Birthday Cake Cookies are made with stacked sugar cookies coated with glaze icing that dries firm. These adorable celebration cookies have a real birthday candle and a hidden candy surprise inside.
Why you'll love this recipe
- Easily vary the sugar cookie or glaze icing flavors for custom birthday cakes in cookie form.
- Stacked cookie cakes are a great alternative when mailing a birthday cake isn't an option.
- The hidden candy inside is sure to delight everyone who takes a bite of these cute cookie stacks.
These adorable birthday cookies look just like little cakes complete with colorful sprinkles and a birthday candle for lighting and making wishes.
Coated in glaze icing, these cookie cakes are sturdy enough for mailing making them an ideal celebration cookie for care packages.
Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and detailed instructions in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.
- Sugar Cookies- Firm, no spread sugar cookies are the foundation for the cookie cakes. Make vanilla sugar cookies, chocolate sugar cookies, or for variety make half a batch of each flavor.
- Mini candies- Any tiny candy can be used as the hidden surprise inside the cookie stacks. Suggestions include the candy coated chips in the photos, mini m&m's, candy coated sunflower seeds, heat resistant sprinkles.
- Glaze Icing- is a powdered sugar-corn syrup icing that dries firm enough to wrap and stack the cookies, but has a soft bite and delicious flavor.
Instructions
This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Prepare the sugar cookie dough.
- Roll out the dough to ¼" and cut out 3 circles for each birthday cake cookie.
- Bake. Immediately after baking cut a small hole in each top cookie and a larger hole in each middle cookie.
- Pipe icing to attach the middle cookies to the base cookies.
- Fill the center holes with mini candy level with the top edge of the cookie.
- Pipe icing to attach the top cookies to the middle cookies.
- Trim birthday candles to desired size and fit into the top cookie holes.
- Pipe icing over the top of the cookies to coat the top and sides of each cookie.
Storage
Wrap each cookie cake in a cellophane bag or plastic wrap.
Birthday Cake Cookies will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks if wrapped individually and stored in an airtight container.
Tips
- Follow the instructions and cut out the holes AFTER baking. If the holes are cut out before baking, the circle diameter expands when the cutter is inserted, resulting with different sized layers. Also, the doughnut shaped middle layer is difficult to move onto the cookie sheet without distorting the shape.
- The small hole in the top cookie can be made with a plastic drinking straw.
- Use a 1" circle cutter or a small medicine measuring cup to make the hole (or hollow center) in the middle cookie.
- Coating the cookie stacks completely with glaze helps the cookies stay fresh longer.
Related recipes
Funfetti Cookies are another fun birthday recipe for crunchy cookies with plenty of sprinkles.
Balloon Sugar Cookies use a super simple design ideal for beginner cookie decorators. These colorful cookies are a great addition to a birthday care package.
Minion Sugar Cookies are sure to cause smiles with their comical expressions.
Lemon Slice Sugar Cookies are a refreshing treat that tastes especially good with a glass of iced tea.
Decorated Thanksgiving Sugar Cookies are so impressive but ths show stopping design can be made by children as well as adults.
Valentine's Day Envelope Cookies are beautiful in their simplicity. Just one color of glaze icing is used for these treats.
Be sure to check out all of our Decorated Sugar Cookies designs that are easy to make, tasty to eat, and a fun addition to care package themes.
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Birthday Cake Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 batch Cut Out Vanilla Sugar Cookies full recipe if making only vanilla cookies or a half batch if making both flavors
- 1 batch Chocolate Sugar Cookies full recipe if making only chocolate cookies or a half batch if making both flavors
- 1 batch glaze icing
- ¾ cup mini candies
- 12 small birthday candles
- rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
Preparing the cookies
- Prepare the Sugar Cookie dough according to the recipe instructions.
- Roll out the cookie dough to ¼" and cut out 36- 2" circles (3 circles for each Birthday Cake Cookie).
- Transfer the dough circles to a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake chocolate cookies for 8 minutes, vanilla cookies for 9 minutes.
- Immediately after removing the baked cookies from oven, use a 1" circle cookie cutter or the top edge of a small medicine measuring cup to cut out the center from 12 cookies for the middle cookie in each set. Using the tip of a drinking straw, press out a candle hole in the middle of 12 cookies for the top cookie in each set.
