Today we’re making Grace’s Magic Cookies! They are a combination of a sugar cookies, confetti cake, and vanilla whoopie pies. These sandwich cookies would be a great treat for a birthday party, bake sale, or just a midnight snack. I made a batch of these last night and had to send them to work with my boyfriend because they are addicting!
CONFETTI SUGAR COOKIE
- 8 oz Salted Butter (2 sticks)
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 each Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 3 cups Flour
- 0.5 tsp Baking Soda
- 0.5 tsp Salt
- 3 Tbsp Sprinkles
AMERICAN BUTTERCREAM
- 8 oz Butter (2 sticks)
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 pinch Salt
- 2 Tbsp Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 drops Food Coloring
To make these sweet treats you will need a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. I always use my paddle attachment that has silicon bowl scrapers on its edges…it keeps you from needing to stop mixing to scrape down the sides of your bowl with a spatula.
- The first thing we need to do is cream the butter and sugar together in the mixer on the lowest speed. It’s best to use softened butter and cut it into smaller chunks before mixing. Continue mixing until there are no butter chunks left and the mixture feels like wet sand.
- Next add your egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and mix, still on the lowest speed, until well incorporated.
- Finally, add your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) and sprinkles. Mix on the lowest speed until it comes together to form a dough. It will look very crumbly at first, but don’t worry! Just mix a bit longer and you’ll have a delicious sugar cookie dough.
- Now that your dough is formed, transfer it onto a sheet of parchment paper. Press the dough together with your hands and shape it into a log the width of your parchment paper. Then roll the parchment paper around it and roll the log a few more times to smooth it out into a nice cylinder. Let the cookie dough rest in your refrigerator for an hour or so.
- While your cookie dough is resting, we can start making
the buttercream filling. You will need your mixing bowl with the paddle attachment again. Cut the butter into smaller chunks, just like we did for the cookie dough, and cream the butter and powdered sugar on the lowest speed in your mixer until the mixture is smooth.
- Next, add your milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix on medium speed for about 30 seconds.
Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl if you don’t have the paddle with scrapers. Continue mixing until the icing is a workable consistency. If you want to color your buttercream, now is the time to add a couple drops of food coloring.
- Once your dough has chilled,
preheat
your oven to 425°F. Unwrap the dough from the parchment paper and cut it into 1/4 inch slices. Arrange the cookies onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving room for the cookies to expand during baking.
- Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes. They will not have much color on them and will still be soft.
After baking, place the baking sheets on cooling racks and wait for them to cool completely.
- Once your cookies have cooled, it’s time to fill them with the buttercream we made earlier.
You can spread it on with a knife, but I always find it easier, and prettier, to use a piping bag with a star tip.
Pipe a circle of icing onto half of your cookies; use about a tablespoon of buttercream for each cookie. Gently top each cookie with the half that does not have any buttercream, making confetti sandwich cookies!
- Enjoy!