Chocolate chip cookie cake with chocolate frosting

This chocolate chip cookie cake topped with chocolate frosting is a pure chocolate decadence! The cake comes out soft, chewy, moist, and is packed with chocolate chips. The chocolate frosting just takes it over the top! If you’re a fan of soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, you’ll love this cake!

Perfect birthday cake

This was my daughter’s birthday cake for her 4th birthday. Our previous birthday cakes:

1st birthday: number cake – lemon cream tart with raspberries

2nd birthday: carrot layer cake with cream cheese frosting

3rd birthday: no-bake Greek yogurt cheesecake with apricot mousse and apricot bees

4th birthday: this amazing giant chocolate chip cookie cake!

This cake would also be perfect for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day!

Ingredients

This recipe is based on my chocolate chip pecan cookies. I changed a couple of things:

• I added only chocolate and no nuts (according to birthday girl’s wishes) – you can use just chocolate, just chocolate chips, or a mix of both, like I did. I really liked the combo of chips and chocolate – chips have a firmer texture but they hold their shape, chocolate, on the other hand, melts all over the cake but is softer and tastes better, so a mix of both was really great. You can also use chocolate for baking and chop it roughly.
• I added more brown sugar, more eggs, and corn starch for a softer texture. Corn starch is optional but it makes the cake more soft. Brown sugar adds caramel flavor, makes the cake more moist and soft. I would not recommend adding granulated sugar instead, but it can be done.
• I added some rose sprinkles to make it look prettier and more festive.
• What could you also add: if you love peanut butter chocolate cookies, you can try to add 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter to this recipe. I bet you could also swap a part of chocolate chips for m&ms if that’s what you like.

For chocolate buttercream frosting you will need only 6 ingredients:

• Powdered sugar – it’s super important to get good-quality, super-fine powdered sugar. It is labeled “10x” powdered sugar (very finely ground) in the US and “super-fine powdered sugar” in Europe (don’t confuse it with super-fine/caster sugar which is granulated sugar that has smaller granules). In the past, when I got gritty frosting I was usually blaming the recipe but after thorough testing, I concluded that gritty frosting is mostly caused by bad/too-coarse-milled powdered sugar.
• Cocoa powder – I used Dutch-processed cocoa – it has a better flavor, but the recipe will also work with natural cocoa powder.
• Butter – it’s important that the butter is very soft. European-style butter has more flavor but any butter will work.
• Cream or milk – it’s used to thin out the frosting.
• Vanilla extract – for flavor.
• Salt – enhances the sweetness of the frosting.

What kind of cake pan do you need:

I used a heart-shaped 10-inch (25-26cm) springform pan. I think a cake baked in this form looks just so pretty – my birthday girl was thrilled! Make sure it’s leak-proof or put the cake on a small baking sheet. Mine wasn’t leak-proof and the dripping butter from the cake has stained my oven ugh.. So, I would recommend a heart-shaped cake pan (like this one – I haven’t used it but it looks good and has the same dimensions as mine) and not a springform pan.

If you don’t have such pan, I would use a 9-inch (23-24cm) round cake pan, the baking time should be similar. Alternatively you could use a 9-inch pie dish but the cake would be much thicker so you need to bake it longer. You could also try to bake it in a 10-inch (25cm) round cake pan, but the cake would be thinner so bake it shorter.

Instead of a cake pan/springform pan, you can also use a cast iron skillet.

Toppings for chocolate chip cookie cake

I think the buttercream chocolate frosting is the perfect topping for this cake. Yes, it makes the whole cake much sweeter, but it’s really worth it. Vanilla buttercream frosting would also be great.

Alternatively, you could also serve it with ice cream (vanilla, chocolate or cookie dough ice cream would be really perfect – you can try making homemade cookie dough ice cream), or just whipped cream.

You could also just serve this cake as is or just sprinkle it with more chocolate chips, sprinkles, or chocolate shavings/curls.

Step by step instructions

(Scroll down for printable recipe card with ingredients list).

