Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake With Brown Sugar Buttercream #cake #dessert

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake! Everyone's favorite cookie turned into a show stopping layer cake made with rum syrup, dark chocolate ganache and brown sugar buttercream.

First of all, there’s a giant cookie layer at the base of the cake. That alone would be enough to make me love this cake. But I think the best part is the brown sugar buttercream. The butterscotch/cookie dough flavor is completely irresistible.

I spent hours playing with recipes, with varying results, until I finally realized that it wasn’t necessary to create a new recipe. Can you guess what the difference between granulated and brown sugar is? A little molasses! Granulated sugar is just sugar that’s had all the molasses removed. Dark brown sugar has a little more molasses than light brown sugar.

So, lightening bolt, to make brown sugar buttercream I just had to add molasses to my regular Italian Meringue Buttercream recipe. This was the perfect solution for me since I made buttercream in large batches for my cake business. I didn’t want to stop and make a separate batch of buttercream for the Chocolate Chip Cookie cakes.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Layer

• 1 cup (5 oz, 150g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (4 oz, 113g) butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup (2 oz, 57g) granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (4 oz, 114g) brown sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup (6 oz, 170g) mini chocolate chips

Chocolate Chip Cake

• 1 Recipe Vanilla Butter Cake
• 1 1/4 cups (8 oz, 215g) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon all purpose flour

Brown Sugar Butterceam

• 1 Recipe Italian Meringue Buttercream
• 2 tablespoons molasses

Assembly

• 1/2 recipe rum Simple Syrup
• 1 cup ganache at room temperature

Instructions:

MAKE THE COOKIE LAYER:

1. Line an 8" or 9" cake pan with a parchment round. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Cream the butter with both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the chips all at once and mix until combined
3. Spread the dough into the cake pan. The dough should be about 1/2" thick (if you have excess dough use it to make cookies).
4. Bake until the middle of the cookie puffs up a little and then collapses, about 20 minutes.
5. Cool completely in the pan. Flip the pan over and bang one edge of the pan a couple of times. The cookie should loosen and fall out. Set aside at room temperature until ready to assemble the cake

BAKE THE CAKE:

1. Line two 8" or 9" cake pans with parchment rounds. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Toss the chocolate chips with the tablespoon of water until moistened. Sprinkle the all purpose flour over the chips and toss to distribute the flour. Set the chips aside while you make the cake batter
3. Mix the Vanilla Butter Cake according to the recipe, folding the chocolate chips into the batter just before the whipped egg whites. Pour 1/3 of the batter into one pan and 2/3 of the batter into the other pan. Spread the batter evenly and bake until the cake springs back when lightly pressed, about 25 minutes depending on pan size.
4. Bake the cakes according to the recipe. Cool the cakes in the pans for 5 minutes. Run a small spatula around the cakes and remove them from the pans. Cool the cakes completely. Wrap each cake in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight (see note 1)

MAKE THE BROWN SUGAR BUTTERCREAM:

1. Make the Italian Meringue Buttercream according to the recipe. Mix the molasses into the finished buttercream. Divide the buttercream in 1/2, reserve one 1/2 for icing the cake, use the remaining for filling.

ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:

1. Make the rum syrup according to the recipe. Trim the sides and top of both cake layers to remove excess brown edges. Split the larger cake in two, horizontally, you will now have a total of three cake layers.
2. Place the chocolate chip cookie layer on a serving platter or cardboard cake circle. Spread the ganache evenly over the cookie. Place one of the cake layers on the cookie. Brush the layer generously with rum syrup. Spread 1/2 of the buttercream reserved for the filling onto the cake layer.
3. Place another cake layer, sprinkle with syrup and spread with remaining filling. Top with the last cake layer and sprinkle that layer with syrup.
4. If the cookie base is bigger than the cake layers you can trim the cookie so its even with the cake layers. You may just have to nibble on those crumbs while you finish the cake.
5. Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of buttercream and chill until the crumb coat is set. Ice with a final coating of buttercream, reserving a little buttercream for decoration. Pipe a border around the top edge of the cake and decorate with mini chocolate chips.
6. The cake will keep at room temperature for several days

Notes:

1. You can use the cake as soon as it cools to room temperature, but it's easier to trim and split when it's cold.
2. To make an alcohol-free cake flavor the syrup with vanilla extract to taste.
3. All the components of the cake can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen until ready to assemble.