Preheat the oven to 350º Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the cream cheese and softened butter on high until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and continue beating on high until smooth, another 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Add the flour and the baking powder and beat at medium speed until the dough comes together in about 3 minutes. The dough will still be quite sticky.

Cover your hands with flour and roll the dough into a large ball. Wrap the entire ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is approximately ¼ inch thick. Cut out your square shapes. Re-roll any scraps and continue cutting out the shapes until you run out of dough.

Pour your sanding sugar into two shallow plates. Press one side of the dough into the red sanding sugar to adhere. Flip the dough and dip the other side into the blue sanding sugar.

On a small cutting board, place the square, blue side up. Cut a small slit into the dough at each corner, leaving the middle intact.

Pull one side of one of the corners into the middle of the cookie and press lightly to adhere. Add the stick, pushing one end into the middle, and push to adhere. Continue pulling one side of each corner down and pressing lightly in the middle until you have your pinwheel shape.

Lightly push the candy star into the middle of the pinwheel.

Carefully transfer the pinwheels to a baking sheet, leaving at least 1 inch of space between the cookies.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until browned on the outside. Cool for 10 minutes on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Enjoy as soon as they are cool.