Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

Right off the bat, I'm going to let you know that I'm not including any recipes directly in this post.

Wait, don't leave!

There will be links to all of the recipes I used, though. This post is more about the IDEA of this cake. It takes basic parts — straight up yellow cake, my favorite buttercream frosting, chocolate chip cookies and a simple no-bake chocolate chip cookie "dough"— and brings them all together into something larger than the sum of it's parts.

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GOOD NEWS! I've created a PDF of all the recipes so you can have them in one place in addition to the links I've posted here for reference. I hope this helps! Download by clicking here.**********

Another confession — I first made this cake in February. I know. A thousand apologies, really. I totally meant to write it up way back then, but I don't even know why I didn't. But a couple of weeks ago, a co-worker specifically requested this cake for his birthday. As he put it, "It was the best cake I've ever had." Granted this kid would eat just about anything you gave him because he's a 24-ish year old guy and 24-ish year old guys will eat just about anything you give them. They're just grateful for the free meal. But I still took it as a huge compliment and happily whipped up another cake. Two cakes, actually (they were small).



And 12 cupcakes.



Because I'm crazy.

The inspiration for this cake came from two very talented bakers and bloggers who both happened to be named Amanda. Over at Fake Ginger, Amanda not only bakes beautiful deserts and breads, she's also a wonderful cook with a large collection of delicious and easy recipes. She's a mom of three little boys, so this woman knows the importance of quick, tasty food!

It was Amanda's Cookie Dough Cupcakes that caught my eye. Beautifully photographed and, hello? Cookie dough cupcakes? Sign me up! Obviously the flavors and the no-bake dough are where I got the general idea. The cake part, though, came from another Amanda.

If you follow baking blogs at ALL, you already know Amanda at i am baker. You do know i am baker, right? Do yourself a favor and just scroll through any of her recipe archives. Your jaw will drop and your stomach will growl. This woman is an amazingly talented baker with a flair for making the most over the top incredible cakes that will blow your mind. I'm not kidding.

It was her Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake that became the inspiration for the assembly of this cake. Go take a look at hers, but promise to come back, OK?



You start with a basic cake.

Wait! No, first you want to make cookies. Use your very favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. My new fave is from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert. You can find the recipe here, but I highly recommend you check out the entire book. It's scrumptious.



Make small and medium size cookies if you're making a full-size layer cake.



NOW let's make the cake.

After learning how easy it is to make cake from scratch, I almost always use the 1-2-3-4 cake** you've seen on here a number of times before. There's a reason I keep using it. I tend to be fickle with a lot of recipes, but not this one. I haven't looked around for a new one because this never lets me down. It's always delicious and I always get compliments on it. It's also sturdier than a box mix, so If you plan on making this cake, I would honestly suggest you make a scratch cake.

**PLEASE NOTE: This cake will require 2- 9" cake pans. The recipe link above is for a 9" and a 6" that are cut in half. This cake just uses 2- 9" cakes that are stacked, not sliced in half. Just level the tops with knife before assembly. My apologies for any confusion! 


(Unfortunately the frosting is the same color as the cake here, so it's nearly impossible to see the thick layer of frosting. Bummer. But this was a semi-failed attempt at a brown sugar frosting, so a white buttercream will show up better.)

Next you'll need a basic buttercream. You can use my go-to Best Ever recipe, or your favorite version.

Then you'll need the cookie "dough". Mix it right after you put the cakes in the oven so that it has a chance to set up a bit in the fridge. Makes it easier to form little balls of dough.

And here's where the magic happens. And where the Chocolate Covered Cherry cake inspiration comes in to play. I love the idea of a surprise center in a cake or cupcake and the idea of having the super thick frosting layer, so Amanda's cake stuck in my head and burst forth when I had the epiphany for this cake. Slather a thick layer of frosting in with a bunch of cookie dough balls. Sort of like cookie dough ice cream, but as the center of a cake.

I took the chilled cookie "dough" and made a bunch of small balls.



Then went to work assembling the cake. I put some frosting in a bowl, then added some dough balls, slapped it on the bottom layer.



Added more frosting, filled the gaps with more dough balls then added the top layer...



Then crumb coated the entire cake.



Popped in in the fridge to set up, then finished frosting it. I added medium size cookies around the base and small cookies along the top edge, sprinkled mini chips on the top and (literally) threw mini chips on the side. (It was a hoot. I was flinging chips all over the place.)



Some would stick, some wouldn't, but I just kept flinging until it was coated to my liking.  For the 6" cakes I made for my co-worker's birthday, I just used medium size cookies, which took up the entire sides, then sprinkled chips on the top.





For the cupcakes, I just cut out a cone of cake, stuffed the hole with the no bake cookie "dough"...

