This Birthday Cake biscotti isn't just super cute, it's ridiculously easy to make! Also? This celebratory cookie tastes like Funfetti cake!
While traditional biscotti is a bit more ... well, ~traditional~ ... I kind of went off the rails a bit with this one!
This birthday cake biscotti still uses traditional techniques, and it’s the same general idea:
- An easy, loose dough that’s been formed into loaves and baked.
- It starts out with the basic ingredients, which - traditionally, with Italian recipes - was just flour, sugar, eggs and nuts - with no fat, yeast, other leavening agents, or fat.
I do add baking powder and baking soda as leaveners to mine, though.
- The baked loaves are sliced into long biscuits and baked a second time, for a very dry, crunchy biscotti.
However, I added flavour and colour and just general fun ridiculousness. You know, some of my favorite things in life 🙂
Back in the day when I was doing custom cake design, I offered a WIDE variety of wedding cake flavors, and had so much fun coming up with them:
Cookies N Cream Cake
Blood Orange Truffle Torte
Tiger Tail Cake
Citrus Splendor Torte
B-52 Cake
Chai Cake
... to name just a few!
(Note: All of my custom cake recipes are in my second cookbook, Evil Cake Overlord: Ridiculously Delicious Cakes!)
Anyway, weird fact: Using equal parts of vanilla extract and almond extract will make almost any baked good taste like “birthday cake”.
It’s something I realized back in the day. That flavour combo, plus some sprinkles? Boom: funfetti biscotti!
Anyway, while they’re super easy to make - the recipe is at the end of this post - there ARE a few things to go over that will make the whole process go smoothly.
And, you know, some general education type stuff, to appease the Google gods 🙂
Biscotti Gifting!
Biscotti - especially something cute, fun, and celebratory like recipe - can make the perfect birthday gift!
Not only do they have a great shelf life - and are pretty durable! - they can look really pretty in the packages.
I like to buy long, thin clear plastic baggies, and package 1 biscotti per bag.
Some good options are 3" x 11" clear plastic bags or 2"x 10" clear plastic bags.
Then I tie it off and arrange a selection of these individually packaged biscotti in a “happy birthday” themed gift bag with some tissue paper.
Ingredients
This recipe is fairly basic, and - unlike some of my recipes - doesn’t include any weird ingredients 🙂
Biscotti:
All purpose flour
Granulated sugar
Sprinkles
Large eggs
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Almond extract
Vanilla extract
Glaze:
Powdered/Icing/Confectioner’s Sugar
Melted butter
Milk
Vanilla extract
Almond Extract
Salt
How to Make Birthday Cake Biscotti
The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post, here is the pictorial walkthrough
Biscotti:
Preheat oven to 350F, Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, spray with pan spray. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sprinkles, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, and extracts until well combined and smooth. Pour these wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients, stir to combine.
Divide dough in half, form into 2 long, wide loaves on the prepared cookie sheet. Aim for long rectangles, as shown.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown on the outside.
Remove from oven, turn heat down to 250F.
Allow loaves to cool for 5 minutes.
Cutting on a slight diagonal, slice each loaf into ½" slices with a long, serrated knife..
Arrange slices on the pans - still lined with parchment. Bake for 15 minutes, flip each piece over and bake for another 15 minutes, or until desired texture.
Remove from oven, transfer biscotti to a wire rack - if you have one - and allow to cool to room temperature before proceeding.
Glaze:
Whisk together glaze ingredients until smooth. If too thick to spread, microwave for 10 seconds at a time, stirring until runny.
Spread over tops of cooled biscotti, immediately sprinkling with more sprinkles, if using.
Allow glaze to fully harden before transferring biscotti to an airtight container.
Tips for Making this Birthday Cake Biscotti
Biscotti may be very easy to make in general, but there are a few things you can do to ensure it goes smoothly:
- The dough will look kind of scraggly after you mix it together; it really does benefit from a LIGHT kneading.
Don’t over-handle it, though - you don’t want to develop the gluten in the same way you do when making bread or pasta.
I like to wear nitrile gloves when kneading it / transferring to the pan / forming the loaves.
- Know that the dough is supposed to be sticky once it’s been kneaded together. Don’t add more flour!
- While parchment paper is generally nonstick, this dough WILL stick to it.
If you spray the parchment in your pan before putting the dough on it, you’ll have an easier time forming the loaves.
While pan spray is best for the parchment, wet hands work better for forming the dough than oiled hands do.
I’ll run my (gloved) hands under the tap, shake them off well, and then form the loaves.
How you form the loaves affects the final shape.
If you like long, narrow biscotti, aim for a relatively even thickness when forming your loaves.
