Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

Happy Tuesday everyone! Hopefully everyone is having a good and productive day, unlike me. Seriously, I'm lucky if I can even make a tea for myself between bottles and dirty diapers. Ah, a mom's life. I love it.

Today I wanted to share the cake recipe that I made for my birthday last weekend. It combined all of my favourite things: chocolate, cookie dough, and fluffy icing. There were multiple steps to making this cake, but they were all pretty simple. Just be prepared for a mountain of dishes. 

The recipe is from Eat-Drink-Love. I followed it almost exactly except for the icing and cookie dough filling consistencies.  

Cake:
1 box Devil's food cake
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 box instant chocolate pudding
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans.

2. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and mix until well combined without over mixing.

3. Divide the batter between the cake pans and bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

4. Let cool completely. Set aside.

Cookie Dough Filling:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
4-5 tbsp. milk (for thinning)

1. In a large bowl beat the butter and sugars together until creamy.

2. Mix in the vanilla, flour and salt until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Check the consistency and add milk, one tablespoon at a time until it's easily spreadable. I found that it took 5 tablespoons before my spatula would go through the filling without getting stuck. Next time I will add a few more tablespoons until it is easier to spread in a thinner layer on the cake. Set aside. 
(Note: if you add too much milk, add a teaspoon of flour at a time until it thickens)

Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups icing sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup flour
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla 
4-5 tbsp. milk (for thinning)

1. In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugars together until smooth and creamy. 

2. Add in the flour, salt and vanilla. Beat together until combined and smooth. Make sure that the frosting is a good consistency for spreading on the cake. Use the same method to thin or thicken the mixture as the filling, except use icing sugar instead of flour to thicken. I found about 5 tablespoons, maybe just over that, was the perfect consistency for me.

To assemble the cake:

1. Remove the cooled cake from the pans and place one on your cake plate or stand. Use a bread knife to make sure that the cake is level if needed.

2. Spoon the filling onto the bottom cake layer, using just enough to have a nice layer on the cake. I used far too much filling that wasn't as spreadable as I would have liked. Make sure that your filling layer isn't too thick that it will overwhelm the cake itself.

3. Place the top cake layer over the filling and press down to fill any gaps in the filling. Use an icing spatula to ice the cake all over. I found I used only about half the icing before my cake was frosted enough.

4. Garnish however you would like while the icing is still soft. I used mini chocolate chips like the original recipe, but I think that chocolate shavings would be great too.

This was a real crowd pleaser, but the biggest complaint was that the filling was much too thick. Next time I make this I will make the filling layer much thinner. I even thought about skipping the filling and using the additional icing I had leftover as the filling instead. Throw some chocolate chips into the middle layer of frosting, yum. The icing was that good, I think it would be a much better filling than the yummy cookie dough.

The cake was especially moist and delicious, I will definitely use this trick with all of my boxed cake mixes in the future! It didn't taste like a boxed cake mix and no one could tell! A perfect little trick for busy households who need to skip a few steps when baking.

I also had a ton of the cookie dough leftover as the recipe said I would. Best thing for that? Roll the cookie dough into balls and toss on a lined tray in the freezer. Nothing better than frozen cookie dough when you need a sweet fix.

If you make this I would love to know what changes you would make.

Kerby

Linking to:
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesday #286
Naptime Creations - Create Link Inspire 12/19/16
Two Chicks and a Mom - Funtastic Friday #114