Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
This Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake has
brown sugar chocolate chip cake layers, a cookie dough filling, and a chocolate
chip cookie frosting!
Chocolate chip cookie lovers, this cake
is for YOU! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday today than
with this epic Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake.
This cake kinda came out of the blue. At
this time of year, I’d typically be throwing something seasonal at you, whether
for Thanksgiving, Halloween, or just Fall. But the cakes I make for my
birthdays never really seem to follow a seasonal theme.
The first cake I made for my birthday
(well, the first one I wrote about), was this pretty rosette cake that
literally used a box mix (gasp) and a simple vanilla buttercream. Two
years ago, I made this Milk & Cookies Cake (clearly I have a pattern),
and last year I didn’t make a cake at all because we were in Walt Disney World
to celebrate. Not gonna lie, I’m seriously wishing I was back in WDW right
now!!
But alas, I’m *stuck* at home
celebrating my birthday on a sunny Saturday with one adorable puppy (she’s
a handful but I LOVE her) and one very loving husband (he’s a handful but I
LOVE him), and a I have a sizeable slice of this Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake to
look forward to. It’s no WDW, but it’ll do :).
How do you make a Chocolate Chip Cookie
Cake?
To make this cake I modified my Milk
& Cookies Cake, and swapped out some of the granulated sugar for light
brown sugar. I also used milk instead of buttermilk, but really you could go
either way — buttermilk will yield a slightly less sweet cake due to the
tartness of it.
When making the cake, be sure to coat
your chocolate chips in flour. This is an important step, and if you don’t do
it they’ll likely sink to the bottom of your pans. I actually forgot to coat
mine. It’s honestly the worst feeling. Folding in those chocolate chips and
then realizing you forgot to toss them in flour!! I baked them up anyhow (what
else was I going to do with that cake batter??) and they didn’t sink too badly,
but they sank more than I’d like. So, don’t skip this step!
Once the cake layers were baked and
cooled, I cut each of them in half horizontally to make 6 layers. You could
just leave this as a 3 layer cake instead, but you’ll have excess cookie dough
and frosting (unless you reduce those recipes). The recipe will also work as a
two-layer (cut into 4 layers) 8″ cake.
Once the layers were done, I whipped up
a batch of my edible cookie dough.
Can You Eat Raw Cookie Dough?
Let’s be real here — one of life’s
greatest pleasures is licking cake batter off beaters or eating raw cookie
dough by the spoonful. I do this every single time I bake a cake (quality control,
right?) and have been doing it ever since I was little. I haven’t had any ill
effects from it, but there have been cases where people have gotten sick either
from the raw eggs or (in rare cases) raw flour.
This may depend on where you live or
where you get your ingredients, so you know better than I do what sort of risk
this poses to you. The good news is that this Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
contains an edible cookie dough recipe that is egg-free with heat-treated
flour and is safe to eat.
The cookie dough will be stiffer than a
frosting, and hard to spread onto the layers. So I found it best to line my
lightly greased baking pans with plastic wrap and press and shape the cookie
dough into discs. I then chilled these discs and placed them onto the cake layers.
This method made the discs slightly larger than my cake layers, but they were
easy to smush in and adjust when placed on the cake.
If you don’t want to do it this way, you
can make the cookie dough filling lighter and fluffier by adding a bit more milk
or cream until it’s more of a spreadable consistency. Either method works. Do
not chill the cookie dough before using if you do it this way though.
Chocolate
Chip Cookie Frosting
The chocolate chip cookie frosting on
this cake is a new fave. I used my favorite brown sugar Swiss meringue
buttercream and added a whole bunch of crushed cookies into it.
I
used store-bought Chips Ahoy cookies for this
(partly due to laziness), but you could use your own favorite chocolate chip
cookie recipe instead. Just make sure the cookies are more on the crunchy side
rather than chewy, as you want to crush them up pretty fine and chewy cookies
are more likely to clump.
I used a food processor to pulverize the
cookies, then passed them through a mesh strainer to get out any larger
lingering bits. This gave me the cookie powder I was looking for that would add
just the slightest bit of texture to the buttercream, but still make it easy to
smooth.
Decorating
this Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake was fairly simple. I started with a smooth
canvas of buttercream, some dollops on top (using a 1M
tip), then made some cookie dough balls with the leftover cookie
dough (about 1tsp each) and placed some store-bought mini
Chips Ahoy cookies along the bottom. I think it’s a simple
and pretty way to express all the chocolate chip cookie goodness that awaits
inside this cake!
If you’re a chocolate chip cookie fan or
love cookie dough as much as I do, this cake is one you’ll need to add to your
baking menu!
Looking
for more Cookie Dough Recipes?
·
Cookie
Dough Truffles
·
Cookie Dough Dip
·
Cookie
Dough Cake
·
How to
Make Edible Cookie Dough
Tips for making this Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
·
Be sure
to heat-treat the flour in the cookie dough filling before use.
·
The
recipe will also work as a two layer (cut into 4 layers) 8″ cake.
·
The
buttercream recipe makes enough to frost the whole cake, if you wanted to skip
the cookie dough layers.
·
You will
have some cookie dough left over. You can make cookie dough truffles with any
extra, or just store it in the fridge and eat it with a spoon like I did.
·
I
used store-bought cookies for the buttercream, but
you can use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe if you prefer.
·
Be sure
to check my Swiss Meringue Buttercream post for tips and troubleshooting.
