Funfetti Cream Cheese Mints

Funfetti Cream Cheese Mints are a festive, melt-in-your-mouth confection that’s perfect for holiday parties, cookie exchanges, and gift-giving! With just a handful of simple ingredients—cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and cheerful sprinkles—you’ll create adorable little mints that look bakery-fancy but require zero baking skills.

Love More Cream Cheese Mints? Try My Cream Cheese Mints  or this Orange Cream Cheese Mints next.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

These little gems are pure holiday magic! They’re impossibly creamy, perfectly sweet, and so festive with their colorful sprinkles. I love that there’s NO baking required—just mix, roll, and chill. They’re incredibly easy to make, yet they look so impressive on a dessert table or wrapped up as gifts. Plus, kids absolutely LOVE helping roll these into balls and decorating them with sparkly sprinkles. It’s become one of my go-to recipes when I need something quick, beautiful, and guaranteed to disappear within minutes!

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Ingredient List

• 4 oz cream cheese, softened (brick-style, not spreadable)
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1–2 drops clear almond extract (optional, for extra flavor)
• 4 cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar, plus extra as needed
• Red, green, and white sprinkles (holiday “funfetti” style)
• Edible glitter or sanding sugar (optional, for decoration)

Friendly Notes:

• Seriously get the brick cream cheese in the foil wrapper. I used the tub kind once thinking it wouldn’t matter and the mints never firmed up. Total waste.
• I always throw in the almond extract. It makes people go “wait what’s in these” which is fun.
• Switch up your sprinkle colors for different holidays. I did pink and white ones for my niece’s baby shower.

Why These Ingredients Work

The cream cheese gives you that creamy tangy thing so they’re not just straight sugar. Butter makes them smooth instead of gritty. All that powdered sugar seems excessive but it’s literally what turns soft cream cheese into something you can shape with your hands. Regular sugar would make them grainy and weird-textured. Vanilla is just automatic for me at this point – goes in everything. But that almond extract? That’s what makes these taste expensive. Like you got them from some fancy candy place instead of your kitchen. And sprinkles obviously make everything cuter and more fun to look at.

Essential Tools and Equipment

• Medium mixing bowl
• Hand mixer or stand mixer
• Measuring cups and spoons
• Parchment paper
• Baking sheet or tray
• Small cookie scoop or teaspoon
• Airtight container for storage

How To Make Funfetti Cream Cheese Mints

Step 1: Cream the Base

Turn on your mixer and beat the cream cheese with butter until it’s totally smooth. Takes about two minutes. Any lumps you leave now will show up in your finished mints looking bumpy.

Step 2: Add the Extracts

Dump in vanilla and almond extract and mix it around. My kitchen starts smelling amazing at this point.

Step 3: Start Adding Sugar

Put your mixer on low and slowly add about half the powdered sugar. Don’t just dump it all in at once unless you want a sugar explosion. I did that once and later found powdered sugar on top of my microwave which is like three feet away from the bowl.

Step 4: Build the Dough

Keep adding more sugar bit by bit. Watch it go from looking like thick icing to looking like actual dough. Touch it with your finger – if it sticks keep adding sugar. When you can touch it without it sticking you’re done. Mine usually takes all four cups but sometimes more.

Step 5: Add the Funfetti

Throw in most of your sprinkles but save maybe a quarter cup for rolling. Mix them through until you see color everywhere. Looks really cool actually.

Step 6: Roll into Balls

Scoop out little bits with a teaspoon and roll them between your palms into balls. Line them up on your parchment paper. I usually get around forty but depends how big you make them. Sometimes I make them bigger because why not.

Step 7: Coat with Sparkle

Roll each ball through your saved sprinkles. Press down a little so they actually stick on there. Sometimes I go crazy with edible glitter because more sparkle is never wrong.

Step 8: Chill and Set

Put the whole tray in your fridge and forget about them for at least four hours. Overnight is better though. This is what makes them go from soft balls to actual firm mints.

You Must Know

Use block cream cheese only. The tub stuff that spreads easy has different ingredients and way too much moisture. Your mints will stay mushy forever. You need the hard block wrapped in foil that you have to actually unwrap. Not negotiable.

Your dough has to be really stiff. Like actually firm. Poke it with your finger and if your finger sinks in deep keep adding sugar. Should feel like play-dough that’s been sitting out and dried up a bit.

Personal Secret: After I roll all the balls I stick the tray back in the fridge for fifteen minutes before doing the sprinkle coating. They stay perfectly round, they’re way easier to roll without squishing them, and the sprinkles stick on better. Plus my hands don’t get as sticky and gross. Changed my life when I figured this out.