- Cool the prepared cookies on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Assembling and decorating the cookie cakes
- Prepare the glaze icing to the consistency of honey. Spoon the icing into ziplock sandwichbags or icing bags. If using a ziplock bag, cut a tiny piece off of a bottom corner. If using an icing bag, cut a tiny piece off of the tip.
- Place the cookies on a wire rack over waxed paper. Arrange the cookies in sets, 3 cookies in each set with a top (candle hole), middle (larger hole), and bottom (no hole) cookie.
- To assemble the cookie sets into “cakes”, squirt a line of icing around the top edge of the solid bottom cookie. Place the middle, doughnut shaped cookie on top, pressing gently. Icing should show on the outer edge between the cookies like frosting between the layers of a cake. Allow this icing to set for at least half an hour.
- Pour a small amount of mini candies into the hole of the middle cookie. The top of the candy should be even with the top surface of the middle cookie so that the next layer can lie flat on top.
- Pipe a line of icing around the top edge of the middle cookie. Place the top cookie (with the candle hole) over the icing and press gently. Allow the icing to set for at least half an hour.
- Use a sharp knife to trim small birthday candles to a height proportionate with the size of your cookie “cake” (about 1"). Insert a candle into the hole on each top cookie.
- Pipe icing onto the top of the cookie “cake” covering the surface and dripping down the sides of the cookie cake. Apply sprinkles to the top of each "cake" immediately after icing.
- Allow the icing to set completely for at least 2 hours or overnight before wrapping, storing, or mailing. Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, Birthday Cake Surprise Cookies stay fresh for at least 2 weeks.
Notes
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- Follow the instructions and cut out the holes AFTER baking. If the holes are cut out before baking, the circle diameter expands when the cutter is inserted, resulting with different sized layers. Also, the doughnut shaped middle layer is difficult to move onto the cookie sheet without distorting the shape.
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- The snall hole in the top circle can be made with a plastic drinking straw.
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- Use a 1" circle cutter or a small medicine measuring cup to make the hole (or hollow center) in the middle circle.
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- Coating the cookie stacks completely with glaze helps the cookies stay fresh longer.
- Place each “cake” into a small plastic or cellophane bag and seal closed.
- To mail, put wrapped “cakes” into a plastic food storage box in a single layer.
- Add wadded tissue paper or waxed paper between the cookies and the storage box lid to ensure the cookies can’t move at all within the storage box.
- Use additional packing material to secure the plastic storage boxes inside the mailing carton.
First Published: February 4, 2014. Last Updated: March 1, 2025. Updated for additional information, improved photographs, and better reader experience.
salt and serenity
Wendy, those cookie cakes are a stroke of pure genius. Your son is so lucky to have you as his mom. I love them so much. Your tutorial is so perfectly detailed. I love how you shared the fact that you have to cut the hole after they are baked. I am very excited to recreate these for my baby's 21st birthday in April.
themondaybox
Thank you, Cindy! I am so glad you love these as much as I do! I can't take credit for the original cook-cake idea. I just adapted the idea into a surprise-inside cookie. 🙂 They did come out just the way I hoped, and I think my son got the message that his big birthday deserved a 21 (plus one for good luck) cake salute! 🙂 I hope your son has a wonderful 21st birthday as well! 🙂
Gloria Phillips
Wendy, you truly make me smile! I have to laugh because my son is getting ready to turn 23 this coming summer. And, it is STILL blowing my mind!
Love these! You're very creative!
themondaybox
Thank you so much, Gloria! The job description of a mom is constantly evolving as our kids turn, quite suddenly, into adults. I am with you, "mind blowing" is the perfect description of the process!! Only the love stays the same. 🙂
Julianne @ Beyond Frosting
Oh my gosh, these are SO cute!
themondaybox
Thanks, Julianne! Cute and delicious is my favorite kind of cookie. 🙂
Chris @ The Café Sucré Farine
I know your son was thrilled to get these wonderful cookies. What a great idea and what a great mom you are! Hope he has a great birthday!
themondaybox
Thanks, Chris! My son never knows what to expect in his care packages! He did note that my birthday surprises seem to be getting more and more complex. 🙂 (Thank goodness college lasts only 4 birthdays!) But he knows he is loved. 🙂
Winnie
These are just WONDERFUL !!!
