Funfetti Explosion Cookies

June has been a pretty quiet month for the blog, but not for lack of working on it. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a big, fun announcement months in the making! Meanwhile, I decided to get back to work in the kitchen and enjoy a stormy Sunday baking. First up, I needed to feed my crippling sprinkle addiction (see Pop Tart Cake and Funfetti Waffles) while attempting to recreate the magical childhood sugar rush that was DunkAroos.

Funfetti Explosion Cookies
Adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction and Fresh April Flours
Servings: 24 cookies
Time: 4 hours (inactive for 3)

The most important ingredient in the world

Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, room temp
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sprinkles

Frosting
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups Funfetti Cake Mix
6 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1. Cream the butter and and sugar together in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch and salt together. 
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mix in 3 batches. The batter will take some mixing before it forms a cohesive dough.
5. Stir in sprinkles and look at all the pretty colors.
6. Wrap tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 
7. Watch tons of Netflix while you wait until you feel thoroughly judged by all the "Are you still watching?" questions.
8. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
9. Roll dough into ~ 1 1/2 tbsp balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. 
10. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges start to firm up and brown slightly. Let cool on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling.
11. Turn your attention to the ever important task of making frosting. Smooth the cream cheese in your stand mixer still fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the cake mix and milk in two batches until smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Then add the powdered sugar in two batches until fully incorporated. 
12. Frost the cookies and enjoy.

They're beautiful!

The star of this show was definitely the wonderfully colorful cookies. Sugar cookies can get a bad rap for being kind of boring, but there was nothing mundane about these soft, chewy delights. Chilling was key to produce beautiful cookies that did not spread into horrible mutantations, and they were definitely worth the wait. While the cookies were everything I hoped for, the frosting did not quite reach DunkAroo levels of amazing. The frosting has a great velvety smoothness thanks to the cream cheese, but the taste wasn't quite what I expected. There is an odd hint of pudding thanks to funfetti cake mix having pudding in it that distracted from the deliciousness. Next time, I think adding sprinkles to yellow cake mix would be a better way to go. Despite this shortcoming, I still found myself eating the frosting straight from the bowl (I mean it's sugar and cake, so even when it's not at its best, it can't be all that bad) and had to restrain myself from eating more cookies to make room for my second baked dish of the day- super secretive cupcakes (I imagine all readers now have unhealthy levels of anticipation and intrigue following all these cryptic remarks).

One day I will succeed and also be this extreme!