(I totally ate almost all of that pile of cake bits. I'm not going to lie.)

...and piped frosting over the top using the Wilton 1M tip, my go-to tip. (It's only about $2 - you totally need to have one, if you don't already. They make your cupcakes look super purdy.)



Topped with mini chips, the cupcakes are ready to go.

So what do you think? Pretty awesome, right? If you have a few hours to wile away on a weekend, give this cake a shot. Someone will probably tell you it's the best cake they've ever had. For reals.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Coffee Cookies

I'm a fairly recent convert to coconut. Up until a year or so ago, I would have told you that I could kinda-sorta tolerate it, but hated the texture. I'm not sure what happened between then and now, but I'm pretty sure this cake began the conversion...

And this bread sealed the deal.

So when I saw Bakergirl's coconut coffee chocolate chip cookies post show up in my reader, I immediate pinned the recipe and made them the next weekend. While they were very good, I wanted to amp up the coffee flavor and make them chewier. I took her concept, combined it with my go-to CCC recipe, and came up with this. I still think the coffee flavor could be enhanced even more, but they're awesome, regardless. It's a CCC with some extra oompf, since the coffee really gives the chocolate an added boost.

I didn't have the usual shredded, sweetened coconut you find at the grocery store, but I had this unsweetened flaked coconut I found at Menards, of all places. 

Really. In their grocery section—which is just weird to have in a hardware store, but whatever, because the have an entire row of throw-back style candy {Boston baked beans, burnt peanuts, things like that} as well as various baking chips — and I'll take it where I can find it!

I also use this extract from Watkins. I found it at the farmer's market since a women there has a Watkins both. I assume you can order it online or find another maker of caramel extract/flavoring. 

I like the combination of chocolate, coffee and caramel. Oh and coconut. Sounds like a Starbucks drink, right? Great, now I want a frappuchino. I'll settle for this cookie, though!

Chocolate Chip Coconut Coffee Cookies

Inspired by Bakergirl (buddingbaketress.blogspot.com)

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups (350g) All-purpose flour 

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional, but I love a hint of cinnamon in my CCC)

2 Tbsp instant expresso, such as Medaglia D'Oro

1 cup (225g) butter, room temperature

3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar

1 cup packed (215g) brown sugar

2 eggs

2 Tbsp coffee liqueur, homemade or something like Kahlua 

1 tsp caramel extract

4 oz bittersweet baking chocolate, chopped (like Ghiradelli)

1 cup (170g) mini chocolate chips

1 cup coconut, shredded, or flaked that's been chopped into finer pieces) - sorry - forgot to weigh this

Directions

(preheat oven to 350°F if baking right away)

1. Combine flour, soda, expresso, and cinnamon in medium bowl. Whisk and set aside.

2. In bowl of stand mixer or large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until well combined. Don't beat until "pale and fluffy" - you just want it smooth. 

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each and scraping bowl as needed. 

4. Add coffee liqueur and caramel extract. Mix until incorporated.

5. Add flour mixture - all at once - and mix until just incorporated. Add chips, chopped chocolate and coconut and mix until distributed throughout batter.

At this point, you can bake the cookies and they still taste great, but for best flavor and texture, refrigerate at least an hour before baking; overnight is best. Or do what I did - bake a sheet of them NOW, then wrap up the rest for later. It's a total win-win.

If baking immediately, use cookie scoop or spoon to form 1" - 1-1/2" balls. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 3" or so inches apart to allow for spreading. If refrigerating, divide dough into 4 portions and form a log on a length of wax paper. Roll up tightly and refrigerate overnight. You can also put these in freezer bags and keep them handy for cookie emergencies. Come on, we've all had them, amiright??

When baking refrigerated or frozen dough, simply slice in 1/2" portions and space on baking sheet, baking as normal.

Bake 9-10 minutes, depending on your oven and preferred "done-ness". If you like a softer, gooier cookie, keep to the low end. Because the dough is kind of dark from the espresso and caramel flavoring, it's kind of hard to tell doneness, so keep an eye on them and make sure they're no longer glossy and just slightly darker on top.

Let them cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. 

These are the perfect coffee break cookie. The coffee flavor is not very strong, but you can tell it's a CCC with some oompf.  I think pecans would be an amazing addition to these - definitely doing that next time. I think adding expresso powder to all of my CCC recipes is going to be a given from now on. 

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Baking Extravaganza

Hang on. It's going to be a photo-filled post! Don't say I didn't warn you.

I actually planned ahead for St. Patrick's Day. Hey, it's as much of a shock to me as it is to you, trust me. I had a hankerin' to make sugar cookies and knew I wanted to send some to friends hither and yon, so I got to baking last weekend.

