Levain Bakery-Style Funfetti Cake Batter Cookies taste like they should be served from the famed Levain Bakery in NYC but are made at home! Supremely thick, chewy, soft and totally gooey, they’re chock-full of white chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles for a cake batter explosion of flavor!
I am SO excited to share this recipe with you guys – it is a good one!
A few weeks back I shared a series of Levain Bakery cookie copycat recipes and they went gangbusters on here and social media! So many of you have made them and it thrills me to pieces! I am so glad everyone has been enjoying them, especially seeing that it isn’t easy to get to NYC right now and shipping for them is astronomical, especially when you can make a nearly identical recipe at home.
If you didn’t know, Levain Bakery is a bakery in New York City that is famous for their ginormous cookies. Each cookie is a whopping 6 ounces and is super buttery, gooey and tender. They only have four flavors: Chocolate Chip Walnut, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip, and Oatmeal Raisin, but those flavors all work together to make a complete line-up…
…until now.
Technically, these Funfetti Cake Batter Sugar Cookies are NOT sold or made at Levain Bakery. They have no association to Levain Bakery, actually. But, since the Levain copycat recipes have been doing so well, I made a Levain Bakery-esque Funfetti Cake Batter Sugar Cookie that will blow your mind.
There are a few key components to making Levain Bakery-style cookies, and those are:
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch is my number 1 secret cookie ingredient. It aids in creating an amazing light and tender texture and crumb. Time and time again, adding cornstarch yields soft cookies.
- Cake flour: Cake flour is used to create an even lighter texture and fluffy crumb. If all all-purpose flour were to be used, it would create a denser, more scone-like cookie. The cake flour really does lighten the crumb.
- Extra mix-ins: The amount of white chocolate chips and sprinkles in this recipe is a LOT (4 cups total!) but all those mix-ins helps prevent too much spreading while baking and gives it plenty of flavor!
- Brief chill time: These cookies need to chill for about 30 minutes before baking. For best results, we’re going to bake one sheet at a time and keep any unbaked dough refrigerated. This helps prevent too much spreading during baking.
For optimal results, follow these tips:
- Shape: I like to shape these cookie dough balls VERY roughly and loose. They should not be compact, tightly rolled and smooth cookie dough balls like we’d normally use with a cookie dough scoop, but rather a rougher, craggly texture. For accurate results, I would recommend using a digital kitchen scale to weigh out exactly 6 ounces of dough.
- Size: These cookies are massive, so I recommend only baking 4 at a time on one baking sheet, staggering the dough balls so they are at least 3″ apart from one another. This helps when they spread so they don’t all pool into one cookie and keeps the baking consistent.
- Do not over-bake! Levain’s cookies are notoriously underdone and gooey in the center and these cookies are no exception! They are going to have soft, slightly underdone centers with drier, duller textured exteriors. Everyone’s ovens operate differently, but in general these cookies can take anywhere from 10-13 minutes to bake. I recommend experimenting with baking off one cookie at first to gauge how long it will take your oven to produce gooey cookies. Remember, cookies will continue to set up and finish cooking from residual heat after being removed from the oven since they cool off on the sheet they baked on.
- One at a time: Bake each sheet one at a time in the center rack of the oven for optimal results!
Buttery, sweet, gooey and sprinkly Funfetti Cake Batter Sugar Cookies will soon become your new fave!!
Levain Bakery-Style Funfetti Cake Batter Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup COLD unsalted butter cut into small cubes
- 1½ cups granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1½ cups cake flour
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 cups white chocolate chips
- 1½ cups rainbow jimmie sprinkles
Instructions
- In a bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the cold butter cubes and granulated sugar with the paddle attachment on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and continue creaming for 30 seconds, then increase to high speed and beat for another 30 seconds or until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract. Add in the cornstarch, baking soda, salt, cake flour, and all-purpose flour and mix on low speed until just combined. Lastly, stir in the white chocolate chips and 1 cup of the rainbow jimmie sprinkles.
- Chill the dough for 30 minutes uncovered. While dough chills, preheat oven to 400° degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
- Using a digital kitchen scale for accuracy, measure out 6 ounces of cookie dough, shaping it roughly into a ball. Roll it loosely in the remaining sprinkles and place it on the baking sheet. Dough balls should be rougher textured and craggly looking, not smooth and compacted like a usual cookie dough ball. Place 3 more cookie dough balls 3" apart on the baking sheet, staggering them so they have plenty of space in between them.
- Bake one sheet of cookies at a time in the center rack of the oven for 10-13 minutes. Cookies will be slightly underdone in the centers but appear dull and set on the outside. Allow cookies to continue to cool on the baking sheets after baking for up to 30 minutes as cookies are quite fragile after being removed from the oven. While one tray of cookies bake, keep remaining cookie dough refrigerated for best results and to minimize spreading.
Notes
You guys are going to love these easy and amazing Funfetti cookies!
Have a super sweet day!
xo, Hayley
Ashley says
I’m super excited to try these but the butter is partially missing its measurement. It just says cup…I’m assuming it’s 1 cup but also I don’t want to assume I’m case I’m wrong!
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Ashley, it is now fixed! Thanks for catching that. It is 1 cup aka 2 sticks of unsalted cold butter!
Victoria says
What can I do if I don’t have a scale to weigh cookie dough?
thedomesticrebel says
You can measure out around 1/3 – 1/2 cup of dough per cookie.
Lindsay says
Can these be cut into shapes with a cookie cutter or are they too soft?
thedomesticrebel says
Hi Lindsay, unfortunately no, this recipe would not work well with cookie cutters.
Lindsay says
O.M.G!! I made these with the Funfetti chips instead of the white chocolate chips and they were AMAZING. These might be my favorite cookies ever. They were super sweet, and I loved every bite. Thank you for this recipe, it absolutely made my day!
thedomesticrebel says
Lindsay, woohoo! So glad you loved the recipe!
Maddie says
Any tips on why my butter and sugar aren’t creaming together nicely? The recipe calls for cold butter but that is making it very difficult to cream. Can i soften it a bit?
thedomesticrebel says
Hmm, it definitely takes a minute for it to cream together. The butter does need to be cold for best baking results. Are you using real butter, not margarine?