These are truly the BEST Vegan Funfetti Sugar Cookies and they are made with only 7 ingredients! If you're looking for a colorful, eggless, soft, and chewy birthday cake cookie- you are going to love these sprinkle cookies.
*Recipe shared February 2018 and updated May 2023*
First, a little fun fact. Did you know I am OBSESSED with rainbow sprinkles?!
This obsession started at an early age when I made my parents buy me a wholesale tub of sprinkles from an actual diner and continued all the way into my teen years when I ate them regularly as a snack. I am truly not kidding!
Since making these cookies the funfetti obsession has continued pretty heavily on SGTO. Take my Vegan Cookie Cake, Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches, or my Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls for example. Yep, it's true love over here folks.
Why you will love these funfetti cookies
Sugar cookies, and more specifically, funfetti cookies are meant to be fun, easy, and full of sugary goodness. That's why I made it my goal to make a sprinkled sugar cookie that was easy, vegan, and full of simple ingredients.
These birthday cake cookies require only one bowl, 30 minutes of time to "chill" in the fridge, and only 12-ish minutes of baking time. They really are THAT easy!
Ingredients:
Ingredient notes:
- Flax egg: 1 Tbsp of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 Tbsp of water serve as an egg replacement in vegan cookie recipes. Ground flaxseed can be substituted with chia seeds for similar results.
- All-purpose flour: The original recipe I had called for pastry flour but, after re-testing this recipe, all-purpose flour leads to even chewier cookies. You can substitute 1 ¼ cups pastry flour for similar results!
- Vegan butter: This recipe works with vegan buttery sticks- my two favorite brands to bake with are Earth Balance or Country Crock.
Steps to make vegan funfetti cookies
Make the funfetti cookie dough
This starts by creaming together the butter and sugar. Creaming the butter and sugar together helps to bring air into the dough and helps the dough rise. This step is crucial and should be done with room-temperature butter.
Next, mix in the flax egg and vanilla bean paste. You can use vanilla extract, but I always recommend vanilla paste for the best flavor.
Then, add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt and mix into a thick batter.
As a final step fold in the rainbow sprinkles.
Chill the cookie dough
Cover the dough of sprinkle cookie dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Chilling the cookie dough helps to control the spread of the cookies and allows the sugars to absorb some of the liquid in the dough.
I personally think chilling your dough leads to chewier & more flavorful cookies!
Roll in sugar, add to tray, & bake
Remove the dough from the fridge and scoop out 8-10 cookie dough balls. Roll them into round balls between your palms. Then, swirl them around in a bowl with the remaining sugar.
Add the sugar-coated cookie dough balls to the tray and then bake.
The baking time varies based on the cookie size (If making smaller cookies, bake them for 10-11 minutes. For larger cookies, bake them for 12-14 minutes).
Once the cookies are baked swirl them between a large mug or biscuit cutter to make them perfectly round. Then, transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
Once cooled, serve & enjoy these dairy-free & eggless funfetti cookies!
FAQ & Tips:
Can I make the cookie dough ahead of time and bake it later?
To freeze cookie dough for later, just scoop it and add it to a parchment-lined baking tray. Then, place the tray in the freezer until the cookie dough balls have frozen throughout.
After that, you can place the frozen cookie dough balls in a freezer-safe zip-loc bag.
When baking frozen cookie dough, you may need to add an additional 2-3 minutes to the overall baking time.
How do I store vegan sprinkle sugar cookies?
Cookies can be stored in a closed container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for 3-4 days (though this can dry them out). Cookies can also be stored in a closed container in the freezer for up to 1 month.
These chewy Vegan Funfetti Cookies are perfectly soft and chewy. With only 7 ingredients and just 30 minutes of refrigeration time, these sugar cookies with sprinkles are sure to be an absolute win for any party!
-TSG (the sprinkle girl?)
More vegan cookie recipes you will love:
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Vegan Funfetti Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup+ 2 Tablespoons organic sugar ( ½ cup for dough, 2 Tablespoons for rolling before baking)
- 1 flax egg 1 Tbsp (8 grams) ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tbsp water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 cup+ 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour or 1 ¼ cups pastry flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt optional, only need if using unsalted butter
- ¼ cup rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- First, make the flax egg by adding the ground flax and water to a small bowl. Mix together and set aside for 5 minutes until thick and gelatinous.
