Birthday Cookie Cake

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 6 large egg yolks
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1½ sticks cut into ½-inch pieces, at room temperature unsalted butter
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup plus 4 tablespoons for the top sprinkles
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• flaky sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8- or 9-inch cake pan with a round of parchment paper (or, if baking two, line two pans).
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (or in a medium bowl with an electric hand mixer), beat the yolks, sugar, and vanilla together on medium speed until extremely pale and fluffy, looking almost like hollandaise or aioli, 4–5 minutes.
3. With the mixer running, add the butter a few pieces at a time, waiting until the little pieces fully incorporate into the yolk mixture before adding more. Continue adding until all the butter is incorporated and your mixture is pale and smooth, another 4–5 minutes.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ⅓ cup/75g sprinkles, the baking powder, and kosher salt. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the buttery yolks, beating just to blend.
5. Divide the dough in half, refrigerate whatever you aren’t planning on baking. Pat one disc of the dough into the lined cake pan and sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of sprinkles and a bit of flaky salt.
6. Bake until shiny, golden brown, and slightly puffed on top (it will look like a very flat birthday cake), 20–25 minutes (if you like yours on the softer, chewier side, bake closer to 20 minutes).
7. Remove the cookie from the oven and let it cool slightly before flipping it out onto a cutting board and slicing it into little wedges (you can do this in the pan as well, but I try to avoid doing that lest I scratch the surface of my cake pan). Repeat with the other disc of dough, now or later.