Step 1

In the bowl of a stand mixer, use a paddle attachment to cream together the sugar and butter.

Step 2

Add in the vanilla, almond extract, and egg. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy (4 to 5 minutes).

Step 3

Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix on medium low speed just until combined.

Step 4

Take half of the dough and form it into a ball. Set the ball back in the bowl.

Step 5

On a clean surface, sprinkle some flour around to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface when rolling and cutting the cookies. Then place the ball of the dough on the flour dusted surface and roll out to be around 1/4" to 3/8" thick.

Step 6

Use the star cookie cutters to cut out the same amount of each size star. Place the cut out stars onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread the stars out to be 1" apart, making sure the smaller stars are in the center of the cookie sheet and larger stars are around the edges, this will help prevent the smaller stars from over baking.

Step 7

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 8 to 12 minutes. The cookies should be very blonde still when coming out, no golden or brown edges. Set the cookies aside to cool completely. Repeat steps 5 to 7 until all of the dough has been used.

Step 8

In the bowl of a stand mixer, use a paddle attachment to beat the butter and half of the powdered sugar together. Once smooth, add in the remaining powdered sugar, cream, vanilla, almond extract, salt, and food coloring. Start with just a few drops of the food coloring.

Step 9

Beat on high until light and fluffy, if the frosting is too thick add additional heavy cream 1 Tablespoon at a time until desired consistency has been reached. Add additional food coloring to reach desired color.

Step 10

Scrape the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small open star tip.

Step 11

Melt the white candy coating in a heat safe dish.

Step 12

Fill the small star molds with the melted candy coating so they are filled about 1/4" deep, you want the stars to be fairly thin, if they are too thick they won't sit on top of the trees properly. To make sure there are no air bubbles and the candy coating is even, carefully shake the mold a bit and hit the bottom of the mold onto your work surface a few times.

Step 13

Pour the sprinkles onto each star in the mold, and carefully shake the mold again to ensure the sprinkles are covering evenly.

Step 14

Set aside to cool completely, either on the counter or in the fridge.

Step 15

To assemble, pipe small stars around the outline of the cookies, all of the points of the cookies should be covered with the frosting stars, but in the center of the cookie you can just fill with a blob of the frosting. Stack the stars with the largest cookie on the bottom and smallest on the top.

Step 16

Add one of the white stars to the very top.

Step 17

Place each cookie into the fridge right after stacking. This will help them set and be sturdy.

Step 18

When ready to serve, you can serve as-is or dust with a little powdered sugar to give a snowy look.

Step 19

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.