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Birthday Cake Sugar Cookie Bars

· Modified: by · This post may contain affiliate links · 11 Comments

What do you make the birthday person who doesn't like birthday cake? Birthday Sugar Cookie Bars! Or make the bars to go along with the birthday cake.

sugar cookie bars

Birthday Cake Sugar Cookie Bars can be thrown together at the last minute or made the day before. You can frost them with homemade frosting or cover them with your favorite brand of ready-made frosting. Whatever way you top them, they're a great showcase for sprinkles, and some occasions just call for sprinkles.

I have several different recipes for Sugar Cookie Bars, and this one is particularly good. The recipe calls for melted butter, so you get to skip the step of creaming and can just whisk everything together in the bowl. In addition, there's no baking soda or baking powder, so the bars have a dense yet light texture.

sugar cookie bars

Loaf Pan Birthday Cake Bars

Another nice thing about this recipe is that it has 3 eggs. What's so great about 3 eggs? This makes it easy to scale to ⅓ of itself and bake in a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Obviously you don't need the high sides of a loaf pan, but the length and width of the loaf give you just enough area to hold about ⅓ of a recipe for bar cookies designed for 9x13 inch pans. Until they start making 9x5 inch baking sheets, the loaf pan is a good substitute.

Recipe

Sugar Cookie Bars

Birthday Cake Sugar Cookie Bars

Cookie Madness
Birthday Cake Sugar Cookie Bars are a fun alternative to cake. Adapted from a little booklet in the Food Network Magazine, these bars don't call for any baking powder or baking soda and have a dense but light texture. For best results, give your flour a good before measuring.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 24

Ingredients
 

  • 2 sticks 8 oz unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 1 teaspoon salt use only ¼ if using salted butter
  • 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup rainbow sprinkles

Vanilla Frosting

  • 1 stick 4 oz unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons half & half
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch metal pan or line with parchment or foil.
  • In a mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter, salt and sugar. Whisk in eggs and vanilla until blended, then with a heavy duty scraper, stir in the flour and rainbow sprinkles.
  • Spread the batter evenly in the pan.
  • Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges are set but center is soft.
  • Let cool completely, then cover with vanilla frosting.
  • To make the frosting, beat the butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add confectioners' sugar. Beat in vanilla and half & half. Add salt, adjusting to taste.
  • Cover bars with frosting, then sprinkle top with more sprinkles.

Notes

If you measure by volume 2 cups of flour could be 9 or 10 oz. If you weigh the flour, 9 oz will give you a slightly denser sweeter bar, while 10 oz will be slightly cakier. Both versions are great. As the bars sit they absorb some of the moisture from the icing.
For the vanilla, you can substitute 2 teaspoons of vanilla plus 1 teaspoon of McCormick Butter & Nut extract if you can find it. This gives the bars more of a birthday cake flavor.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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  1. Anna says

    Hi Lindsay! For the eggs, you'd just use 1 whole egg plus 2 tablespoons of lightly beaten egg. So just crack one egg into a little cup, mix it up the best you can with a fork, then measure out about 2 tablespoons -- better slightly less than more. Doesn't have to be exact. Just don't throw two whole eggs in or the bars will be too cakey.

  2. Lindsay says

    If I want to half it, what do I do with the eggs?

  3. Sue says

    That's a fun recipe!
    Katrina. I can vouch for Anna's favorite cheesecake recipe. I've made it and it's excellent. It's now my favorite too.

  4. Jaryn white says

    Thank you for this delicious recipe! I halved the recipe and it came out beautifully! Tastes just like birthday cake!!!!!
    Who knew?????
    It's a keeper.

  5. Sarah says

    I have someone who doesn't like birthday cake, but is asking for a chocolate cake with no frosting...Any suggestions ladies? Something sort of brownie like?

  6. Anna says

    Katrina, my favorite cheesecake is one called "New York Cheesecake" and has 5 packs of cream cheese etc. However, I have two recipes that are supposed to be similar to Junior's. Here are the links.

    https://www.cookiemadness.net/2015/07/almost-juniors-cheesecake/
    https://www.cookiemadness.net/2007/10/juniors-style-cheesecake/

    Cindy, I'm sure there's a way to do it, but since sugar is such a big structural component, I'd first try a recipe from one of the sugar substitute sights. I'm sure Swerve and Splenda have sugar cookie recipes that you could make as a big slab. I haven't bought any lately, but a lot of people like Swerve.

  7. CindyD says

    These look really good. The next challenge would be making them with a sugar substitute so diabetics (not me) can eat them.

  8. Katrina says

    I like the sprinkles in the cookie, too. What do you do if you have someone who doesn't like birthday cake OR sugar cookies? 😉 Cheesecake it is. Do you have your favorite New York style cheesecake. Kevin ate some at Juniors while we were there and said it was definitely the best cheesecake he's ever had.

  9. Sonya says

    Awww, those are so cute!!!

  10. Anna says

    Sandra, I think it would be fine, but I'd weigh it out. For instance, 2 cups of cake flour only weighs 8 oz, so you'd probably want to weigh out 9 oz or if you don't have a scale, use 2 1/4 cups instead of 2 cups. Same with pastry flour. Make you could do a quick test batch using a 9 inch loaf pan?

  11. Sandra says

    Hi- would you recommend using pastry flour or half cake /half all purpose flour? Or would that change the texture two much?
    Thanks!