Celebrate a birthday, holiday, or special occasion by serving a festively decorated sugar cookie cake. These giant sugar cookies are a delicious alternative to a birthday cake.
Baking and decorating cookie cakes is easy and fun and they make a wonderful party dessert or gift for any occasion.
My family and friends love it when I bring a delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake to celebrate a birthday. They also love my cut-out sugar cookies so for a friend's birthday, I thought it would be fun to bake her a sugar cookie cake.
A giant sugar cookie is a perfect canvas to decorate for any special occasion. The birthday cookie cake pictured above is decorated with a frosting border that's topped with colorful sprinkles and modeling chocolate cut-outs.
The design possibilities are limitless. You can make birthday cakes, holiday cakes, get-well cakes, and more.
Our exchange student graduates from high school this year and I decorated the cookie cake pictured above to celebrate. Once again, I used modeling chocolate to create my designs.
If you prefer, you can simply pipe a design onto the cookie using frosting.
I made this get-well cookie cake for a friend who just had surgery. She loves sprinkles (she even has a license plate that says "sprinkles!) so I added some rainbow jimmies to the cookie dough and sprinkled more on top. She went nuts over this Funfetti cookie cake.
No matter the occasion, a sugar cookie cake will make a wonderful treat. So, let's get baking!
Ingredients
sugar cookie ingredients
- all-purpose flour
- salt - Table salt works best.
- baking powder
- butter - Use unsalted butter that has been slightly softened. When you press your finger into the butter, it should give slightly. I find that cutting the butter into slices and letting them sit in the mixing bowl for 15 minutes works great. If you prefer to use salted butter, just eliminate the salt from the recipe.
- granulated sugar
- egg
- vanilla extract
- almond extract (or other extracts)
flavorings
I enjoy flavoring my sugar cookie dough with almond extract but you can use peppermint, lemon, cake batter, maple, strawberry, and even coconut extract if you prefer. Or simply use vanilla.
frosting ingredients
You can simply use a tub of Duncan Hines Whipped White Frosting to decorate your cookie (which is what I did this time) or you can make a batch of homemade buttercream frosting using the ingredients listed below.
- butter - You can use unsalted butter or salted butter to make this filling. Just be sure to allow it to soften so that it's similar in texture to the shortening.
- shortening - Use shortening to give the filling a whiter appearance and a flavor that is more similar to an OREO Cookie filling.
- vanilla extract - Pure vanilla extract will give you the best flavor.
- confectioners powdered sugar - I recommend sifting the powdered sugar to remove any lumps before mixing the filling.
- heavy whipping cream or milk - You'll need to thin out your frosting using cream or milk. Either work fine.
See the recipe card for quantities.
Equipment
- mixing bowls
- hand-held mixer or stand mixer - This dough can be made using a hand-held mixer or even a silicone spatula or wooden spoon.
- 9-inch round tart pan with removable bottom or a 9-inch or 8-inch cake pan
- parchment paper - For ease of removal, you'll want to line the bottom of your cake pan with a parchment paper circle.
Instructions
Cut the softened butter into small pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Pour the granulated sugar on top.
Beat on medium speed until creamy about 3 minutes if using a hand mixer or 2 minutes if using a stand mixer.
Crack open an egg into a small bowl.
Lightly beat the egg.
Add the egg to the sugar and butter and beat until well blended 30-45 seconds.
Pour the vanilla and almond extract into the bowl.
Beat until creamy and smooth about 30 seconds.
Blend together the flour, baking powder, and salt using a fork or whisk.
Pour the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl.
Beat on low speed until the dough comes together.
Use your hands to mix the dough until it comes together in a ball. Do not overmix the dough.
Place the dough in a 9-inch round tart pan (or cake pan) that's been greased and lined with parchment paper.
Press the dough into an even layer in the cake pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 24-28 minutes until the edges are browned and the top of the cookie is no longer shiny.
If you use a dark non-stick pan, you'll want to lower the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
Allow the sugar cookie cake to cool completely for at least one hour before decorating. Remove the cookie from the pan and peel off the parchment paper.
Pipe frosting around the edge of the cookie cake.
I used a large 1M open star tip to pipe large stars on my cake.
If you want to add sprinkles to the frosting border, add them immediately after you pipe the frosting. The frosting will crust over and the sprinkles won't stick if you wait too long.
