Birthday cake blondies are just like a birthday cake, but a whole lot easier to make. These tender, chewy birthday cake blondies are filled with vanilla, sprinkles and a hint of almond extract to get that characteristic birthday cake flavor.
To be honest, I’m a new lover of blondies. I love chocolate and always wanted a brownie or cookie for dessert, so I was simply never interested.
But I recently got into the blondie game and am an absolute fiend. And since my almond frangipane blondies have more than 70 five-star reviews and 550K+ views on TikTok, you know I have a killer blondie base to adapt into new recipes like birthday cake blondies.
These birthday cake blondies are thick and chewy yet fudgy. They’re packed with vanilla and buttery flavor and the sweetness and pure joy of sprinkles.
Get ready for birthday cake blondies.
Birthday Cake Blondies
What are blondies? Aren’t they the same as a cookie bar?
Okay so I’ve already outed myself as someone who used to doubt blondies. So what really are they and why are they SO good? They’re not a cookie bar, they’re not a sugar cookie, and they’re not a white chocolate brownie.
Blondies are basically the vanilla version of a brownie. They have the fudgy texture of a brownie and are satisfyingly rich and buttery. But instead of being all about chocolate like a brownie, blondies have a ton of vanilla extract for a deep and wonderful vanilla flavor.
Even though blondies are most similar in texture to a brownie, the process for making them is more similar to a cookie. You mix together butter and sugar, add in eggs and vanilla and almond extract and then fold in your dry ingredients. There’s a much higher butter and sugar to flour ratio than cookies, which is what gives them an uber buttery and vanilla flavor and fudgy texture.
Okay, so what are birthday cake blondies?
Birthday cake blondies are irresistable fudgy and chewy blondies. But to get that birthday flair, they’re filled with birthday sprinkles and a dash of almond extract for a signature birthday cake flavor.
Birthday cake blondies are perfect for so many life moments. Celebrating a birthday but don’t want to stress over a whole dang cake? Birthday cake blondies. Celebrating Pride? Birthday cake blondies all the way. Simply craving the nostalgia of funfetti? Bday blondies are at your service (and IMO better than a funfetti box mix).
What Ingredients Do I Need?
These blondies take mostly pantry ingredients that you likely already have at home. The only ones you might need to run out for are almond extract and rainbow sprinkles (if you’re not a regular sprinkle user). Also, since the butter is so pronounced in blondies, I recommend getting a quality American-style butter (Cabot is my go-to).
- Butter
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract. I originally wrote this recipe for real instead of imitation vanilla extract, but I’ve since made it with half real half imitation and loved it. I’ve also gotten messages that folks have made with all imitation and loved. Clear imitation gives more of a traditional funfetti cake mix flavor, while real vanilla extract has a robust vanilla flavor. Basically, you can go with either or a mix!
- Almond extract. This is available in most grocery stores, but if you have trouble you can also get it from Amazon. If you have an almond allergy, you can either omit the almond extract or replace it with imitation almond extract or cake batter extract. For both of these, I recommend McCormick as they do not use any ingredients containing peanuts or tree nuts aside from coconuts in their manufacturing facilities.
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Kosher salt or another coarse salt
- Rainbow sprinkles (of course! I use a mix of rainbow and these confetti sprinkles that are so cute).
Tips for the best birthday cake blondies
- Properly measure your flour. I always use a kitchen scale to measure my dry ingredients and include the measurements in grams in the recipe so you can, too. You can get a pretty cheap scale on Amazon (I used a $12 scale for years and now use a $28 KitchenAid scale). If you’re using a cup measure, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat backside of a knife across the top of the cup measure.
- Make sure your melted butter has cooled before you add it to the sugar. If the butter is too hot, it will melt and dissolve the sugar, which is not what we want.
- When you mix the butter and sugar together, mix really well so that there’s zero separation when you add the next ingredients.
- Don’t over-mix your flour. You’ll fold in the dry ingredients just until they’re evenly incorporated. Over-mixing will develop the gluten in the flour similar to when you knead bread, making your blondies tough instead of fudgy and tender.
- Add some extra sprinkles on top before baking. In this recipe, we fold sprinkles into the batter and then add some on top. This quick extra step will make the sprinkles really pop out on the top of your blondies and there’ll be no question what kind of blondies these suckers are.
- Pull your birthday cake blondies from the oven at the right time. Blondies are similar to brownies in this way – pull them too soon, they’ll be raw in the middle, pull them too late and they’ll be cakey and dry. The hallmark to look for is brown edges, and a knife that comes out with some gooey underbaked crumbs attached or clean, but isn’t coated in raw batter. They should feel slightly underdone, but will continue to bake from residual heat and turn out perfectly fudgy and tender. If the blondies aren’t done in the time the recipe says, it’s totally okay to keep baking them. Most ovens are off by 5-10 degrees (my Brooklyn oven is a full 25 degrees too hot!). You can always check the true temperature of your oven by placing an oven thermometer on a rack in the center of your oven and then setting your oven so that it reaches the real temperature you need inside.
- Let the blondies cool before you eat them. Let them cool for at least 20 minutes so they have time to set up after they come out of the oven. They’ll get fudgier as they cool, and I especially love a day 2 blondie slightly warmed up.
If you make these blondies, be sure to tag me on Instagram or TikTok at @loaves.and.such and please leave a review below! Happy blondie baking!
Birthday Cake Blondies
1
8×8 pan20
minutes25
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minutesKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups + 3 TBS. (202 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt or another coarse salt
2 sticks (226 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (106 grams) light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 TBS. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
3 TBS. rainbow sprinkles
Extra rainbow sprinkles to top
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8×8 tin with parchment paper (or grease it with spray or softened butter).
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt until evenly combined (mix longer than you think you should since everything’s the same color). Set aside while you work on the wet ingredients.
- Add your butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar to a large bowl. Whisk together well for 1-2 minutes. Whisk in the eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract.
- Switch to a spatula and fold in the flour mixture until there are only a few streaks of flour left. Add the sprinkles and fold until they’re spread evenly throughout the batter.
- Spread the batter in your prepped 8×8 tin. Sprinkle as many extra sprinkles as you want on top – this will really make them pop when they come out of the oven.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the edges are brown and a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean or with some moist crumbs attached but not raw batter. They’ll still feel a tad underbaked, but will continue baking from residual heat after you pull them and will turn out perfectly fudgy.
Let cool slightly, slice and enjoy!