Cookie Cake
I had typed this post out before the heartbreaking news about Uvalde Elementary. I cannot describe the sadness I feel for the families affected. I am so sorry for your loss. It didn’t feel quite right to just jump into a post writing about how exciting and fun baking these cookie cakes are when there are families in mourning right here in my home state of Texas. Families that have a member missing from any get togethers and barbecues hosted this weekend. I could not imagine that level of pain. Baking has always been a means to escape, and although it was hard to stick to my theme of “festive cookie cake” it was what I needed to disconnect and take a mental break from thinking about the sad state of affairs that has become our reality here in Texas. I decided to go ahead and publish this recipe and post in hopes that it gives someone a little piece of joy and maybe a little escape from a world that can be heartbreaking. Stay safe this weekend, hug your loved ones, give back and donate where you can, and be the change you want to see for a brighter future.
Love, Chrissy
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Today I will show you how I make a delicious brown sugar cookie cake that is a wonderful blank canvas for easy decorating. You don’t need any skills to decorate a cookie cake and I have variations and tips to help you along the way. Let’s bake!
What you need:
Butter-room temperature butter works best to make cookies.
Eggs-Also room temperature
Brown sugar and white sugar-the brown sugar helps give our cookie cake a soft texture and molasses flavor while the white sugar sweetens it. You’ll notice it’s not that much white sugar compared to the brown sugar. I do this so the cookie won’t come out too sweet. We will be decorating with buttercream and it adds a lot of sweetness to the final product.
Salt
Flour
Baking Soda and Baking powder
Cornstarch-to keep our cookie cake soft
Vanilla Extract-you can also substitute almond extract.
This recipe is by far the easiest cookie recipe I make. There is no scooping of the dough or stuffing or overnight setting up or freezing. Just one bowl, mix and bake. You of course can make this dough ahead of time and refrigerate for up to 3 days before baking. The recipe as is will make an 8-inch cookie cake. You can however double the recipe and fill 3, 8-inch aluminum cake pans as I did to share with family and friends.
A brown sugar cookie dough tastes like a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips. I use this dough as a base for all of my cookie cakes and I like to keep it simple since we will be adding my Vanilla Buttercream frosting, sprinkles and fresh fruit as decorations on top. If you would like to make this a chocolate chip cookie cake, I suggest to add in a cup of your favorite chocolate chip to the dough as a last step before scooping into your baking dish.
Start out by creaming together butter and sugars. The key to great cookies in general is always room temp butter and eggs. It helps the dough come together so fast and helps emulsify all the ingredients together.
Add in eggs one at a time and mix on high until fully incorporated then add in vanilla and mix in.
Sift dry ingredients prior to adding to mixer. I do this to evenly mix flour, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda to have a consistent mixture of each ingredient in our cookie dough. Plus, we don’t want a lump of baking powder in our cookies, yuck.
Scoop out the dough into a 8-inch baking dish and smooth the top with a spatula. I used disposable round aluminum baking trays with lids since I was gifting but you can bake in a square dish or even a pie plate. If you are using glass cut your baking time down by 3-5 minutes.
After the dry ingredients have been added, you can choose two options: bake right away, or cover and refrigerate to bake later. If storing in the fridge, make sure it is covered and it will stay fresh for up to 3 days before baking. You can also top the cookie dough with sprinkles before baking as an easy decoration.
After the cookie cakes have been baked and cooled the real fun begins. There is a never-ending plethora of options of toppings you can use. I will be using the recipe for Vanilla Buttercream I made earlier in the week, along with white bark dipped Oreos, sprinkles and fresh strawberries.
What you need to decorate
-Oreos
-White Bark Coating
-Strawberries
-Mini chocolate chips
Here are some other decorations you can use if you are feeling creative:
-fresh whipped cream and fresh berries
-Nutella, chocolate chips, brownie bites
-Vanilla buttercream, caramel sauce and sea salt sprinkled on top
-Smooth over a layer of cookie butter or peanut butter, top with crumbled Biscoff cookies
-Vanilla buttercream, mini marshmallows, roasted honey peanuts and chocolate sauce
-fresh whipped cream, cherries and shaved dark chocolate
-Vanilla buttercream, toasted coconut
Like I said, the options are endless, and I have always had a great knack for coming up with new and fun flavors. But you can also make this super simple, a warm cookie cake with vanilla ice cream scooped in the center, and a spoon for every person at the table to dig in, beats any pretty decor on top.
The process I took to decorate the first cake was simple. I spread a layer of Vanilla Buttercream on the cooled cake. I topped the outer edge of the buttercream with festive sprinkles and that was it. Took less than 5 minutes and is a great dessert that is very festive. Sprinkles just elevate the fun of anything you add them too.