- Add the vegan butter and ½ cup sugar to a mixer and cream together until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Then, add in the flax egg and vanilla. Mix all the wet ingredients together for around 30 seconds.
- Add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to the mixing bowl. Mix into a thick cookie dough. Then, use a spatula to gently mix/fold in the rainbow sprinkles.
- Add the bowl of dough to the fridge, cover, and let chill for 30 minutes.
- Once the dough has chilled, remove it from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a 1.5 Tbsp cookie scoop to scoop our 8 cookie dough balls. Roll each cookie dough ball between your palms to form a round ball. Then, roll each ball in a bowl with the remaining 2 Tablespoons of sugar that was set aside so that each dough ball is coated in sugar.
- Place the cookie dough balls on the parchment-lined baking sheet, making sure to keep them 1-2 inches apart so they have room to spread while baking.
- Then, bake for 12-14 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned and the cookie is cooked through but has slightly soft centers. The cookies will continue baking after they are removed from the oven so the centers should still be soft, but not glossy or raw, when they are removed from the oven. If you would like to make smaller cookies (about 10 vs. 8) make sure to adjust the baking time to 11-13 minutes.
- Once you remove the tray of cookies, lightly tap it on the counter to produce a more "wrinkly" cookie. You can also swirl them inside a large mug or biscuit cutter for a rounder cookie.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then, transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
- Once the cookies have cooled, serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Cookies will keep in a closed container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for 3-5 days. Cookies can also be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.
- For the recipe you see pictured, I used Earth Balance butter and Country Crock Olive Oil Buttery Sticks. I then tested this recipe with Miyokos butter and found the cookies spread more. If you are using Miyokos butter, I recommend 1-2 Tbsp (about 8-16 grams) of extra flour.
- If you'd like to follow the original recipe replace the all-purpose flour with 1 ¼ cups of pastry flour.
- For thinner cookies, reduce baking powder to ½ teaspoon.
Jinoos says
Love these! My one question is I used the flaxmeal but you can see the flakes in the cookie. It's not really aesthetically pleasing. Any recommendations to try to make the flaxmeal more fine? Blending such a small amount I'm not sure will work in my Vitamix. Thanks!
Megan says
So glad you liked them! It's pretty hard to get rid of them completely, but buying store-bought ground flaxseed is best because it's usually very finely ground up and hardly visible. You could try using a store-bought egg replacement and see if that works too.
Christine says
You can try using golden flaxseed meal, it's lighter and not as noticeable in baked goods.
Jasmine says
These vegan funfetti sugar cookies are honestly so good and simple to make! It tastes exactly like birthday cake! 😋🎂 I also love that this recipe does not skimp on the sprinkles so every inch of the cookie has sprinkles! 😍 Before baking I did press a few extra sprinkles on top for aesthetics because after rolling the ball of dough into a ball the sprinkles did kinda get hidden. Besides that I followed the recipe exactly. 👌🏻😎 My siblings loved these cookies a lot! 😱 The cookies disappeared so fast because that is how good these cookies are! Highly recommend everyone try this recipe out! ❤️
Ariel says
Can you use a real egg?
Megan says
I don't test my recipes with eggs, but it may work.
Liv says
My little brother is allergic to dairy,I’m vegetarian,and my parents are vegan so naturally I love making vegan foods lol. I tried this recipe and it worked perfectly omit was so tasty 😋 one thing, we didn’t have sprinkles so I put in vegan chocolate chips and it actually worked out great! I definitely would recommend everyone to try this delicious recipe (:
Megan Horowitch says
Thanks for sharing and glad it worked well even without the sprinkles 🙂
Lisa says
Thank you for this!!! I’ve made these cookies MANY times and they are delicious!! I just made them again but they came out SUPER flat and falling apart 🙁 any idea why???
