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Cookie dough lovers, hold onto your hats! This dreamy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake is layered with edible cookie dough and a creamy chocolate chip cookie dough frosting!
This cake is pretty amazing. If you have a big sweet tooth like me, you’ll be obsessed! It’s super rich, plenty sweet and truly tastes like cookie dough through and through. The different textures you get from the cake, the cookie dough and the frosting are delightful.
The moist cake has a wonderful cookie dough-like flavor from the brown sugar and chocolate chips, the cookie dough itself is spot-on and totally edible with toasted flour, and the creamy frosting tastes like cookie dough in softer form. The combination is heaven!
What You’ll Need
I played around with the cake, frosting and cookie dough recipes until everything was perfect. Here’s the ingredient lineup for each one:
For the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt: For flavor.
- Unsalted Butter: Bring to room temperature.
- Sugar
- Light Brown Sugar: This helps add cookie dough-like flavor.
- Vanilla Extract: For flavor.
- Sour Cream: Sour cream helps to thicken the batter a bit so that the mini chocolate chips don’t sink.
- Eggs: You’ll need 3 large eggs.
- Milk
- Mini Chocolate Chips: You can use milk, dark, semi-sweet, or whatever you prefer.
For the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Butter: Room temperature.
- Light Brown Sugar: Packed.
- Vanilla Extract
- Salt
- All-Purpose Flour: Toasting your flour makes it so that the cookie dough is edible. Bake it in a 350°F oven for about 5 minutes, then let it cool.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: I use semi-sweet.
- Milk: To help bring the cookie dough together and get it to the right consistency.
For the Cookie Dough Frosting
- Unsalted Butter: Room temperature.
- Light Brown Sugar: Again, this contributes to the cookie dough flavor.
- Vanilla Extract
- All-Purpose Flour: Toasted/heat treated.
- Salt
- Powdered Sugar: For volume and consistency.
- Heavy Whipping Cream: Add whipping cream as needed to get the right frosting consistency.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: For decorating.
How to Make This Cake
Because there are so many yummy things going in this cookie dough cake, it does take a little time to put everything together. But have no fear – it’s all super easy and straighforward!
Make the Chocolate Chip Cakes
- Prep for Baking: Prepare three 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Combine Dry Ingredients: Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream Butter, Sugars & Vanilla: Add the butter, sugars and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and beat together on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
- Add Sour Cream: Add the sour cream and mix until well combined.
- Add Eggs: Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until mostly combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add Half of Dry Ingredients: Add about half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until mostly combined.
- Add Milk: Slowly add the milk and mix until well combined.
- Finish Adding Dry Ingredients: Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not overmix the batter.
- Fold in Chocolate Chips: Stir in the mini chocolate chips.
- Bake: Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
- Let Cool: Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then transfer them to racks to cool completely.
Make the Cookie Dough
- Combine Wet Ingredients: Add the butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and beat together on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add Dry Ingredients & Chocolate Chips: Add the salt and flour and mix until well combined, then stir in the mini chocolate chips.
- Add Milk as Needed: Add the milk a tablespoon at a time, then combine. You want to add just enough milk so that the cookie dough can be rolled into balls, but remains crumbly.
- Set Aside: Roll 20 balls of cookie dough that are 1/2 a tablespoon each (these will be used to top the cake). Set all the cookie dough aside.
Make the Frosting
- Beat Butter: Beat the butter in a large mixer bowl until smooth.
- Add Brown Sugar & Vanilla: Add the brown sugar and vanilla extract and mix until well combined and smooth.
- Add Flour, Salt & Half of Powdered Sugar: Add the flour and salt and mix until well combined and smooth. Then, add half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth and well combined.
- Add Heavy Cream: Add 3 tablespoons of cream and mix until smooth and well combined.
- Finish Adding Powdered Sugar: Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Add additional water or milk as needed to get the right consistency.
Assemble the Cake
- Flatten Cakes: Use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. These cakes don’t have a large dome, but I like to make sure they’re completely flat.
- Frost First Layer: Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round. Spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top of the cake.
- Add Cookie Dough Layer: Crumble up about half of the cookie dough that wasn’t used to make balls and sprinkle it evenly over the frosting. Try to make sure the cookie dough goes all the way to the edges, so you don’t end up with a big gap between the cake layers. Spread a thin layer of frosting on top of the cookie dough, just enough so that the next cake layer has something to stick to.
- Add Second Cake, Frosting & Dough Layers: Add the second layer of cake, another cup of frosting and the remaining cookie dough crumbles. Spread another thin layer of frosting on top of the cookie dough.
- Finish Layering & Frost Outside: Top the cake with the remaining layer and frost the outside of the cake.
- Add Chocolate Chips: Press the mini chocolate chips for the frosting into the sides of the cake.
- Decorate: Pipe the remaining frosting around the top edge of the cake and decorate with the cookie dough balls. Use any remaining cookie dough for additional decoration, if desired.
Tips for Success
Want some more advice on how to make this decadent layer cake? Check out the tips below!
