Topped with sprinkles and a rich chocolate frosting, my chocolate chip cookie cake makes a great birthday cake substitute. It’s quick and easy to make but so stunning and celebratory with its chocolate frosting and colorful sprinkles! Recipe includes a how-to video!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Unlike most of my cake recipes, this isn’t a soft and fluffy slice of heaven. Instead, my cookie cake is quite literally a big, thick, soft-baked chocolate chip cookie, complete with chocolate buttercream. The center is chewy, buttery, and studded with chocolate chips. It’s all the best things we love about cookies, but impressive enough to be the main attraction at a party!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Perfect for people who don’t enjoy classic cakes. And with plenty of sprinkles, no one will miss the traditional birthday cake!
- No chilling, scooping, or rolling! Simply make the dough and spread it into your pan. It’s just as easy as my chocolate chip cooke bars!
- Each slice has a soft, chewy, center with a slightly crisped edge. Everyone gets the best parts!
Ingredient Overview
This recipe isn’t too different from your average chocolate chip cookie recipe, so the ingredients are pretty similar.
- Egg + egg yolk. Instead of two whole eggs, I use one egg and and one egg yolk. Discarding that extra egg white means our cookie cake won’t be cakey, but will instead be perfectly tender and chewy. If you don’t want to toss your egg white, save it to make some candied walnuts.
- Cornstarch. This encourages a thick, soft, and tender chocolate chip cookie cake. Cornstarch is one of my favorite “secret” ingredients in cookies (you’ve probably seen it before in my “worst” chocolate chip cookies and Neapolitan cookies), a little bit helps make for a perfectly soft result.
- Cocoa powder. This ingredient is for the frosting rather than the cake layer itself. I typically stick with natural cocoa powder. Dutch process will work too, but the color will be darker and the flavor will be deeper.
- Chocolate chips. I always prefer semisweet chips (they lend a nice balance to things) but if you like milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or even white chocolate, any of these will work!
- Sprinkles. Have fun with these! Feel free to use holiday sprinkles (red, white, and blue would be cute for July 4th!) or your own blend. I stir them into the batter and save a few to sprinkle on top of the frosting, too.
How to Make a Cookie Cake
- Cream the butter and sugars until combined and creamy.
- Stir in the eggs and vanilla, then set this aside.
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then gradually stir them into the wet ingredients. Adding the dry ingredients all at once can make combining the dough difficult, so it’s important to do this gradually!
- Fold in your chocolate chips and sprinkles. I like to reserve a few chocolate chips for pressing into the top of the cake after I’ve spread it into the pan–it just looks prettier this way!
- Press and smooth the cookie dough into your pan. I use the back of a spoon to do this. The dough will be stiff! If you really want to get a pretty top, you can press a piece of wax paper against the surface of the dough and use your hands to press/smooth the dough into the pan.
- Bake until the edges are starting to turn golden brown and let cool completely before frosting.
Make the Frosting & Decorate
- Beat the butter until smooth, then gradually stir in the sugar until combined.
- Add the cocoa powder and vanilla and stir until incorporated. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure there are no dry pockets hiding.
- Add milk as needed until you reach your desired consistency.
- Pipe the frosting around the top of your cake, top with sprinkles, and enjoy!
SAM’S TIP: As hard as it is to wait, you must let the cake cool completely before adding your frosting. If it’s still warm, the frosting will just melt.
FAQs
The cookie cake itself is fine to sit at room temperature (keep it in an airtight container!) and I think it’s best served at room temperature, but whether or not to refrigerate ultimately depends on the frosting you use. With the frosting I use here, this cake can sit out at room temperature for a few days. If your frosting does require refrigeration, know that the cookie cake will be more dense and crumbly when served from the fridge and make sure to use an airtight container to store it.
Yes! A deep 10″ cake pan, 9″ springform, 10″ cast iron skillet, or tart pan will work. Just know that if you use a smaller pan your bake time will be a bit longer and your chocolate chip cookie cake will be thicker and softer. Inversely, if you use a larger pan, then you will have a shorter bake time and a thinner cake. If you use a cast iron pan (a great choice for making this recipe’s cousin: the pizookie), the cake will likely take less time to bake.
