My sister, Crystal, has been talking about these Funfetti cookies her friend makes.

The recipe calls for the candy-freckled Pillsbury cake mix and frosting, adding just an egg and oil.

So I bought the cake mix and a tub of frosting, planning to make them for her birthday dinner tonight. (Here’s that recipe.)

Except when I looked online for the recipe and found ones made from scratch instead.

One that I particularly liked was by Julia Mestas (@JuliaMestas), a food blogger from Costa Mesa, Calif. She writes a great blog called “Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body,” and last year she posted a recipe for Funfetti cookies that she made for her soccer team.

They were a huge hit — and they looked so easy to make.

Plus, it helped that I had all of the ingredients on hand.

So I decided to ditch the cake mix and bake these fun versions instead.

Here’s how it all went down:

Sift dry ingredients

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It's important to sift your flour, cornstarch and baking soda. It takes a little more time, but it's worth it.

Funfetti Cookies
Slightly adapted from the recipe from food blogger Julia Mestas (@JuliaMestas)

Ingredients:

2 sticks (or 1/2 pound) softened butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
(1 tsp almond extract, optional)
1 egg
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup rainbow jimmie sprinkles (the long thin sprinkles)
2 tbsp rainbow perils (tiny balls sprinkles)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg (and almond extract, if you want). Beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, sift in the flour, cornstarch, soda and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and continue on mix until it’s all added and combined. Don’t overmix the batter. Mix in the sprinkles (don’t overmix or the sprinkles will start to bleed into the dough).

Using an ice cream scoop or melon baller, scoop cookie dough onto cookie sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart (fits 8 cookies per sheet). You don’t have to flatten the ball. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the edges start to turn a light golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container up to four days.