- Cream Butter, Sugar & Vanilla Well: Don’t stop beating your butter and sugar until the mixture has turned fluffy and lightened in color. It will take at least 2 minutes.
- Avoid Over Mixing the Batter: Stop mixing your cake batter once the ingredients are fully incorporated, or you risk over mixing it and ending up with a dense cake.
- Tips for Frosting Your Cake: Want to perfect the art of frosting layer cakes? Refer to my tutorial for Frosting a Smooth Cake!
How to Store this Layer Cake
This cake should be stored in the fridge and brought to room temperature before serving. The cookie dough will firm up in the fridge, so you’ll want it to soften before you cut and eat the cake.
Place leftover cake in an airtight container and refrigerate. It will stay fresh for 3-4 days!
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Print
Recipe
- Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 52 minutes
- Yield: 14
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Cookie dough lovers, hold onto your hats! This dreamy Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake is layered with edible cookie dough and a creamy chocolate chip cookie dough frosting!
Ingredients
For the Cookie Dough Cake
- 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour
- 2 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cups (155g) sugar
- 3/4 cup (168g) light brown sugar, packed
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (115g) sour cream
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1 1/2 cups (254g) mini chocolate chips
For the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (112g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (225g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups (195g) all purpose flour, heat treated
- 1 cup (169g) semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
- 2–3 tbsp milk
For the Cookie Dough Frosting
- 2 1/4 cups (504g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (225g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (130g) all purpose flour, heat treated
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 (690g) cups powdered sugar
- 3–6 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups mini chocolate chips
Instructions
For the Cake
- Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Add the butter, sugars and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and beat together on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
- Add the sour cream and mix until well combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until mostly combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until mostly combined.
- Slowly add the milk and mix until well combined.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not over mix the batter.
- Stir in the mini chocolate chips.
- Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
For the Cookie Dough
- Add the butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and beat together on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the salt and flour and mix until well combined, then stir in the mini chocolate chips.
- Add milk a tablespoon at a time, then combine. You want to add just enough milk so that the cookie dough can be rolled into balls, but remains crumbly.
- Roll 20 balls of cookie dough that are a 1/2 tablespoon each. Set all the cookie dough aside.
For the Frosting
- Beat the butter in a large mixer bowl until smooth.
- Add the brown sugar and vanilla extract and mix until well combined and smooth.
- Add the flour and salt and mix until well combined and smooth.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth and well combined.
- Add 3 tablespoons of cream and mix until smooth and well combined.
- Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Add additional water or milk, as needed to get the right consistency of frosting.
For the Assembly
- Use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. These cakes don’t have a large dome, but I like to make sure they’re completely flat.
- Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round.
- Spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top of the cake.
- Crumble up about half of the cookie dough that wasn’t used to make balls and sprinkle it evenly over the frosting. Try to make sure the cookie dough goes all the way to the edges, so you don’t end up with a big gap between the cake layers. Spread a thin layer of frosting on top of the cookie dough, just enough so that the next cake layer has something to stick to.
- Add the second layer of cake, another cup of frosting and the remaining cookie dough crumbles. Spread another thin layer of frosting on top of the cookie dough.
- Top the cake with the remaining layer and frost the outside of the cake. Refer to my tutorial for frosting a smooth cake, if needed.
- Press the mini chocolate chips for the frosting into the sides of the cake.
- Pipe the remaining frosting around the top edge of the cake and decorate with the cookie dough balls. Use any remaining cookie dough for additional decoration, if desired.
- Store cake in the fridge, but bring to room temperature before serving. The cookie dough will firm up in the fridge, so you’ll want it to be softer to cut and eat. Cake is best stored well covered in the fridge and should be eaten within 3-4 days.
Notes
Makes 12-14 servings.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 1281
- Sugar: 131.4 g
- Sodium: 256.7 mg
- Fat: 64.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 172.2 g
- Protein: 11.5 g
- Cholesterol: 166.9 mg
More Chocolate Chip Desserts to Try
Chocolate chips are a tasty addition to any treat. If you love chocolate, check out these easy recipes ASAP!
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pizza
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Cake
- Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake
- Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream
i made this for my daughter and omg it was amazing
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I just made this cake today. It turned out flawless. That was one really well-crafted recipe.
Awesome, thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hello! This cake looks amazing! I’m looking to make it as the top cake for a 2-tiered cake for my sister’s baby shower (she loves cookie dough). I saw you recommended halting the recipe for three 6-inch cakes. Would you also recommend reducing the baking time or keeping it the same? Looking forward to making this delicious cake! Thanks so much.
Yes, you’d want to reduce the baking time. I’m not sure of the exact time, having not made it myself, but probably 15-20 minutes.
Can you make this recipe with 9 in cake pans?
You can, but the cake layers will be thinner. You may want to do one and a half recipes worth.
Can I exchange the all purpose flour for non gluten flour? (do you know how it would effect the cake?)
A think a gluten free all purpose flour would probably be fine.