Such a clever and CUTE idea
Pinning!
themondaybox
תודה רבהThanks so much, Winnie! I wanted something special for my son's 21st. Combining these two ideas worked for fun AND special! Thanks pinning, too!
Laura Dembowski (@piesandplots)
These are absolutely adorable! What a great way to celebrate 🙂
themondaybox
Thanks, Laura! I am not sure that my son fully appreciates the "adorable" factor ( not in guy vocabulary) but he did appreciate the delicious factor! 🙂 Birthdays are definitely for celebrating!
Rachael Yerkes
These are darling! I love this. Pinned. Stopped over from Show Stopper Saturday Link Party!
themondaybox
Thanks, Rachael! Glad you stopped by! These cookies are fun to make and delicious to eat! 🙂
Lindsay @ Life, Love and Sugar
Oh my gosh! I love these - how cute! Pinned!
themondaybox
Thanks, Lindsay! I was so happy with how these turned out! They are cute AND yummy. 🙂
shannon
these are WAY too cute for words; JUST like the snowmen from this past winter! adorable, even without the little surprise middles, but with the surprise middles, they are even better. Your son has the best birthday ever this year: I may make those cookies for mine. 🙂
themondaybox
Thanks, Shannon! I believe I have the urge to stack cookies out of my system now. (she says until the next time....) In my many hours of official blog research (omg Pinterest in a black hole time drain!) I seem to collect cute. I look all year for a novel way to mail "birthday cake". Candles are imperative. What's a birthday cake without candles?
New sweets on the blog
Wow! these are really nice!! I have to try it sometime soon 🙂
themondaybox
Thanks, Ada! I would love to see your version of these! With your decorating skills they would have to be amazing! 🙂
Ashley
Oh my gosh Wendy I love these! They are so cool and I love that they are sugar cookies with a sort of royal icing! I can't get over how much they really look like little cakes. And the surprise in the middle is well, just downright fun! : )
themondaybox
Thanks, Ashley! They were fun to make. :)You HAVE to try this faux royal icing. It is incredibly easy to make and work with. It drys firm, wrap-able, but easy to bite. Royal icing can be tricky with the egg whites. This icing is untricky. 🙂
Mrs. DeYarmond
Ohhh my !! How sweet are these cake !!! A huuuge mazal tov to your son ! I'm sure that you are so proud and so happy about that event !!! Sharing that happiness with you !
And what a great moment it must had been with these amazing little cakes ! I love the surprise inside and everything about that ! It's amazing ! A huge mazal tov to the birthday boy and to the amazing baker 🙂
themondaybox
Thank you, Sarah, for your kind good wishes and enthusiasm!! I think when someone is away from home, its important to let them know how much they are missed and loved. These cookies helped make my son's birthday care package into a celebration. 🙂
gottagetbaked
Happy birthday to your son! 21 is a HUGE deal! I hope he celebrates in style. At least he has these gorgeous, ingenious cookie cakes. What an incredible idea. He's so lucky to have you for his mum 🙂
themondaybox
You are so sweet Nancy! Thank you! 21 is such a funny age. You are legal to "do what you want", but you haven't quite figured out what that is yet (and if you have figured it out, you probably don't have the money to do it)!! I love it when my son opens a package and says, "Wow....what are they?"....meaning what are they made of (I hope), not what are they supposed to look like! 🙂
Monica
I love this for so many reasons, Wendy. 1. These cookies are genius and amazing and something anyone would feel so special to receive; 2. It's your son's 21st Birthday!! That is huge and "Happy Birthday" to your wonderful son! 3. I love the way you combined 2 amazing recipes to make this extra special. I could go on...I love the surprise inside and the tips about cutting the cookies after baking...it's all just wonderful! What a great thing to do for your son. I just know he appreciates you (and he should!).
themondaybox
Thank you so much, Monica, for your good wishes and kind words!! This is a special number for my son but every birthday of my "kids" is special to me. I can't help but reflect back starting with the day they were born and marveling at the speed of time. 🙂 I really do have fun searching the internet and pinterest for amazing ideas to help make birthday-in-a-box memorable. 🙂
Niki's Sweet Side
Love these! So cute! And Happy Birthday to your fabulous son!! 😀 xoxo
themondaybox
Thanks, Niki! Every year I try to come up with a birthday cake I can mail. These were fun to make! 🙂