Gatherings: Chocolate Chip Cookie Stack Cake
Around here, birthday cakes aren’t always cakes.
Does it really matter? All that matters is that it’s sweet and special and just what the birthday girl/boy wants. And that you can stick a candle in it. (Come to think of it, it doesn’t even need to be sweet.) I’d choose pie and ice cream over cake, and truth be told I’d likely go for a dense, chewy chocolate chip cookie over a slab of layer cake. As a kid, my cake of choice was ice cream, and I have on many birthdays picked a pile of chocolate smothered cream puffs. (B had cake topped with cream puffs back in January.) One year, our 10something neighbour requested a cinnamon bun cake; two layers of yeasted cinnamon buns, glued together and covered with cream cheese frosting.
This year, Em shrugged at the question of cake, and so I baked a batch of enormous chocolate chip cookies and stacked them, keeping them in place with vanilla frosting.
There’s a good tutorial here, if you want a higher level of perfection than I aimed for. (At 4pm, I was going for speed.) Essentially you take your favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe, make big, uniform mounds on a baking sheet (use a big scoop or measuring cup) and press them down to flatten, covering with a piece of waxed paper or parchment first if you don’t want to get your fingers sticky.
(I did this, and took pictures, and then deleted them. So.)
A single, standard batch of dough made at least 10 ginormous cookies. Had I spread them thinner, we might have been able to cut the stack in wedges. Instead we opted to take them off the pile two by two, cutting each enormous sugary sandwich in half and passing them around. It worked. And wasn’t too over-the-top for a freshly fifteen year old.
What have you chosen to celebrate with, besides cake? Hungry minds want to know. Jan tackled a similar situation with her son’s 13th birthday last week – her solution? A pile of Nutella brownies and a tableload of toppings…
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
AuthorJuliePreheat the oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars for a couple minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and stir or beat on low speed until almost combined; add the chocolate chips and stir just until the dough comes together.
Scoop about 1/3-1/2 cup of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet; you should be able to fit two on one larger sheet, spacing them well apart. Cover with a piece of waxed or parchment paper and press down to flatten them to about 1/2" thick. Peel off the paper.
Bake for about 14 minutes, until pale golden and just set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread cooled cookies generously with frosting, stacking them as you go. Let sit for several hours, then slice into thin wedges, or remove each cookie from the stack to serve.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars for a couple minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and stir or beat on low speed until almost combined; add the chocolate chips and stir just until the dough comes together.
Scoop about 1/3-1/2 cup of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet; you should be able to fit two on one larger sheet, spacing them well apart. Cover with a piece of waxed or parchment paper and press down to flatten them to about 1/2" thick. Peel off the paper.
Bake for about 14 minutes, until pale golden and just set. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread cooled cookies generously with frosting, stacking them as you go. Let sit for several hours, then slice into thin wedges, or remove each cookie from the stack to serve.
Love this idea!
Instead of a wedding cake, we had homemade ice cream and a variety of cookies.
Wow! Can you spell “decadence”?? A ten-layer cookie-cake sandwich?! What a wonderful idea. Me want now!
Great idea! Happy Birthday Em!
This would be the cake I would want for my birthday!!
What a treat!
Oh my… Julie! You make me wanna bath in your cookies!! They look heavenly 🙂 Love it!
Hi Julie,
I just celebrated my granddaughter’s 17th birthday on Sunday with a relaxed family homemade pizza dinner my daughter organized. Cake pops and fruit dipped in chocolate was the sweet treat which was perfect size-wise and adorable all decorated out in various colors.
Brilliant idea! What kind of icing do you think goes best with basic chocolate chip cookies? Would love to see what it looked like after you cut it.
My husband prefers Pavlova on his birthday, and my girls have had sundae parties, fruit flan, ice cream cake and chocolate fondue. And once in a while, an actual birthday cake. 🙂
Oh my!!!
I love this idea! How fun, especially for older kids (I’m still stuck firmly in character cake land *sigh* )
Holy lovin’ Julie! A single tear fell from my face when I saw this. Perfection.
This looks amazing! When I was a kid my mom said she wasn’t going to have a cake for her birthday. She was going to have a birthday pizza instead. I cried. We had a cake.
Great idea, cake can be so over-rated sometimes. With cookies you don’t have to worry about it being dry and tasteless!
These cookies are awesome! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!!!
Drooling. I’m a huge cookie fan. A cookie cake looks like the perfect way to celebrate any occasional an any age.
Not sure if anyone else mentioned – but adding a little ground vanilla bean adds great flavor to the frosting and it very esthetically appealing as well!
Thank you, Julie!~
I used to ask for pie or cheesecake on my birthdays because regular frosting on birthday cake always seemed too sweet to me. This idea is awesome too! I want one… It’s probably my 1/2 birthday by now so maybe I need a half stack
Ha! I am so glad you address HOW to eat this. I always wonder that when I see these kinds of stacks. And now I have this intense craving for a stack of chocolate chip cookies! Yum!
Mystery solved Laura!
I made this for my niece’s birthday and it was a hit. I’m up at 5am making it now for my daughter’s birthday because I won’t be able to do it this evening. This is a fun and fantastic recipe. Thanks foe sharing it.