EASY Cookie Cake

EQUIPMENT

• 9-inch round cake pan
• Whisk
• Piping bag and tip or plastic sandwich bag

INGREDIENTS

For the Cookie:

• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour (210g)
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter softened (113g)
• ¾ cup light brown sugar (165g)
• ¼ cup granulated sugar (50g)
• 1 large egg
• 2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips plus more for sprinkling (270g)

For the Frosting:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened (85g)
• 1¼ cups powdered sugar sifted (150g)
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons milk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Sprinkles

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter or spray a 9-inch round cake pan with baking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add sugars and beat on medium speed until smooth and well combined, about 2 minutes. (You don’t want to beat the mixture until very light and fluffy like you would for a cake because the air will make the cookie too crumbly and puffy.)
4. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. While mixing on low speed, add the flour and beat just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Press the cookie dough into an even layer in the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle with more chocolate chips if desired.
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookie is lightly browned and appears dry on the surface. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

For the chocolate frosting:

1. In a mixing bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until combined, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a decorative tip.
2. Remove the cookie from the pan and place on a serving plate. Pipe frosting around the edge of the cookie. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.

NOTES

• Make sure your brown sugar is soft and moist for the best cookies. If your brown sugar has hardened, don’t worry, it’s an easy fix! I wrote a detailed post on how to soften brown sugar.
• If you don’t have brown sugar, you can follow this post on how to make brown sugar.
• You can use your favorite chocolate chips in these cookies, including milk, white, or ruby chocolate. For an extra twist, substitute half of the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips, caramel chips, or butterscotch chips. You can even use colored M&M’s if you would like to make the cookie cake for Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, and more.
• Room temperature egg will mix more evenly into the butter mixture. Place your egg into a bowl of warm water for a couple of minutes. Doing so will quickly bring it to room temperature if you have forgotten to take it out of your fridge ahead of time.
• I use a star piping tip to pipe the border of the cookie cake, but a zip-top bag with the corner cut off would work just as well if you don’t have any piping tips.
• The cookie cake needs to cool in the pan completely before being removed. If you try to remove the cake too early, it can break. Once it’s firm, you can easily flip it upside-down to get it out.
• Pull the giant cookie out once it looks lightly brown on top in the oven. The cookie will continue to cook through with residual heat, so it may over-bake if you pull it out too late.