This star and moon cake uses cookie dough to give it an added flavor boost.
Moon and stars is a favorite baby shower theme. After all, every mom-to-be wishes for a good sleeper. This star bright moon cake uses a simple frosting palette and star-shaped cookies for the decoration. You'll need a fully cooled 9 x 13 inch rectangular cake to make your moon. Choose whatever flavor you like. Cut a crescent shape lengthwise from the cake. A simple serrated knife is the best tool for this job. Transfer the cake to a serving platter. For the star cookies, use half of an 18-ounce package of refrigerated cookie dough. Roll it out according to the package directions using plenty of flour on both sides of the dough to prevent sticking. Cut the dough into 12 3-inch star shapes. Bake them for 12 minutes and let them cool for 1 minute on the baking sheet before moving them to a cooling wrap. While the cookies cool, we'll prepare the tangy frostings. To 1/2 cup of vanilla frosting, add blue food coloring and blend it until you have a light blue tint. Spoon the frosting into a pastry bag with a fine tip or you can use a zip-top plastic bag and make a small snip in the corner of the bag. To another half cup of frosting, add a generous amount of yellow food coloring and blend it until you have a bright yellow tint. Divide another 16-ounce can of vanilla frosting between two bowls. Add royal blue gel food coloring to one bowl to color it deep royal blue. Next, spoon 1/2 cup of the white frosting into another pastry bag also with a fine tip. Now, spread the white frosting over the top third or so of the crescent to make the moon's nightcap. Cover both the top and sides of the cake. Spread the yellow frosting over the rest of the cake, top and sides. With the light blue frosting, pipe stripes on the night cap and a roll of dots along the border of the nightcap. Use a tube of brown decorating icing to create one closed eye, the mouth, and the outline of the nose. Out on the serving platter, pipe a series of Zs in decreasing size coming from the moon's nose. Now, when the cookies are fully cooled, spread a thin layer of royal blue frosting to completely cover their tops. Using the vanilla icing in the plastic bag, pipe a thin white border around each cookie. Arrange the cookies around the cake just before serving.
