Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

I know, right?


I read a lot of food blogs (Ok, mostly baking blogs) and Annie's Eats has quickly become one of my most favorites. She has the best recipes! I saw the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes and KNEW I had to make it.  Like, now.


I'm not a huge fan of cupcakes. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat them, but there's just something about a slice of cake that makes me much happier (I'm guessing it's the additional frosting...). So, I thought I'd try this out in cake form.  I also have never made a cake from scratch, so I cheated and used boxed white cake (and threw in some chocolate chips for good measure) for the cake base. It probably wasn't the best choice, but it worked. 

Here's my version:

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
1 box of white cake mix - prepare as directed
1/2 cup of chocolate chips 
For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips 
For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract   

Directions:
Prepare the cake as directed - stir in chocolate chips.  Line two 8" cake pans with parchment and divide batter between the two. Cook as directed and let cool completely. 

To make the cookie dough filling, combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour.

Spread the cookie dough filling on top of one layer of cake. This makes a TON of filling, so it's going to be an extra thick layer of filling.  Top filling layer with second layer of cake. 

To make the frosting, beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.  Mix in the confectioners' sugar until smooth.  Beat in the flour and salt.  Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.


Frost the cake, then top with a sprinkling of chocolate chips and chill in the fridge. 

 I cannot frost a cake to save my life people. It is truly pathetic. 

Holy bananas, this cake was RICH.  I'm definitely putting this in the "only for special occasions" file.   Zach and I really loved it but I think it was simply "too much" for my parents. Ah well, you can't win them all. But at least I loved it! The center is really, really rich and totally tastes just like cookie dough, but I think the frosting is my favorite. It's really light and creamy, but super buttery and who doesn't love that brown sugar flavor of cookie dough?!  I think the cupcakes would be better, but this was really time intensive as it was, so I can't imagine how long it would take to fill all those cupcakes. No thanks. 

And now, back to my diet.