If you like more of a curved top to your biscotti, form the loaf so it’s mounded up a bit more in the middle, along the length of the loaf.
Know that the biscotti will get a LOT harder and drier as they cool.
Don’t expect/wait for full hardness when you take them out of the oven after the toasting - if you do, you’ll end up with burnt biscotti in the end.
Biscotti Variations
Mini Birthday Cake Biscotti
Instead of dividing the dough into 2 loaves, divide it into 4 loaves.
When forming them, keep them the same length as you would have, so you have 2 long skinny loaves.
These will require much less in the way of cooking time, so check for doneness at 12 minutes, and bake longer if needed.
Keep an eye on it!
Softer Biscotti
This recipe is for traditional style, VERY crunchy biscotti.
If you’d like softer biscotti, there are two ways you can do this:
The Easy Way
When toasting your sliced biscotti, do 5 minutes per side, rather than 15.
Decrease the eggs by 1.
When starting, instead of mixing the eggs with the sugar, beat the sugar with ¼ cup softened butter, until fluffy.
THEN add the eggs in, and continue with the rest of the recipe.
When doing it this way, let the baked loaves cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting.
Chocolate Dipped
While I think this is perfect with the drippy “frosting” effect, you may prefer to use chocolate - especially white chocolate.
To do so, melt some chocolate in the top of a double boiler, or GENTLY in a microwave.
Dip the cooled biscotti into the melted chocolate in any fashion you like.
Scatter more sprinkles over the melted chocolate before it sets, if you like.
How do Serve Biscotti?
As these are made the traditional way - as a VERY dry, crunchy cookie - you definitely want to serve this alongside a beverage to dunk it in!
While biscotti was traditionally served with fortified wine, this one might be better suited to being served with chocolate milk, or a Birthday Cake Martini!
Try it with coffee, hot chocolate, or tea.
How Long Does Biscotti Last?
Due to its ingredients and dry finish, biscotti has a much longer shelf life than most cookies.
When kept in an airtight container, expect your biscotti to stay fresh for about 2 weeks.
Note: It doesn’t *spoil* after this, it will just go stale.
Alternately, you can put your (FULLY COOLED!) Biscotti into a freezer bag, suck most of the air out, and freeze it for a few months, if needed.
How to Freeze Biscotti
There are two ways to freeze biscotti:
- Freeze the finished biscotti
- Freeze the biscotti after the first baking / slicing.
Either way, when you’re taking the biscotti out of the freezer:
- If you froze biscotti after the first bake, just proceed with the second bake after they’ve fully thawed.
- If you froze fully cooked biscotti, you can eat them after they’ve thawed, or you can re-toast them.
To re-toast them - really more of a drying than a toasting - arrange them standing up on a baking sheet, rather than on a side.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or so, at 225 F.
More Fun Biscotti Recipes!
Looking for more fun variations on making biscotti at home? Here are some more easy recipes to try:
Candy Cane Biscotti
Cranberry Orange Pistachio Biscotti
Fruitcake Biscotti
Gingerbread Biscotti
Keto Biscotti
Lemon Poppy Seed Biscotti
Mint Chocolate Chip Biscotti
Red Velvet Biscotti
Spumoni Biscotti
Tiger Tail Biscotti
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Birthday Cake Biscotti [Funfetti Biscotti!]
Equipment
- 2 Baking Sheets
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
Biscotti:
- 2 ½ cups All-purpose flour
- ¼ cup Sprinkles
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Granulated sugar
- 4 Large eggs
- 1 teaspoon Almond extract
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Glaze:
- 2 cup Powdered/Icing/Confectioner’s Sugar
- 2 tablespoon Melted butter
- 2 tablespoon Milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon Almond Extract
- Pinch salt
Instructions
Biscotti:
- Preheat oven to 350F, Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper, spray with pan spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sprinkles, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, and extracts until well combined and smooth. Pour into the bowl with the dry mixture, stir to combine.
- Divide dough in half, form into 2 long, wide loaves on the prepared pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown on the outside. Remove from oven, turn heat down to 250F.
- Allow loaves to cool for 5 minutes.
- Cutting on a slight diagonal, slice each loaf into ½" slices.
- Arrange slices on the pans - still lined with parchment. Bake for 15 minutes, flip each piece over and bake for another 15 minutes, or until desired texture.
- Remove from oven, allow to fully cool.
Glaze:
- Whisk together glaze ingredients until smooth. If too thick to spread, microwave for 10 seconds at a time, stirring until runny.
- Spread over tops of cooled biscotti, immediately sprinkling with more sprinkles, if using. Allow glaze to fully harden before transferring biscotti to an airtight container.
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