When you think of a birthday, what springs to mind? I envisage lots of colour, balloons and loads of food. These cookies are meant to represent all of that and I think they work! Two delicious vanilla cookies laced with brightly coloured sprinkles and white chocolate, sandwiched together with a bright buttercream frosting.

If you want to make a chocolate cookie dough, you can remove 50g plain flour from the recipe and add 35g cocoa powder instead. Use any colour buttercream you want in the middle. Lasts: 3–4+ days, at room temp

METHOD:

• In a large bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and white sugar together until smooth.

• Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again.

• Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sea salt, then beat until a dough is formed. Add the chocolate chips and funfetti sprinkles and mix until well distributed.

• Portion the dough out into 16 balls – each should weigh about 60g. Lay the balls out onto a flat tray that fits in the freezer and freeze for at least 30 minutes, or chill in the fridge for an hour or so.

• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan and line three baking trays with parchment paper. Remove the balls from the freezer or fridge and put them onto the lined baking trays. I do roughly six cookies per tray. Bake in the oven for 10–11 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays while you make the filling.

• Filling: In a large bowl, beat the butter for a few minutes to loosen it. Add the icing sugar and beat again until smooth. Add a few drops of food colouring (I used pink, but you can use any!) and beat well.

• Transfer the pink filling to a piping bag with the piping nozzle of your choice fitted and pipe over eight of the cookies. Sandwich the cookies together with the remaining eight cookies.
  
  Recipe extracted from Jane’s Patisserie, Celebrate! (Ebury Press)