Pro Tips & Cooking Hacks

• Pull your cream cheese and butter out like forty-five minutes before you start. Cold cream cheese is impossible to mix smooth.
• I keep a wet paper towel right next to my rolling area. Every few mints I wipe my hands off so they don’t get gunky.
• If your sprinkles won’t stick just brush a tiny bit of water on each mint first. Or use corn syrup but water works fine.
• Want regular mint flavor? Use peppermint extract instead of almond. Tastes like those mints from fancy restaurants.
• Biggest mistake people make is not beating the cream cheese enough at the start. Those little lumps will be visible in every single mint and you’ll be annoyed.

Flavor Variations / Suggestions

Chocolate ones: Mix in two tablespoons cocoa powder with your sugar. Now you’ve got chocolate truffles basically.

Citrus version: Swap vanilla for lemon extract and use yellow sprinkles. Really good in spring.

Classic mint: Use peppermint extract and roll them in crushed up candy canes. My kids lose their minds over these.

Wedding fancy: Skip all sprinkles and roll them in gold dust instead. Looks incredibly elegant and expensive.

Baby shower: Pastel sprinkles and maybe a tiny drop of rose water. Everyone wants the recipe at showers guaranteed.

Make-Ahead Options

These are great for making ahead which is why I love them during busy holiday season. Make them up to five days early and just leave them in a container in your fridge. Or stick them in the freezer for up to two months if you’re really planning ahead. Put parchment between the layers or they’ll stick together. To use them just move them to the fridge the night before. I always make double batches in early December and freeze half. Then when my mother-in-law shows up without warning I can pull out a container and look like I’m super organized instead of panicking.

Recipe Notes & Baker’s Tips

• Fresh from the fridge they’re firm but after sitting out like five minutes they get that melty texture. That’s when they’re best honestly.
• If your kitchen is super hot work fast or just do half a batch at a time. Heat makes them too soft to handle.
• Big chunky sprinkles work so much better than those tiny ball ones. The tiny ones just roll right off.
• Don’t try to skip the chilling time to save time. I did that once because I was in a hurry and they were just squishy disappointing balls. Need at least four hours.
• That tiny bit of almond extract is literally the secret to why everyone asks what makes them taste so good. Can barely taste it but it’s there doing its thing.

Serving Suggestions

I put these on every holiday dessert table next to cookies and fudge. At cookie exchanges they disappear first because nobody else ever brings actual candy. Every Christmas I make them for neighbor gifts – wrap them in clear bags with ribbon and people act like you gave them something really special. My kids’ teachers request them now. After dinner when people come over I put them out with coffee and everyone thinks I spent way more time than I did. Just throw them on any dessert platter and they make everything else look better too. Sometimes I put them on a white plate with some fake pine branches and mini ornaments scattered around and my table looks like something from Pinterest.

People literally text me every single December asking if I’m making these again because they want some. Last year my sister-in-law asked if I’d make extras for her office party. The absolute best part is watching someone eat one for the first time – their whole face changes and they always reach for another one immediately.

How to Store Your Funfetti Cream Cheese Mints

Refrigerator: Stick them in any airtight container with parchment paper between layers. They’ll keep five days easy.

Freezer: Same thing with parchment layers but use something freezer-safe. Good for two months at least. Move to fridge the night before you want them.

Room Temperature: Can sit out maybe two hours max for serving. After that they get too soft and need to go back in the fridge.

Reheating: Don’t need to do anything. Just eat them cold or let them warm up slightly.

Allergy Information

Contains: Dairy (cream cheese, butter)

Gluten-free: Yeah these are naturally gluten-free

Nut-free: Leave out the almond extract and check your sprinkle package. Most are fine but always read labels just in case.

Dairy-free option: Haven’t tried this myself but probably vegan cream cheese and butter would work. Just make sure they’re thick not the super soft kind.

Questions I Get Asked A Lot

Can I use the spreadable cream cheese that comes in a tub?

No don’t do it. Tried this once and totally ruined a whole batch. The consistency is completely wrong and has extra ingredients. Your mints will never firm up – they’ll just stay soft and mushy. Has to be the block kind in foil wrapper. I know it seems picky but it actually matters a lot.

My dough is too sticky to roll—what did I go wrong?

Just add more powdered sugar. Keep adding it one tablespoon at a time and mixing until it stops being sticky. Sometimes takes more than four cups depending on your cream cheese. Also check if your cream cheese was too warm when you started – should be soft but not melty.

Do these really need to chill for several hours?

Yeah unfortunately they do. I know waiting sucks but that’s what actually makes them mints instead of just soft candy dough. The whole texture completely changes when they chill properly. Make them the night before if you can – they’re even better.

The sprinkles keep falling off—how do I make them stick?

Roll them through the sprinkles right after shaping while they’re still a bit soft. Or brush each one with a tiny bit of water before rolling – that works really well. Also bigger sprinkles stick way better than those super tiny round ones. I press down on them slightly when rolling too.

Can I make these in different shapes instead of balls?

Sure go for it. Press them in candy molds or cut them with tiny cookie cutters. Can also roll the dough into logs and just slice them which is faster. Just make them all about the same thickness so they chill evenly.

💬 Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and rating below! Tell me what you thought and what colors you used!