·
To help
ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, check out my Flat Top
Cakes post!
Chocolate
Chip Cookie Cake
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4.86
from 14 votes
A cookie
lovers dream! This Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake has brown sugar chocolate chip
cake layers, a cookie dough filling, and a chocolate chip cookie frosting!
Course
Dessert
Cuisine
American
Prep
Time 2 hours hours
Cook
Time 35 minutes minutes
Total
Time 2 hours hours 35 minutes minutes
Servings
12
Calories
999kcal
Author
Olivia
Ingredients
US
CustomaryMetric
1x2x3x
Brown
Sugar Chocolate Chip Cake:
·
2 1/4
cups all-purpose flour
·
2 1/4
tsp baking powder
·
1/2 tsp
salt
·
3/4 cup
unsalted butter room temperature
·
1
cup light brown sugar packed
·
1/2
cup granulated sugar
·
3 large
eggs room temperature
·
1 1/2
tsp vanilla
·
1 cup
milk room temperature
·
3/4
cup mini chocolate chips tossed in 1 Tbsp flour
Cookie
Dough Filling:
· 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
·
3/4
tsp sea salt
·
2/3 cup
unsalted butter room temperature
·
2/3
cup light brown sugar packed
·
1/3
cup granulated sugar
·
1 1/2
tsp vanilla
·
1/4 cup
milk room temperature
·
2/3
cup mini chocolate chips
Chocolate
Chip Cookie Buttercream:
·
6 large egg whites
·
2 cups dark brown sugar packed
·
3 cups unsalted butter room temperature, cubed
·
2 tsp vanilla
·
1 1/2 cups chocolate chip cookie crumbs 150g,
from approx 8 cookies crushed and sifted
Assembly:
·
cookie dough
balls
Instructions
Brown
Sugar Chocolate Chip Cake:
·
Preheat oven
to 350F. Grease and flour three 6″ cake rounds and line with parchment.
·
In a medium
bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
·
Using a stand
mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars on med-hig until
pale and fluffy (approx 3mins).
·
Reduce speed
and add eggs one at a time fully incorporating after each addition. Add
vanilla.
·
Alternate
adding flour mixture and milk, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of
flour and 2 of milk). Fully incorporating after each addition.
·
Toss
chocolate chips in 1 Tbsp flour. Fold in chocolate chips and mix until just
incorporated.
·
Bake for
35-40mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
·
Place cakes
on wire rack to cool for 10mins then turn out onto wire rack and cool
completely.
Cookie Dough Filling:
·
In a small bowl, whisk flour and salt, set aside.
·
Beat butter until creamy, add sugars and beat on high
until pale and fluffy (approx. 2-3mins). Add vanilla and mix until combined.
·
Reduce speed to low and slowly add in flour mixture.
Mix until just incorporated. Slowly pour in milk. Increase speed to med-high
and beat for 2-3 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips.
·
Spray three 6″ pans with cooking spray and line each
with plastic wrap. Place 2/3 cup of the cookie dough filling and each and
spread evenly (I used my hands for this — it helps if your fingers are slightly
wet). Fold the plastic wrap over to cover the cookie dough and chill to set.**
Chocolate
Chip Cookie Buttercream:
·
Place
egg whites and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk until combined.***
·
Place
bowl over a double boiler on the stove and whisk constantly until the mixture
is no longer grainy to the touch (approx. 3mins).
·
Place
bowl on your stand mixer and whisk on med-high until the meringue is stiff and
cooled (the bowl is no longer warm to the touch (approx. 5-10mins)).
·
Switch
to paddle attachment. Slowly add cubed butter and mix until smooth.
·
Add
vanilla and cookie crumbs whip until smooth.****
Assembly:
·
Cut each
layer of cake in half horizontally.
·
Place
one layer of cake onto a cake stand or serving plate. Top with one of the discs
of cookie dough filling. The cookie dough may extend over the edges of the
cake. If so, just smush it in a bit and smooth it out.
·
Place
another layer of cake on top and press down gently. Top with 2/3 cup of
frosting and spread evenly. Repeat with remaining layers, alternating
cookie dough and frosting and crumb coat the cake. Chill for 20mins.
·
Frost
the cake and smooth the sides and top. Use a 1M
tip to pipe dollops on top. Use some of the remaining
cookie dough to make small balls (1 tsp) to place on top of the frosting
dollops. Place small chocolate chip cookies around the bottom
of desired.
Notes
* If
you’re concerned about eating raw flour, you can bake it at 350F for 5mins.
Cool before using.
** You can skip this step and try and spread the cooke dough onto each layer
instead. It will be quite firm though and a bit harder to spread.
*** Wipe your mixer bowl and whisk down with lemon juice or vinegar to make
sure it is completely grease free and make sure there is no trace of yolk in
your whites or your meringue will not stiffen.
**** The buttercream may look like it’s curdled at some point. Keep mixing
until it is completely smooth. If it looks soupy, place it in the fridge for
20mins and rewhip.
Calories:
999kcalCarbohydrates: 116gProtein: 9gFat: 56gSaturated Fat: 34gCholesterol:
178mgSodium: 390mgPotassium: 297mgFiber: 1gSugar: 82gVitamin A: 1605IUCalcium:
167mgIron: 2.8mg
The
nutritional information and metric conversions are calculated automatically. I
cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this is important to you, please
verify with your favorite nutrition calculator and/or metric conversion tool.