My vanilla frosting, Oreo frosting, peanut butter frosting, or chocolate cream cheese frosting would all work nicely here. Feel free to get creative with whatever type you like though!
Are you a cookie person or a cake person? At this point, I feel like it’s just getting to be too hard for me to choose.
Enjoy!
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup (150 g) light or dark brown sugar tightly packed
- ⅔ cup (135 g) sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose
- 1 ½ teaspoon corn starch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (170 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 Tablespoons sprinkles
Chocolate Frosting
- ½ cup (113 g) 1 stick salted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (188 g) powdered sugar
- ¼ cup (25 g) cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk or heavy cream
Recommended Equipment
- 10" springform pan (see note to use a 9" pan instead)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and prepare a 10″ round pan by lining the bottom with parchment paper or by lightly greasing. Set aside.
- Combine softened butter and sugars in a large bowl and use an electric mixer to beat well until light and fluffy.¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter, ¾ cup (150 g) light or dark brown sugar, ⅔ cup (135 g) sugar
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir well.1 egg + 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.2 cups (250 g) all-purpose, 1 ½ teaspoon corn starch, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until completely combined. Stir in chocolate chips and sprinkles.1 cup (170 g) semisweet chocolate chips, 2 Tablespoons sprinkles
- Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake on 350F (175C) for 30 minutes or until edges just begin to turn golden brown.
- Prepare chocolate frosting while the cookie cake cools.
Chocolate Frosting
- Beat butter with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.½ cup (113 g) 1 stick salted butter, softened to room temperature
- Gradually add sugar until completely combined1 ½ cups (188 g) powdered sugar
- Stir in cocoa powder and then vanilla extract. Pause to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.¼ cup (25 g) cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add milk (start with just a splash, if consistency is still too stiff add more as needed until you have a smooth creamy consistency) and beat well1-2 Tablespoons milk
- Pipe icing around the rim of your cooled cookie cake — I used a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 2D tip, but in a pinch you can simply transfer your frosting to a ziploc bag, snip off a small corner, and pipe that way.
- Slice and enjoy!
Notes
Pan
A 9″ springform pan may be used instead, cake will need to bake approximately 35 minutes.Storing
Store covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
This recipe was originally published September of 2017. I’ve updated the post with new photos and a new video and added more helpful tips to the post, but the recipe remains the same!
Ivy
I made this as a gift for someone. Unfortunately my oven was faulty and it under baked it. I thought it was ok when I took it out of the oven but when I turned it over , I found the whole bottom was un baked. It was really sad. I re – baked the bottom but It didn’t look presentable. But it tasted good! I’m going to make this again but not use the same oven! Apart from it under – baking it tasted amazing and the top turned out well.
Sam
I hope it turns out better next time! 🙂
Brenda
Hello! Is this stackable? I was planning on make two batches and layering them with the frosting in between.
Sam
Hi Brenda! These should be fine to stack. 🙂
Ashley
is this okay to freeze?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We haven’t tried it, but we think it should do fine 😊
Katie
I made mini cookie cakes for Valentine’s Day using this recipe and they were a hit! Do you have any advice on making this into either a 12inch round, or a half sheet pan? if I were to multiply the recipe by 1.5, what would I do about the eggs? Thanks for always giving the best cookie recipes!
Sam
Hi Katie! I haven’t personally baked it in those pans so I’m not sure exactly how to do it. It’s going to be tricky to do it by 1.5 with the egg. I think I would do the 1 egg and 1 egg yolk and then scramble another egg in another bowl and split that in half and add it in with the 1.5 egg. Let me know how it turns out. 🙂
Julie G
Love this easy treat. I made it into a Christmas Cookie Cake for a small family gathering tonight. Had all ingredients on hand. It baked beautifully. I have a 9” removable bottom cake pan which was perfect for this.
Added Christmas sprinkles in the cookie and on the frosting, which is also delicious itself.
The cookie was soft and chewy in the center with a crisp edge…just like a chocolate chip cookie should be.
I really loved this easy recipe and will be making it for other holidays as well. Tagged you on instagram . It’s so pretty!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Julie! 🙂