Gooey butter funfetti cookies are impossible to resist, made with cream cheese, butter, and Funfetti cake mix. These are the best cake mix cookies, and they’re SO easy to make!
If you love funfetti desserts, try my recipes for confetti cake and confetti cupcakes!
I love baking from scratch, but sometimes, some recipes just aren’t the same without a box of cake mix! Whether I’m making cake mix cookies or gooey butter bars, a boxed mix is a must for an irresistibly soft, gooey texture.
These ultra-yummy funfetti cookies are the best of both worlds. They’re moist and chewy like a gooey butter cookie and bursting with bright rainbow sprinkles like the famous birthday cake. All you need is Funfetti cake mix, cream cheese, butter, and a couple of other easy ingredients to make this family favorite!
- Soft and chewy. Cake mix cookies are fluffy and moist, a bit like a cupcake crossed with a chewy butter cookie! The texture is next-level and they always turn out delicious.
- 5 ingredients. Make your funfetti cookie dough with only 5 ingredients (including extra sprinkles!).
- Turn any occasion into a party. With these quick and easy funfetti cookies, there’s always an excuse to celebrate! These cookies are bright and festive without the commitment of a full funfetti cake.
What You’ll Need
In addition to Funfetti cake mix, you’ll need a handful of pantry ingredients to make these easy funfetti cookies. Remember to scroll to the recipe card below the post for the full recipe details.
- Cream Cheese – I recommend using the cream cheese that comes in blocks, at room temperature. This way it combines more smoothly.
- Butter – I use butter from Challenge Dairy. Remember to take your butter out of the fridge ahead of time, along with the cream cheese.
- Egg
- Cake Mix – You’ll need 1 box of Funfetti cake mix (a.k.a. confetti cake mix, if you’re buying a generic version). You need only cake mix, you can skip any ingredients listed on the box.
- Sprinkles – We’re going ahead and adding more sprinkles, because why not. Make sure you’re choosing the right kind, see below.
- Powdered Sugar – Rolling the cookie dough in powdered sugar before baking gives these cookies the perfect melty, sweet coating.
What Sprinkles Should I Use?
The best sprinkles for funfetti desserts are the longer, rainbow-colored sprinkles called jimmies. Avoid tiny round nonpareils, which tend to leak color. Rainbow jimmies hold their shape and won’t bleed color into the batter.
These soft and chewy funfetti cookies couldn’t be easier to make. Let’s bake some cookies:
- Make the dough. First, beat the cream cheese and butter together. Next, you’ll add an egg, followed by the cake mix, and mix until combined. Lastly, fold in extra rainbow sprinkles (can you ever have too many sprinkles?).
- Chill. Place the dough into the fridge to chill. After about an hour, set the oven to preheat to 350ºF while you line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough. Take your cookie dough out of the fridge. Form the dough into balls, and roll the balls lightly in powdered sugar before placing them onto the baking sheet. Remember to leave about 2” in between your cookies, to account for spreading.
- Bake. Bake the cookies at 350ºF for 10 minutes. These funfetti cookies should be slightly underbaked when they come out of the oven. Give your cookies a couple of minutes to set up the baking sheet before moving them to a wire rack.
Tips for Success
You don’t have to be a whiz in the kitchen to bake up these perfect funfetti cake mix cookies. Keep these last-minute tips in mind for the best results:
- Use room temperature ingredients. Remember to take your stick of butter and block of cream cheese out of the fridge approx. 30 minutes ahead. Room-temperature ingredients combine easier into the dough and the cookies will bake more evenly.
- Chill the dough. Make sure that you don’t skip chilling your funfetti cookie dough. Chilling is important to keep the dough from spreading too much in the oven, for plump, fluffy cookies.
- Line the baking sheet. Not only does it make for easier clean-up, but lining the pan with parchment paper (or a silicone baking mat) prevents the cookies from sticking and browning on the bottoms.
- Don’t overbake the cookies. Your cookies will look a little soft in the middle when they come out of the oven. This is exactly what we’re going for! Underbaking is the secret to soft, melt-in-your-mouth funfetti cookies, and the cookies will continue to set up as they cool.
Common Questions
Yes! To get a head start on your cookies, instead of chilling the dough as a whole, roll out the dough balls (leaving off the powdered sugar) and refrigerate them up to 1-2 days ahead of baking.
Also yes. Pre-freeze the cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and then transfer them to a freezer bag or freezer-safe container. You can roll the frozen dough balls in powdered sugar and bake your cookies right from frozen, adding an extra minute to the baking time.
These funfetti cake mix cookies will be at their freshest within 3 days from when they’re baked. Make sure that you store them airtight. See below for detailed instructions on how to store the baked cookies.