Cut out your modeling chocolate or fondant decorations.
Decorate the cookie cake using the cut-outs.
To decorate the birthday cookie as I did, roll out some brown (milk chocolate) and pink (white chocolate) modeling chocolate or fondant to 1/16-inch thickness. You can find my easy 2-ingredient modeling chocolate recipe on my Hungry Happenings blog.
Cut out "Happy Birthday" using alphabet plunger cutters and a teddy bear using a bear-shaped plunger cutter.
Brush the backside of the cut-outs with corn syrup or a thin layer of frosting and press them onto the center of the cookie.
Variations
To make a graduation cookie cake, cut the letters using alphabet plunger cutters then cut out a grad cap and diploma using graduation plunger cutters.
To make a Funfetti cookie cake, use cake batter extract to flavor the dough and add ¼ cup of sprinkles.
Bake the cookie cake in a 9-inch tart pan. Allow it to cool completely before decorating.
Pipe a border of frosting using a large 1M open star tip,
Toss rainbow jimmies over the border and then pipe "get well soon" using a #18 star tip and sprinkle rainbow nonpareils on top.
Storage
Store your cookie cakes at room temperature for up to 3 days preferably in an airtight container or cake carrier.
You can wrap an undecorated cookie cake in plastic wrap and tin foil and freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw completely before decorating.
Top Tips
Do not refrigerate a cookie cake that has been decorated with modeling chocolate. Modeling chocolate gets sticky when refrigerated.
Cookie cakes make great gifts too. They look festive and fun when packaged in a 10-inch white pizza box. Get creative and decorate the top of the box and your gift is ready to go.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Recipe
sugar cookie cake
Serve a festively decorated sugar cookie cake for a birthday, graduation, holiday, or any special occasion. This soft and chewy cookie cake is easy to make and fun to decorate.
Ingredients
cookie dough
- 256 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened slightly
- ¾ cups (150 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
frosting (optional)
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, softened
- 4 tablespoons shortening
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream or milk
decorations
- modeling chocolate or fondant
- sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 C) or 325 degrees F if using a dark non-stick pan.
- Grease a 9-inch tart pan (or cake pan) with butter or baking spray then line the pan with a parchment paper circle. Set aside.
- Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Then, set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed using a hand-held mixer for about 3 minutes or using a stand mixer for about 2 minutes until creamy and lighter in color. Scrape down the bowl midway through mixing.
- Add the egg (I like to lightly beat it before adding it) and beat until creamy, 30-45 seconds.
- Scrape down the bowl, then mix in the vanilla and almond extract until blended.
- Pour the flour mixture into the wet dough and beat on low speed just until incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Use your hand to pull the dough together into a ball.
- Press the cookie dough into an even layer in the tart or cake pan.
- Bake for 22-28 minutes, rotating midway through the baking cycle, until the edge of the cookie cake turns golden brown and the top of the cookie no longer looks wet.
- Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a cooling rack.
- Allow the cookie to cool completely in the pan for about an hour.
- Then, remove the cookie from the pan and peel off the parchment paper circle.
- To decorate, pipe a border of frosting around the edge of the cookie. Immediately top with sprinkles.
- Pipe on any other decorations or letters using the frosting if desired.
- If using, cut decorations out of modeling chocolate or fondant.
- Brush a thin layer of frosting (or corn syrup or clear piping gel) on the back of the cutouts and press them onto the top of the cookie.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
storing your cookie cake
Store your cookie cake at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Freeze an undecorated cookie cake for up to 3 months. Wrap it well in plastic wrap and tin foil before freezing and allow it to thaw completely before decorating.
measuring flour
It's best to weigh your flour so you get the most accurate measurement. If you don't have a kitchen scale, spoon the all-purpose flour into your measuring cup, then scrape across the top of the cup removing the excess.
softening butter
Soften the butter until it is just soft enough to press your finger into it leaving an impression. To soften butter quickly, cut it into small tablespoon-size pieces, and set them in a single layer in the mixing bowl for 15-20 minutes. It should be soft enough to cream with the sugar at this point.
calories
The calories listed are for a single serving of the cookie only (1/12 of the cake). Total calories including frosting, sprinkles, modeling chocolate, and frosting will depend on how you decorate your sugar cookie cake.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 201Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 36mgSodium: 132mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 3g
HowToMakeEasyCookies.com offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you use to create this recipe.
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