Before you start: it’s important to mention how to measure flour: If you will use a kitchen scale to measure out all the ingredients, it all goes easy breezy! But if you’re using measuring cups, remember that 1 cup of flour can weigh 120-150g, depending on how you’re filling your cup. Don’t scoop the flour directly into the measuring cup, which can compact it! 1 cup of flour in my recipes weighs 125g. To correctly measure the flour, you need to:

1. Fluff the flour by stirring it in the bag/flour container with a spoon.
2. Spoon the flour and sprinkle it into your measuring cup.
3. Sweep off the excess flour with the back of a knife.

Make the chocolate chip cookie cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas Mark 4, no fan (if you have a convection oven, reduce the temperature by about 20° or follow the manufacturer’s instructions).

STEP 1: Add soft butter and both types of sugar into the mixing bowl.

STEP 2: Mix with an electric mixer or with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle-shaped attachment at medium-low speed until well-combined and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.

STEP 3: Add eggs and vanilla extract.

STEP 4: Beat for 1-2 minutes until well-combined.

STEP 5: Sift flour, baking soda, corn starch, and salt into the mixing bowl.

STEP 6: Mix at low speed until half-combined.

STEP 7: Add chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate (or a mix of both) and sprinkles (if using), mix until combined but don’t overmix the dough.

STEP 8: Line the bottom of a 10-inch (25-26 cm) heart-shaped cake pan with parchment paper. Transfer the dough into the pan and even it out with a spatula.

STEP 9: Bake for 30-35 minutes. After 15-20 minutes cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil. The cake should be light golden in color, right after taking it out of the oven it can be a little bit jiggly in the middle, but after 1-2 minutes (outside of the oven) it should not be jiggly anymore. The edges of the cake should be completely set and firm to the touch but the center should be soft. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out with just a few crumbs, it should not come out clean. The center of the cake will collapse while cooling – this is normal. The baking time may vary depending on the oven and cake pan used.

Important: You need to wait for the cake to cool down completely before decorating it with the frosting or before cutting it into servings (it needs to set). This will take about an hour.

Make the buttercream chocolate frosting

STEP 1: In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat soft butter for a minute until fluffy.

STEP 2: Sift powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt into the bowl. Mix until well-combined.

STEP 3: Add vanilla extract and heavy cream and mix until well-combined. Don’t mix the frosting for too long or there will be air bubbles in it. You can add a little bit more cream to your frosting if you want it thinner.

STEP 4: Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Swirl frosting onto cooled cake.

If you don’t have a pastry bag you can use a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off.

Sprinkle the cake with more sprinkles (optional).

Enjoy!

Top tips

• My top tip for making this cake is treating it like brownies which means: underbake it a little! The cake should be mostly set but slightly jiggly/soft in the middle – it will result in a wonderfully soft, gooey cake (just in the center), that is just plain amazing!
• Use half chocolate chips and half chocolate (optional!) – chocolate chips will hold their shape but chocolate is wonderfully melted, soft, and tastes better.
• Top tip for success with chocolate frosting: use finely-ground powdered sugar, good-quality cocoa, and soft butter.
• Cool your cake completely before piping the frosting – otherwise the frosting will melt!
• Use unsalted butter – it’s better to control salt levels when using unsalted butter and adding salt yourself. The salt level can vary depending on the brand. You can’t use salted butter for frosting or it would be too salty.
• Can I use this cookie dough to make cookies instead? No, I would not recommend that. For this recipe, I adapted my chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I added more butter and less sugar to make the cookie cake softer and less sweet since we’re decorating it with chocolate frosting which is pretty sweet. Cookies made from this recipe would be too flat. I have found that cookie cake made from a chocolate chip cookies recipe without changing a thing comes out too crispy and hard.

Storage

This cake keeps very well. It’s great on the second or even third day. Store it in the fridge for up to 3-4 days. Take it out of the fridge at least an hour before serving it (the cake and the frosting need to soften). Don’t warm up the cake with the frosting or it will melt. If you haven’t made the frosting you can rewarm the cake slightly – it will be slightly gooey in the middle and the chocolate will be melted. Cake without frosting can be stored at room temperature.

Did you make this recipe? RATE THE RECIPE or tell me in the COMMENTS how you liked it! You can also add a photo of your dish. It would make me very happy and will help other readers. Thank you!!