My nephew, Nico, celebrated his birthday this past week. I offered to make him some treats since he loved the ones I made for his end-of-year school party. When I asked if he wanted something chocolatey or with sprinkles for his birthday, he chose sprinkles—he loves them! His pronunciation of "sprinkles" is too cute 🎉✨.

Nico had a birthday party at his summer camp and celebrated with two of his friends at home later in the day.

I made sprinkle cookies (Soft + Chewy Funfetti Cookies) and cupcakes (Confetti Sprinkle Cupcakes) for his summer camp classmates. For two and three-year-olds, it's better to make mini versions of desserts they can easily eat, so I used mini cupcake tins and mini cookie scoops🧁🍪.

For his evening get-together, I made a regular Sprinkle Cake🎂.

Look at how happy he was with his treats! I love making treats for my family and making them happy 💕.

If you're planning treats for a sprinkles birthday celebration, I recommend these two recipes, along with the sprinkle cake I made for the first time (listed below):

• Bake Club Bday Blondies from Christina Tosi’s Bake Club

• Soft + Chewy Funfetti Cookies from 600 acres

Recipe Request and Recommendation Corner 📬

All the treats I made for Nico’s birthday! 🎂

Recipes Made So Far This Year:

Goal: To try seven new recipes each week 🗓️, aiming for 365 this year!

 Number of Recipes Made this Week: 8

Number of New Recipes Tested as of 7/28: 267

Weeks Achieving Seven or More New Recipes: 29 out of 30 ✅

This Week’s Recipe Test Summary

Impress Someone🌟

Nothing this week.

Would Make Again 👍

Sprinkle Cake from my name is yeh 🎂

I didn't try this because it was for Nico’s birthday dinner with friends, so I can't rate it myself, but my sister gave it an 8.5 and said she would prefer it with cream cheese frosting.

Caramelized Onion, Bacon, and Parmesan Risotto from A Flavor Journal 🍚

I enjoyed this risotto. Just watch out for the salt, as the bacon and parmesan can make it salty.

Mango Sago (Tapioca Pudding) by my friend Xidan 🥭

I made this with my college friend at her home for dessert, and we added fresh lychee. It was very refreshing.

Would Not Make Again 👎

These recipes didn’t live up to expectations or weren’t to my taste

Confetti Sprinkle Cupcakes from Sally’s Baking Recipes🧁

These were a bit bland.

Favorite Vanilla Buttercream Frosting from Sally’s Baking Recipes🍰

I realized I am not a big fan of buttercream frosting. Cream Cheese frosting > Buttercream frosting.

Small-Batch Funfetti Cake Loaf from Mini Batch Baker 🍰

This is a healthy version of funfetti cake, but it was not good.

Funfetti Sugar Cookies from Browned Butter Blondie

The 600 acres recipe listed above is much better.

Chocolate Dutch Baby from smitten kitchen 🍫

When I'm looking for Dutch babies recipes, I always think of San Diego’s Richard Walker’s Dutch baby. Unfortunately, most recipes I have made taste like eggs. I'm still in search of a good Dutch baby recipe.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or any recipe requests you might have. Just respond directly to this email.

See you next week. Keep cooking! 👋 

Vale from ValeCooks