Chocolate chip cookie cake with chocolate frosting
Servings: 10 servings
Ingredients
for the chocolate chip cookie cake:
- 3/4 cup (175g) soft unsalted butter, at room temperature, preferably European-style butter
- 3/4 cup (150g) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (90g) milk chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup (135g) dark chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate
- 2 tablespoons sprinkles optional
for the chocolate buttercream frosting:
- 1/2 cup (115g) soft unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder, I used Dutch-processed but any will work
- 1 1/4 cups (150g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- big pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream or milk
Instructions
Make the cookie cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas Mark 4, no fan (if you have a convection oven, reduce the temperature by about 20° or follow the manufacturer's instructions).
- Add soft butter and both types of sugar into the mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer or with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle-shaped attachment at medium-low speed until well-combined and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract, beat for 1-2 minutes until well-combined.
- Sift flour, baking soda, corn starch, and salt into the mixing bowl. Mix at low speed until half-combined.
- Add chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate (or a mix of both) and sprinkles (if using), mix until combined but don't overmix the dough.
- Line the bottom of a 10-inch (25-26 cm) heart-shaped cake pan with parchment paper. Transfer the dough into the pan and even it out with a spatula.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes. After 15-20 minutes cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil. The cake should be light golden in color, right after taking it out of the oven it can be a little bit jiggly in the middle, but after 1-2 minutes (outside of the oven) it should not be jiggly anymore. The edges of the cake should be completely set and firm to the touch but the center should be soft. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out with just a few crumbs, it should not come out clean. The center of the cake will collapse while cooling - this is normal. The baking time may vary depending on the oven and cake pan used.
- Important: You need to wait for the cake to cool down completely before decorating it with the frosting or before cutting it into servings (it needs to set). This will take about an hour.
Make the chocolate frosting:
- In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat soft butter for a minute until fluffy.
- Sift powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt into the bowl. Mix until well-combined.
- Add vanilla extract and heavy cream and mix until well-combined. Don't mix the frosting for too long or there will be air bubbles in it. You can add a little bit more cream to your frosting if you want it thinner.
- Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Swirl frosting onto cooled cake.
- Sprinkle the cake with more sprinkles (optional).
- Enjoy!
Notes
- To correctly measure the flour, you need to: Fluff the flour by stirring it in the bag/flour container with a spoon. Spoon the flour and sprinkle it into your measuring cup. Sweep off the excess flour with the back of a knife. 1 cup of flour can weigh 120-150g, depending on how you're filling your cup. Don’t scoop the flour directly into the measuring cup, which can compact it! 1 cup of flour in my recipes weighs 125g.
- This cake serves 8-10 people (it's not very huge but quite sweet and rich).
- You can use just chocolate chips, just chopped chocolate (regular or baking chocolate), or a mix of both.
- It's super important to get good-quality, super-fine powdered sugar. It is labeled "10x" powdered sugar (very finely ground) in the US and "super-fine powdered sugar" in Europe (don't confuse it with super-fine/caster sugar which is granulated sugar that has smaller granules). Gritty frosting is mostly caused by bad/too-coarse-milled powdered sugar.
For chocolate frosting, use a good quality Dutch-processed cocoa for the best flavor. - What kind of cake pan do you need: I used a heart-shaped 10-inch (25-26cm) springform pan. Make sure it's leak-proof or put the cake on a small baking sheet. Mine wasn't leak-proof (although it should be) and the dripping butter has stained my oven. So, I would recommend a heart-shaped cake pan and not a springform pan. If you don't have such pan, I would use a 9-inch (23-24cm) round cake pan, the baking time should be similar. Alternatively, you could use a 9-inch pie dish but the cake would be much thicker so you need to bake it longer. You could also try to bake it in a 10-inch (25cm) round cake pan, but the cake would be thinner so bake it shorter. Instead of a cake pan/springform pan, you can also use a cast iron skillet.
- Alternatives to chocolate frosting: chocolate/cookie dough/vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or just leave it plain!
- Storage: This cake keeps very well. It's great on the second or even third day. Store it in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Take it out of the fridge at least an hour before serving it (the cake and the frosting need to soften). Don't warm up the cake with the frosting or it will melt. If you haven't made the frosting you can rewarm the cake slightly - it will be slightly gooey in the middle and the chocolate will be melted. Cake without frosting can be stored at room temperature.
- Calories = 1 serving (1/10 of the recipe). This is only an estimate!
Nutrition
Calories: 593kcal