I knew which recipes to use and that I wanted to make shamrocks, but wasn't sure about how to decorate them. So I did some looking around and found this:

So cute! Now I had my inspiration, just had to execute. First, the recipes:

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies
Allrecipes by Jill Saunders

Note: I halved this.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 °F. Roll out dough on surface sprinkled with powdered sugar (won't make the dough tough like flour will) 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes until JUST turning golden on the edges. Cool completely on racks before decorating.
If you want to keep these simple, just sprinkle them with decorator sugar, non-pareils or other decorating sprinkles before baking. These cookies are very good all on their own!


Royal Icing
Dries hard - makes for easy transport. Mine held up through a UPS trek to NY 

Ingredients
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or other flavoring of choice - watch color though, it will tint the frosting)
6 tablespoons water (less for really thick icing, more for thin)

Directions
Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl. Beat on high for at about 10 minutes or until stiff peaks form.
Divide and color as desired. Add more water as needed for flooding or more sugar if you get a little heavy handed with the water.

Now for the pictures:

I divided the icing into thirds, keeping one white. The other two are as you see.

I outlined some in light green...


And some in darker green.

Here's a handy tip for filling bags. (I just use sandwich bags instead of decorator bags. Snip the corner and you're good to go.) Place the bag in a small drinking glass, pulling the edges over the sides. Fill with icing, twist the top, snip the corner and decorate. The icing is pretty runny though, so work quickly and try to keep the end pointed up.


Also, keep the bowls covered with damp towels. It will keep the icing from drying out. It will form a crust pretty quickly!

After the outlines have dried, it's time to flood the insides.

Smear it around with a tooth pick to get the icing to all of the edges.




Once the flooding dries,  it's time to decorate. Rember the idea cookies? I loved the swirly one, but...

Hm. Not exactly like the picture, eh? I laughed and laughed, then moved on to a different attempt. I stuck with a checkerboard and dots. Even with just three colors and two "designs", I ended up with a nice looking mix.



Then I wrapped each one in plastic wrap, nestled them in a bed of crinkly paper and shipped them to well-deserving folks.


Round One COMPLETE!

This weekend was Round Two.

I knew I wanted to do cupcakes and quickly got my inspiration from Bakerella. I didn't use her recipe, but loved the GREEN!

Green Velvet Cupcakes
Slightly modified from Joy of Baking

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (original called for 1/2 cup - I had 2 sticks ready so I used both. Stick with original for lower fat option.)
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk (I used powdered buttermilk. Add powder to dry ingredients, add water when adding wet)
1 oz (one bottle) liquid green food coloring (see pic below)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar (used white wine vinegar-didn't have any distilled on hand)
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Combine flour, cocoa and butter in medium bowl. Set aside.
In mixing bowl, beat butter until smooth and light. Add sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each and scraping down sides of bowl. Add vanilla. Add food color to buttermilk (or water if using buttermilk powder).
Alternately add flour mixture with buttermilk/color beginning and ending with flour, beating well each time. Mix SLOOOWLY to start when adding the liquid. Otherwise it will splash and get green food color everywhere. (It's a good idea to wear an apron or at least something that won't be ruined if you get food color on it.)

In small bowl or measuring cup, dissolve soda in vinegar. It will bubble (yay, chemistry) quickly add to batter, just folding in until incorporated - don't beat in.

Divide into 2 prepared 9" cake pans or cupcake liners. I got 12 cupcakes and a single 9" layer.

Bake cake approximately 25 minutes or until toothpick comes clean. Cupcakes will only take about 15 minutes. Ovens vary, so keep an eye on them. The might need more or less time. Cool in pans about 10 minutes then transfer to racks. Cool completely before decorating (or turning into cake pops).

The Best Buttercream Frosting EVER
I used this on my niece's birthday cake. It's da BOMB.



Woo-Chemical reaction in progress! And really, that's what baking is all about.


Now THAT's green!


The large Pampered Chef scoop works great for cupcakes.





I used plain white frosting first, but decided I need a bit of color to make the white sprinkles show more.



Dip a clean toothpick in the gel color, smear into the frosting and mix. A nice, pale green, just what I wanted. Obviously you can add more if you want a deeper shade. Go crazy!


Better! And I got to use my cupcake stand - so fun.


Next up — CAKE POPS!

Take the 9" cake, crumble, add frosting (about a 3/4-1 cup), mix, scoop.


Roll.



Melt.


Skewer.


Dip.


Decorate.



Eat.


If you didn't get enough pictures here, head over to my Flickr photstream for even more. (Yes, there are more!)

And if you're wondering about the wood stand in the group cake pop photos, stay tuned. I'll be posting a "How-To" on that later this week.