Megan Horowitch says
You're welcome glad you like the recipe! Super flat cookies could be due to a few things. 1) Not enough flour, which is why I always recommend measuring in grams. 2) Not enough time chilling in the fridge. Less chill time= flatter cookies that spread more. 3) Oven temperature off. If you've baked them a bunch of times this probably isn't the case but it could be! Hope you were able to figure out the problem and they work again next time!
Steph says
These were delicious. I only had whole wheat pastry flour so I used that & added a tablespoon of corn starch. I couldn't help myself and added some mini vegan chocolate chips as well. Freezing half the dough for later.
Gabe says
I love that you gave an option for Miyoko's butter! Ever since eliminating palm oil from my purchases, I've been tinkering with Miyoko's butter recipe to find something that wouldn't spread as much in baking. I ended up adding more protein to the butter recipe -- didn't even think to try adding a little more flour.
Megan Horowitch says
Yes just a little bit more flour should do the trick 🙂 I'd pretty much recommend that for all cookie recipes if you're using their butter as it does spread more!
Bhumi says
Made these today with the modification of AP flour and corn starch...they turned out soo good! Thank you Megan for another funfetti hit!
Megan Horowitch says
So glad you loved them!! 🙂
Karie says
Can you use gluten free or Almond
flour?
Megan Horowitch says
Almond flour would not work, but you could try it with a 1:1 Gluten-Free flour blend and follow the measurements for AP flour vs. pastry flour. If you do try it let me know!
D says
Could you use applesauce instead of vegan butter? I don't have any on hand at the moment!
ShortGirlTallOrder says
No unfortunately that would not work it has to be vegan butter for this recipe. Sorry!
Marti says
Just made these- used bobs red mill egg replacer bc I didn’t have flax.. and they turned out beautifully! I ended up cooking for a bit longer to get them crispier. Super easy! Ty xox
ShortGirlTallOrder says
So glad you liked them!
Olivia says
This recipe is seriously FOOL proof and SOO tasty!!! My family finished them in minutes and couldn’t believe they are vegan! The perfect sugar cookie/funfetti cookie! Being vegan is the best❤️ IG @oliviavalentina to see pictures in highlights
Lisa says
Hi Kristi! Just made these super yummy cookies but they didn’t flatten all the way! They look like the same small balls as when I put them in the oven. Thoughts on why this happened??
ShortGirlTallOrder says
Hi Lisa! So sorry to hear that. The main thing I could think of is adding in too much flour. I'm actually planning to retest the recipe this week with gram measurements. Did you make any substitutions with the recipe?
ShortGirlTallOrder says
So glad you liked them!
Aimee B. says
These are so pretty and fun. I made them today and we all enjoyed them. Mine didn't really spread that much, but that could be the brand of vegan butter I used. I would totally make these again and change up the sprinkles for different holidays. 🙂
ShortGirlTallOrder says
Thanks for the great feedback!
Jacob says
I love these cookies! They are so festive and taste delicious. They are also super easy to make!
Kristi R says
Thank you so much! Looks like I have some shopping to do 🙂
ShortGirlTallOrder says
You're welcome! Hope they work out for you 🙂
Serena says
I made these just then and they come out so beautifully and crispy. I used non-MnM's because they were in my cupboard (these weren't for me) and they look so beautiful, can't find to try it with vegan ones! The only comment I would make is that I use 1 measuring spoon of bicarb but this was a bit too strong and I could taste it in the batter, using one regular teaspoon probably would have been better. Other than that can't wait to give these as a present!
ShortGirlTallOrder says
Thanks Serena I'm so glad you liked them! Definitely make sure to measure the baking powder (not baking soda) for 1/2 teaspoon exactly or it will alter the taste of the batter. Hope that helps for the next round!
Brandi Hook says
I can’t find white cake or pastry flour (I have wheat pastry flour though.) Will all purpose flour work?
ShortGirlTallOrder says
Wheat pastry flour will work fine for this recipe :). If you want to use all-purpose in place of cake/pastry flour it will work but may lead to a different texture in the cookie (I've tried it though and it is still delicious, just less soft). To make cake flour at home you can remove 2 Tbsp from 1 cup of flour and replace it with 2 Tbsp of cornstarch. Hope that helps!
Brandi Hook says
Thank you so much! Very helpful!