The process for the second cookie cake took a little more time but not by much, I spent 15 minutes total prepping and decorating the second cookie cake.
First, I prepped the Oreos for dipping in the white bark. I placed 2 squares of the white bark in a pyrex mixing cup and microwaved in 30 second intervals until it was melted. Be careful when stirring, the mixture will be hot. I dipped an Oreo halfway in the melted white bark and placed on parchment paper. I sprinkled the white bark with festive sprinkles and placed them in the fridge to set up for 5-10 minutes. You can also dip the whole Oreo into the white bark. It’s a little messier so I recommend using two forks, so you don’t have to touch the melted bark.
Next, I sliced strawberries into ¼ inch thick slices and used a very small star cookie cutter to cut out star shapes. This is a little tedious to do but the star strawberries are so cute and fun to add to the cookie cake. I have used strawberries, sliced, halved, and quartered to decorate cookie cakes before so whichever way you slice it will look great.
I put 4 tablespoons of Vanilla Buttercream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe out, as evenly as I could, a decorative star edge. Make sure not to pipe to close to the edge so you have room for your container lid to close. You don’t have to pipe perfectly symmetrical or evenly spaced stars, the toppings we will add will cover any imperfections we have along the way.
I started with adding a sprinkle of red, white, and blue star sprinkles to the frosting, followed by mini chocolate chips and star strawberries to fill in any gaps. I chopped the white bark Oreos in half because I thought the contrast of the black and white would be appealing on top of the stark white buttercream. I ended up only using 3 but you can use more than I did.
If you are using the fresh strawberries, I would recommend eating day of, so the berries stay fresh. If you aren’t using the fresh fruit you can keep in the fridge, covered, for up to 3 days. If you are taking the cookie cakes to a family gathering and have some traveling up ahead, I recommend refrigerating for at least an hour or two and keeping it on top of ice in cooler. The buttercream takes a bit to melt in room temperature, but if you have the cake outside at a barbecue the frosting will eventually go very soft. Keep covered in the shade and it should be fine, even if it gets melty.
Two simple ways to decorate a delicious brown sugar cookie cake that will be a stunner for holiday get togethers during this long weekend. If you are looking for something a little more sweet check out last weeks post for my Ultimate S’mores Cookie.
If you enjoyed this recipe as much as I do, please follow and tag me @sunshinetxcookies on Instagram. I post new cookie recipes every Thursday and would love to share my joy with you. Happy Baking!
Cookie Cake
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tspns vanilla extract
- 1/2 tspn salt
- 1 tspn baking powder
- 1/2 tspn baking soda
- 1 tbspn cornstarch
- 3 cups flour
Cookie Cake decorations (Optional)
- 1 recipe Vanilla buttercream https://sunshinetxcookies.com/?p=1176
- 6 Oreo cookies
- 2 squares white chocolate bark
- 3 strawberries sliced
- 3 tbsp sprinkles
- 1 tbspn mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Cream butter, sugars and salt in standing mixer with paddle attachment on medium high.
- Add eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly after each addition.
- Add vanilla extract and continue to mix until incorporated.
- Sift dry ingredients then slowly add to butter and egg mixture. Mix on low until the dough is just mixed together.
- Scoop dough into an 8 inch baking container. I used a round aluminum disposable container with a lid to gift and travel with.
- At this point, you can either bake at 375*F for 16-20 minutes, or, you can refrigerate the cookie dough (covered) for up to 3 days. Bake at 375*F for 18-22 minutes if you are baking cold dough from the fridge.
- Your cookie cake should be puffed slightly and golden brown. It will still look soft in the center but that's ok. It will continue to bake and set up after it is taken out of the oven.
- Cool cookie cake for at least an hour if you are decorating. If you want to eat warm cookie cake with chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream scooped on top, that would be awesome fresh out of the oven.
Cookie Decorating
- Prepare Oreos. Heat white chocolate bark in microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. It took me 3 times at 30 seconds for it to melt smooth. Stir vigorously after every microwave session.
- Dip Oreos halfway in white coating and place on parchment.
- Immediately put sprinkles on the melted white coating.
- Put in fridge for 5 minutes to firm up.
- Prepare strawberries. Slice strawberries into 1/4 inch slices. Use 1/2 inch star cookie cutter to cut out star shapes. Slices work well too.
- Take vanilla buttercream and scoop into pastry bag with a large star tip attachment. Using a gallon ziploc bag works great too.
- Make sure your cookie cake is cooled completely before frosting.
- Pipe decorative star border on the edge of cookie cake and decorate with sprinkles, chocolate chips, dipped Oreos, and strawberries.
- Take lots of pics and enjoy!
