Circus Animal Cookies are the ultimate party treat with cake batter cookie bases, sweet cream cheese frosting, rainbow sprinkles, and the cutest cookie on top.
author’s note
Circus Animal Cookies, But Make It Bakery Style!
Growing up, frosted animal crackers were a rare but favorite treat. I loved the bright colors, the sprinkles, and how easy they were to snack on. So I thought, why not turn that same fun into a bakery-style cookie?
These Animal Circus Cookies are the best mix of homemade and nostalgic. They’ve got a soft, cake-batter-style cookie base, a thick swirl of cream cheese frosting, tons of sprinkles, and of course, a classic animal cracker on top.
They’re sweet, fun, and just the right amount of over-the-top.
Ingredients In Circus Animal Cookies
- To truly channel the animal circus crackers from my childhood into these cookies, we use nonpareil sprinkles. Nonpareil colors bleed into the cookie dough, so stir the batter as little as possible, being gentle as you mix.
- A quality cake mix makes a huge difference for the base cookie in this recipe. I highly recommend Betty Crocker® Super Moist cake mixes (not sponsored). As far as the flavor of the mix, I recommend Party Rainbow Chip. If you can’t find that particular mix, a close second we like in these cookies is Betty Crocker® Super Moist yellow cake mix.
- I recommend an instant-vanilla pudding mix for this recipe, not the cook-and-serve pudding mixes or the sugar-free/low-sugar versions. Neither will work properly in these cookies.
Circus Animal Cookie Tips
- Chill the dough. The dough needs time to chill so the butter can re-solidify and the pudding mixture can be fully absorbed. This will ensure you don’t have flat (and less-flavorful) cookies. I don’t recommend chilling the dough for more than 3-4 hours, as it begins to dry out.
- Measure carefully. The most important measurements are the flour and cake mix. If you press a measuring cup into a bag of flour (or cake mix) you are likely packing in way too much, which will yield cakey and less-flavorful cookies. Spoon the flour into a measuring cup and level the top with the back of a table knife. The printable recipe includes gram measurements if you prefer to measure using a scale.
- Set out your butter and cream cheese for about an hour before you begin. If these ingredients aren’t at room temperature, they won’t combine very smoothly, and there will be unpleasant cream cheese chunks in the frosting. Here are some tips for how to bring your cream cheese and butter to room temperature quickly.
- Before frosting the Animal Circus Cookies, make sure they are completely cooled to room temperature. Otherwise, the frosting will begin to melt and change consistency.
Quick Tip
Piping the frosting on top. To make these Animal Circus Cookies look more fun and “bakery-style”, I like to pipe the frosting in a swirl pattern. Use either a plastic bag or a piping bag and cut off the very tip. Holding the cookie in one hand and the frosting bag in the other, swirl the frosting from the inside of the cookie outwards. You can easily cover any piping “blemishes” with the animal cracker and/or extra sprinkles.
Quick Tip
You’ll probably have a bit of extra cream cheese frosting (depending, of course, on how much you add to the cookies). I’d rather err on the side of extra than not having enough to frost the Circus Animal Cookies generously. If you end up with extra frosting, use it as a fruit dip or spread over sliced strawberries. You could even add it on top of waffles or pancakes for a cheesecake-type breakfast.
More cookie recipes
- Cornmeal Cookies with white chocolate chips
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cookies with cream cheese frosting
- Avalanche Cookies no baking required!
- Shortbread Cookies with a chocolate drizzle
- S’mores Cookie Bars with oatmeal cookie layers
Circus Animal Cookies
Video
Equipment
- Sheet pan (15" x 10") with liner
Ingredients
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup instant vanilla pudding mix dry, not prepared, not sugar or fat-free
- 1 cup Funfetti cake mix or yellow
- 1-1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 cup nonpareil sprinkles
- 4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- Frosted animal crackers optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat together the butter and both sugars. The butter should not be melted at all. Beat until ingredients are completely smooth and combined, with a light and creamy texture.
- Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Stir together the baking soda, salt, unprepared pudding mix, unprepared cake mix, flour, and nonpareil sprinkles in a separate bowl (see note 1). Stir until combined.
- Add dry ingredients to wet. Mix gently until just combined; do not overmix or sprinkles will bleed colors. Heads-up—this cookie dough gets thick!
- Form cookie dough balls that are each 2 tablespoons in size. Roll balls that are taller rather than wider. Place cookie dough balls on a plate and cover. Refrigerate for 1–2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking liner. Place no more than 6 dough balls on a cookie sheet to give ample room for spreading.
- Bake for 9–13 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges and still soft (slightly under-baked in the center—I bake for about 11 minutes). Remove from oven and, working quickly, immediately press the edges of each cookie slightly inward with the back of a spoon.
- Allow cookies to stand on the cookie sheet for another 3–4 minutes. Remove with a metal spatula to a cooling rack until fully cooled.
- In a large bowl, beat the room-temperature butter and cream cheese until completely smooth; mix in the vanilla and salt. Add in the powdered sugar and beat until the frosting is smooth. It may seem like you need more liquid, but just keep beating; it will come together! If it does happen to be too wet, add a bit more powdered sugar, and if it is too dry, add a touch of milk or cream.
- Transfer the frosting to a plastic bag and cut off the tip. You can also use a piping bag with a small tip. Frost each cooled cookie by piping the frosting in a swirl on top. Sprinkle tops of the cookies with extra sprinkles and press a frosted animal cracker into the center of each cookie.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made these for my daughter’s birthday, and they were a hit! I did have some trouble getting them cooked all the way through at first. At the 13 minute mark they hadn’t finished spreading, and there was still a big lump in the middle. The second batch had spread more, but were still so raw that I couldn’t get them onto the cooling rack. The third batch I just baked until they looked right, and I had let the dough sit out during the cooking of the second batch. Those went much faster. Next time, I will either decrease the chill time or take them out while my oven preheats. The recipe is DELICIOUS. My mother-in-law texted me a couple days later (she took an extra home) to tell me they are the best cookies she’s ever had!!
5 STARS for the icing—this is by far the best cream cheese icing I’ve ever made!! So perfectly balanced, not too tangy, not too sweet. And I appreciated the note about just to keep on mixing. It came together and I didn’t need to add a thing.
I made these and they were AMAZING!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks Sarah! 🙂