Easy Variation Ideas
Since the base of these funfetti cookies is a boxed cake mix, there are so many possibilities for variations. You can use another boxed cake mix, whether it’s Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, or Duncan Hines – any flavor goes! Try these easy ways to adapt this cake mix cookie recipe, and just stir in the sprinkles as usual:
- Chocolate Funfetti: Swap funfetti cake mix for chocolate cake mix.
- Lemon Funfetti: Use a lemon cake mix for a zesty twist on funfetti cookies.
- Strawberry Funfetti: Make sprinkle-filled strawberry cake mix cookies. They’re perfect for summer baking.
- Add-Ins: Stir in white chocolate chips or mini chocolate chips for a chocolatey twist.
How to Store
Store these funfetti cookies airtight on the counter for up to 3 days. If you’d prefer to keep your cookies in the fridge, I recommend taking them out to serve at room temperature.
Yes! The baked cake mix cookies can be stored airtight and frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost the cookies at room temperature whenever you’re craving something spinkly and sweet.
More Funfetti Desserts
- Funfetti Shortbread
- Unicorn Bars
- Birthday Cake Pancakes
- Cake Batter Blondies
- No Bake Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: About 30 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Gooey butter funfetti cookies made with cream cheese, butter, and Funfetti cake mix. This is the best cake mix cookies recipe packed with rainbow sprinkles, and it’s SO easy to make!
Ingredients
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 box Funfetti cake mix (15.25 oz)
- 1/4 cup sprinkles
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In bowl beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth, add in egg and continue mixing, scraping sides as necessary.
- Add in the cake mix and beat until combined and finally stir in extra sprinkles.
- Chill dough for about an hour.
- Preheat oven to 350° Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Form dough into 1 inch balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on prepared baking sheet 2″ apart and bake for about 10 minutes.
- Allow to cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes and then transfer to wore rack to cool completely.
Notes
store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 121
- Sugar: 7.5 g
- Sodium: 123.3 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Carbohydrates: 13 g
- Protein: 1.3 g
- Cholesterol: 22 mg
So… I rarely comment but for these I just had to.
I’ve been looking online for things to do with cake mix (I have like 45 maybe 50 boxes – but that’s a story for another day lol). My fam is sick of cake and cupcakes. I tried these out and sheeeeeeeesh
Gone in literally a day.
I like to experiment so I tweeked it a little bit. I added chocolate chips in a batch (chocolate mix) then coconut and pecans in another (vanilla mix).
Thanks so much for sharing. xo
Love the idea of adding chocolate chips, coconut, and pecans!
Can you substitute Neufchatel Cheese for the Cream Cheese?
sure!
I am an avid baker, but have never ever frozen cookies….any idea best way to freeze these ….making for a wedding…thank u, melani
Simply freeze them airtight and allow them to thaw out at room temperature!
These are amazing! Little clouds of perfection.
There are MANY comments here and I’ve read through some but not all so i apologize if its already been answered. Can this dough be made up and refrigerated prior to baking? We are having a cookie exchange where we all bake together and we like to have the dough made up before hand if possible. Thanks!
Yes, absolutely!
Is it salted or unsalted butter
I use salted, but you can use either!
Hi Shelly. In your recipe you notate 1/2 cup of butter (which is 1 stick, 8 Tbsp). However, in the video the butter looks more like 1/2 stick (4 Tbsp) when compared to the cream cheese block. Should it be 4Tbsp or 8Tbsp of butter? Thanks so much! Can’t wait to make this!
The sticks I used in the video were just shaped differently. Some brands just package a shorter, fatter stick 🙂 The measurement remains the same, 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons)
Thanks for the quick reply!
I rarely comment on recipes but had to for these. My 4 year old took the first bite and said “you better try one. These are delicious!” He wasn’t wrong! Wow these are good!
So glad he liked them!! Love that!
I love these cookies! And so does everyone else. Am I the only one who thinks these are really hard to mix? I must be doing something wrong. I have broken two hands mixers making these cookies. The dough gets so stiff once I add the cake mix! Do I need a stand mixer?
I’ve tried with a regular mixer & stand mixer. The cream cheese makes it very sticky. Today after it getting almost into the mixer at the top of the beaters, I finished with a danish dough whisk. I think in the future I’ll mix the butter, cream cheese, & egg with the mixer & finish with the whisk. I know the dough whisk is supposed to be for dough, but it worked.
These cookies are delicious. But I thought I was going crazy, as I was not finding anyone else who commented on the difficulty in mixing the oh so thick batter. Thankfully someone else noted this challenge.
I almost broke my electric mixer once the cake mix was added. Had to finish by hand. If I make another batch, which I would really like to because they are so tasty, I need to figure out a better way to mix the ingredients.
Any tips? Thx
How long do these last in freezer? Thanks!
I don’t recommend more than 30 days!