Pro Tips and Substitutions

• Pre-Made Dough Tips and Substitutions: Make sure the dough is at room temperature for easier pressing and spreading in the pan. You can also make this sugar cookie cake with homemade cookie dough or with cookie dough powder packets that you can find in your grocery store baking aisle. If using the packets, you'll need to prepare 2 6.25-ounce packets for this sheet pan size.
• Fruit Substitution: If you don’t have star fruit available in your area, you can create the start with piped dollops of whipped cream or Cool Whip, blueberries, or white chocolate chips. Yes! For the red stripes, you could use fresh raspberries or halved cherries. For the blueberry area, you could use blackberries or purple grapes.
• Cool Whip vs. Fresh Whipped Cream: If you'd prefer fresh whipped cream in your American Flag Cookies like I did (instead of Cool Whip), simply whip with a hand mixer or stand mixer 2 cups heavy whipping cream, ⅓ cup powdered sugar, and ½ teaspoon vanilla until stiff peaks form.
• Cookie Variety: You can also use chocolate chip, peanut butter, brownies, or triple chocolate cookie dough as the base of this cookie cake.
• Cookie Size: This cookie dough baked in a 15”x10” pan ends up being about ¼” thick once cooled. If you want a thicker cookie base, use a smaller rectangle sheet pan and adjust the cook time accordingly. You can also make individual sugar cookies to pre-assemble or allow guests to decorate as a fun activity.