too. This will help to ensure your cocoa gets properly distributed and that enough air is whipped into the dough. You'll need a mixer too when you get to your frosting.

For your dough, it comes together in a pinch with no special steps. Just be sure to run your mixer for long enough as directed in the recipe. Before chilling your dough, you'll scoop into 10 dough balls, roll in your hands to smooth the surface of the scoops, and then roll in rainbow sprinkles to coat each dough ball completely.

Cover your dough in plastic wrap, and then I recommend chilling your dough scoops overnight or for at least 3 hours. While your dough is chilling, I recommend making your frosting. While you can wait until your cookies have baked and cooled, I found that when I make the frosting earlier in the process, chill the frosting while the dough is chilling, then bring it back down to room temperature while the cookies bake before frosting the chilled cookies it leads to a more deeply chocolate frosting.

This recipe doesn't call for any specialty ingredients, so if you're looking to splurge on anything I'd recommend that it's the cocoa powder. I love Valrhona's cocoa powder, and it's the one I use most often in my chocolate forward recipes.

Ingredients

Cookies

• 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup (96g) granulated sugar

• 1/3 cup (64g) light brown sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/3 cup (35g) dutch process cocoa powder

• 1 1/4 cup (150g) all purpose flour 

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles

Frosting

• 6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

• 1 1/2 cup (180g) powdered sugar

• 1/3 cup (35g) dutch process cocoa powder

• Pinch salt

• 2-3 tablespoons heavy cream 

Prep time: 30-45 minutes

Bake time: 11-13 minutes

Servings: 10 cookies

Equipment

• Stand or hand mixer

• Spatula or large spoon

• Cookie sheets

• Parchment paper

• Medium or small bowl

• Large cookie scoop (about 2.5 - 3 tablespoons)

Cooking instructions

First, make your cookie dough. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or large bowl with a hand mixer, add your butter and both sugars. Combine at a medium speed for about a minute. Scrape down the sides of your bowl.

Add in your egg and vanilla extract. Continue to mix for about two minutes until your mixture is lightened. Scrape down your bowl again and your mixer attachment. Mix again for another minute.

Next, add in your cocoa powder and mix for a minute until it's completely incorporated. Scrape down the sides of your bowl and mixer attachment. Then, add in the rest of your dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix at a low speed until your dough just forms. Pause and finish mixing by hand with your spatula, being sure to scrape down to the bottom of your bowl.

Measure out your sprinkles in a medium bowl and set aside. Scoop your cookie dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. It should make about 10 scoops, each 2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons, or about 50g per scoop. Roll each scoop in your palms to smooth out the edges and then roll each to coat in sprinkles. Cover your cookie sheet in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill up to 12 hours, or at minimum 3.

Make your frosting. You can wait for this step until you've baked and cooled your cookies, however I find that I get the deepest chocolate flavor in my frosting when I make it ahead of time at the same time as my dough, allowing it to chill and then come back down to room temperature.

In a bowl, combine your butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Use a spatula to mix until completely smooth. It will seem crumbly at first but keep mixing and it will dampen eventually. Once mixed completely, add in one tablespoon of heavy cream and mix until combined. Then switch to a mixer - you can use a hand mixer, or stand if you prefer. Mix for a minute or two at a medium to high speed until your frosting increases in volume and lightens in color. Add another tablespoon of heavy cream and continue to mix for another two minutes. If your frosting is too thick, add another tablespoon of heavy cream and mix one final time.

Cover your frosting, either press plastic wrap to touch the top layer of your frosting or place your frosting into an airtight container, and put back into the fridge while your dough chills.

Bake and frost your cookies. Remove your chilled frosting from the fridge so it can come to room temperature in time to frost your cookies. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake your cookies for 11-13 minutes and then let them cool completely, about an hour.

Once your frosting has come to room temperature, and your baked cookies have cooled completely, use a spatula to mix your frosting to ensure it's smooth throughout and softened. Add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of frosting onto each cookie, spread it however you'd like and enjoy!

The frosting on your cookies will harden once you leave your cookies out at room temperature, and then you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for about 5 days. They can be enjoyed at room temperature or straight from the fridge.

Carb and serving info 

Servings: 10 cookies

Carbs per serving (1 of 10): 57

Carbs for full recipe: 567

Carbs for cookies only (no sprinkles): 298

Carbs for frosting only: 197

Carbs for sprinkles only: 72

Note: Carb information is calculated based on the specific ingredients I used to cook with to help guide my own insulin to carb ratio when dosing before I eat my home cooked recipes.