This cookie pizza was dreamed up by my 8-year old daughter. The last few years we have done something brand new for her cake. Last year it was the M&M Cake, the year before we fashioned a Little Mermaid Cake. This year, however, Ellie and I really stretched our creativity to make something we had never seen before, a Cookie & Candy Pizza.
Cookie Pizza
- One batch of sugar cookie dough from the Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle
- 12 ounces of raspberries (fresh or frozen)
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- One batch of vanilla buttercream frosting like this one from Savory Sweet Life
TOPPINGS (lots of creativity here)
- Tootsie Rolls
- Chocolate Covered Pretzels
- Dark Red Fruit Rolls
- Licorice Rounds
- Cow Tails
- Gummy Cola Bottles
- Any other candy you can craft to look like a pizza topping
We made this dessert, much like you could make a pizza.
THE “CRUST”
This is silly easy. Simply whip up a batch of Sugarbelle’s fantastic sugar cookie dough. It doesn’t require refrigeration and is easy to mold into whatever you like. Overall, the perfect sugar cookie recipe. Line a large pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Then roll the crust out until it is a rough circle. I formed the edge so it was somewhat thicker than the interior to simulate a pizza crust edge.
Bake at 400 degrees F for about 10 minutes. You don’t want to overcook. Ideally, you would take out the crust right before it begins to brown.
Cool to room temperature. If you let the crust sit overnight, that works just fine.
THE “SAUCE”
Put the raspberries in a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat stirring with a spoon until they break down into a sauce. Pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to take out the seeds and then put the seedless sauce back in the clean pot and slowly simmer until it reduces to a 1/4 cup of very concentrated raspberry sauce, stirring pretty often. This took about 20 minutes for me. Take your time, you don’t want the sugars to scorch as the puree gets more concentrated.
Cool the concentrated puree to room temperature then mix in 1 cup of powdered sugar. Taste to make sure it is sweet enough for you. Remember that everything else on the pizza is very sweet and the semi-tangy “sauce” is a nice counterbalance to that.
THE “CHEESE”
The cheese was simply this buttercream from Savory Sweet Life.
THE “TOPPINGS”
For this, I went to some local stores and just looked around to see what candy could be fashioned into toppings. My biggest find were these Wildberry Roll Ups. They were almost the perfect color and texture of pepperoni. We shaped them out with a sharp round cutter to make them really authentic.
We also sliced a large warm Tootsie Roll to make “sausage”
Other Ideas
- Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rings from Snackwells (Olives)
- Strawberry Licorice Rounds cut in half (Tomatoes)
- Cow Tails cut up kind (Sliced Mushrooms)
- Gummy Cola Bottles cut up kind of look like sliced mushrooms too, plus they are tasty
If I had planned farther ahead, I could have maybe found more stuff, but this were easy toppings in a pinch.
- All y’all out on the Interwebz are a lot more creative than me. I’d love to hear more ideas.
ASSEMBLING THE “PIZZA”
Slather on the sauce, putting more on the edge and leaving a circle of exposed crust.
You know what comes next, THE CHEESE. The only advice I would give here is put dollops around the pizza and press down and spread from there. You don’t want the frosting to mix with the raspberry fruit layer because that will make pink. In this case, you want red and white, not pink.
Then you add your toppings. My 8-year old did this part. It really couldn’t be easier.
TA DA!
Your pizza is complete.
And ready to take it’s place on the birthday table.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!