Funfetti Birthday Scones make the perfect birthday breakfast for every kid (and adult too!)
Birthday girl!
We have a brand new *9* year old in the house this week! Claire is my full-of-energy middle kiddo! She adores all things animals, is an avid bird watcher, and will stump you with the most inquisitive questions! She is the reason I began drinking coffee daily, and she definitely keeps me on my toes. We are so excited to celebrate her birthday this week, and we decided we needed a new birthday breakfast tradition in our house!
A love affair with tea, and a fun new recipe to go with it!
My 3 girls love having herbal teas with their breakfasts in the morning, and what better breakfast accompaniment for their cup of tea than scones! A crispy, buttery outside, with a lightly sweet, and flaky-soft inside…it is the perfect match with a hot cup of tea or coffee. I took my favorite base scone recipe, dressed it up birthday style for the birthday girl this week, and a new birthday breakfast tradition was born! All 3 girls are now looking forward to their sprinkle filled Funfetti® inspired birthday scones when their birthday rolls around!
The Method :: The Scone Dough & Baking The Scones
Scones can feel intimidating, but truly it doesn’t get any easier. A simple dry ingredient combination, and let the butter shine! You’ll crumble the cold butter into your flour, and then mix in your buttermilk. I left instructions for making your own buttermilk or coconut buttermilk, which will give these scones a fluffed up, soft texture on the inside. Once your dough is moist with buttermilk, you’ll fold in your naturally dyed sprinkles, and then you are ready to knead the soft dough, and form your disk.
The Method :: Forming The Scones
Once you flour your counter, you can knead your dough a few times before you form your disk. You’ll notice flecks of butter throughout the dough, and that is exactly what you want. The hot oven will hit the cold butter and make for fantastic texture and yummy buttery flavor. The pretty light golden color of the scones will give away just how much butter you’ll be using for these special scones! Once you form your disk, use a rolling pin to roll the disk to about one inch, cut your disk into eighths, and place on a baking tray to bake. You can brush the tops of your scones with more milk and sprinkle a bit of sugar to make for a crispy, top.
The Method :: The Icing & Sprinkle Topping!
Once your scones have baked and cooled completely, you can drizzle a fun and simple icing on top if you wish. Of course this is optional, but we are celebrating a once a year birthday in the house, so we are most definitely enjoying it! The icing whisks in seconds before you drizzle over the top of the scones, and of course a fun sprinkling of some extra sprinkles is necessary for a proper birthday celebration. The sprinkles will stick to the icing and the icing will harden within about 20 minutes.
Where do I find naturally dyed sprinkles?
Most grocery stores and natural health food stores carry naturally dyed sprinkles these days, which is so convenient. I did however find this source of naturally dyed sprinkles for a fantastic price compared to our grocery stores though, and I wanted to share it with you! At just $0.57 per ounce, you can have a container of sprinkles all ready for every birthday in the house, and maybe a few holiday cookies too!
Are these birthday scones “healthy?”
Dear friends, I’ll be the first one to let you know that I will not, in fact, be serving these scones on a daily, or even weekly basis! These will be special occasion scones in my house. Birthdays are so special! While the Funfetti® scones aren’t inherently “bad,” they are a bit more of a carb overload than I typically care to serve for the first meal of the day. We will be serving the scones with a side of eggs and/or sausage to balance things out, and my younger kiddo will probably be getting half of one. They are certainly better than many store bought pastries, with a much simpler ingredient list, but these scones will not be an everyday breakfast in my house. This will make them even more special when birthdays arrive!
Can I freeze the scones?
I am happy to report that the scones freeze fantastic! I tucked this batch away in the freezer until my daughter’s birthday later in the week. I took one out yesterday to check on texture and taste, and they did great! This means that you can get a jump start on birthday planning when your kids’ birthdays come around, because we all know birthday weeks can be very busy! Just freeze the baked, cooled, and iced scones flat on a tray, then pop the frozen scones into a freezer bag until you are ready to use them.
Ingredient swap notes
I would imagine that most gluten free flour blends that include xanthan gum will work in this recipe. If your blend doesn’t include the xanthan, simply add a good teaspoon to the flour. I typically use honey or coconut sugar for more of a “on the regular” scone, but honey can to burn in baking sometimes, and coconut sugar would have changed the color of these scones more than I wanted – we want the sprinkles to shine! If you choose to swap for a more natural/healthier sugar like turbinado or coconut sugar, just plan on the color being darker. I also wanted to address the butter. If you are truly dairy free, and cannot have butter, I am quite sure that cold, organic palm shortening would work.
Gluten Free Funfetti® Birthday Scones!
Ingredients
- 1 cup buttermilk or coconut buttermilk to make 1 cup of buttermilk, put 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar in a liquid measuring cup, and fill with full fat milk or coconut milk to the 1 cup line. Stir together and let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients together
- 3 cups Namaste GF Flour Blend fluff the flour before measuring so it isn’t packed down
- ¼ cup organic pure cane sugar plus a little more for sprinkling the tops of the scones if you wish
- 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 8 oz cold butter 2 sticks, cut into cubes
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- ½ cup naturally dyed sprinkles plus more to sprinkle the top
- 1/3 cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp full fat milk or coconut milk
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Make your buttermilk first if you don’t have store-bought buttermilk.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, cane sugar, baking powder, and sea salt.
- Use a pastry cutter or your hands to cut the cold butter into the flour. You want to still be able to see small pieces of butter throughout. See the picture above for reference. I do not have a pastry cutter – I just use my hands!
- Pour the buttermilk and extracts into the flour/butter mixture and use a rubber scraper to mix. Add the sprinkles to fold in gently. I use the rubber scraper to start, and finish with my hands.
- Flour your counter, and knead the dough a few times. Make a disk with your hands, roll the dough to about 1 inch thick, and then use your hands again to shape the disk into a perfect circle.
- Cut the disk into eighths, and place the triangles onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with a light coating of milk or coconut milk, and sprinkle with a little sugar if you wish.
- Bake the scones at 375 degrees for 30 minutes until the edges are golden. Cool the scones completely before icing.
- To make the icing, whisk the powdered sugar and 1 tbsp of milk in a small dish and drizzle over the tops of the cooled scones. Sprinkle the scones with extra sprinkles after drizzling the icing and it will stick to the icing! The icing will dry and harden within about 20 minutes.
these came out delicious and were a special way to celebrate my 5 year old! I used Bob’s Redmill 1:1 GF flour (the blue package) and just needed to add a little bit more buttermilk (maybe tablespoon or two?) to get the dough to come together. thanks for sharing!!
Hi Allie! Thank you for sharing the tips for using the Bob’s flour! That’s great! Happy birthday to your 5 year old!
These were great and so easy to make! I used wheat flour and dairy milk and they turned out great!
So glad you enjoyed them Amy!
Hi.
Im just wondering where is the point to make with dairy free milk if i will use butter (which is contains dairy) did you try with shortening, or coconut oil, or something else? I can’t eat any dairy.
Palm shortening will replace the butter well!
I’m not sure if I did these right. Used the Namaste flour but found the inside slightly “gummy”. Is it because it’s thicker maybe? Or could I have underbaked? Then how long do you think they’ll last covered at room temperature?
Hi JJ! That sounds like they could have baked longer – try that next time! I have never had a gummy texture with these! I would keep them at room temp for a couple days and if they need to be out longer than that then freeze them instead.
These were fabulous! I made them for a New Years Eve (and probably New Years Day) Breakfast and it was a perfect way to celebrate.
So happy to hear you enjoyed them Amy!