I see that the three parts of the recipe call for unsalted butter in the sponges and the frosting, and salted butter in the actual “cookie dough”. I am just double checking that this is not a typo. I am the baker in my family; but I am asking my wife to make this wonderful cake for my birthday. I am going to prep all the ingredients, so she just has to handle cooking and assembly.
It is unsalted butter in everything. I updated the recipe so that is clear for the cookie dough. I hope you enjoy it!
Good to know most your cake layers are only 1 inch tall. The images of your finished cakes look more like 2 inches. I will make them in smaller pans, decrease the oven temp and bake longer.
Can you freeze the chocolate chip cookie dough cake layers?
You could freeze the cake layers. Just wrap them well before you freeze them and then thaw them in the fridge before using.
Can I make the cake the day before and refrigerate it overnight?
Definitely! I do recommend bringing it back to room temperature before serving it though.
Hi 👋 iwas wondering what do u mean by heated /toasted flour thank u
Because it doesn’t get baked, you basically want to pre-bake it a little bit to avoid any food contaminants. Spread it out onto a baking sheet and bake it in the oven at 350 for 5 to 10 minutes.
Trying to do this today for my daughters birthday.. the sponges are just under 1 inch high each! And my frosting has come out runny . Any ideas 🙁
My cake layers are usually about an inch tall, so they may be fine. Other than height, does anything seem wrong?
As for the frosting, maybe you added too much of the cream? Or did you not add all of the powdered sugar? I know people often like to reduce the sugar, but it will give you a thinner frosting.
Another winner 🙂 i was skeptical of the flour in the icing, but it is fabulous! Really tastes like cookie dough. I made a cupcake version. I wound up with 2 dozen, and baked for 19 minutes. Thank you Lindsey 🙂
So glad to hear that!
Can I take this cake recipe and make it into cupcakes? If so, what’s the baking time?
That should be fine. Bake time would probably be between 15 and 20 minutes.
I have baked this multiple times today… it doesn’t seem to rise like a normal cake. Is that normal?
It rises like a normal cake for me. Can you describe what’s happening?
Can the cookie dough be baked into regular cookies too? I’d like some for the top of the cake verse the balls.
There’s no eggs in the cookie dough, so it wouldn’t bake like a regular cookie.
I made this for my daughter’s birthday yesterday and it was amazing. It was devoured by all 18 people!! I will keep it in my recipes because it will be requested again!! Thanks so much!!
Awesome! So glad to hear that!
I LOVED this cake. I had one similar at a local cafe and bakery near me and enjoyed it so much I went on a quest to make it the next day. This was almost identical, except I omitted the cookie dough balls on top and crumbling them between the layers. This cake was super moist and flavorful. I also only used 4 cups of sugar in the frosting instead of 6. This is a keeper recipe hands down!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I live in Colorado. Do you know if I should adjust the recipe for hi altitude?
Could I use 3 6” pans?
Sure, but I would cut the recipe in half.
Can you make the cookie dough balls in advance? If so, should they be stored at room temp. or in the refrigerator?
Yes, I would refrigerate them.
Is it possible to make this in a bundt cake pan instead? If so what needs to be changed?
Hello for the cake batter could you use cake flour instead of AP and could you use buttermilk instead of milk??
You could use cake flour, but I personally don’t care for it. And buttermilk should be fine.
This looks amazing! Could I use 3- 9” pans and cook less time or wouldn’t you recommend?
Yes, you could do that.
How much mini chips in the cookie dough ball you have 1 169g
I’m not sure if I understand your question. The recipe states 1 1/2 cups of mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough.
I made this for my sister’s birthday except I left it naked on the sides and just thickly frosted between the layers, also for the cookie dough balls, I assumed it’s 1 cup of chocolate chips? It just says 1 (169g) as someone else pointed out.
So glad you enjoyed it! I’ve updated recipe – thanks!
It’s 1 cup of chocolate chips in the mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough. 1 cup is 169g.
Honestly, this is AMAZING! It really was not very hard to make and it was so decadent and delicious! The cake is moist and not too sweet and the filling is exactly what it claims to be, A Cookie Dough Lovers dream come true!
what if the butter has salt can skip the salt if not how much
It all depends on how much salt you like. I think salted butter would be fine in the cake and the cookie dough, but it would be too much salt in the frosting.
Yes it’s a great one
Hi Lindsay, I absolutely love all your recipes I’ve tried so far and I just made this one tonight for a birthday tomorrow. Looking forward to tasting it tomorrow! I was wondering about the frosting though. Is it supposed to have a grainy texture from the brown sugar? Mine is grainy and just wanted to check and make sure I did it right. Thank you!
I don’t believe it was gritty when I made it. Hopefully as it sits overnight, some of that grittiness will kind of dissolve away. I hope you enjoy it!
I found that mine was also gritty at first. I started with room temperature butter and beat it a lot long longer than I typically would in hopes of getting rid of the grittiness. The good news is that the longer it sat the more the brown sugar dissolved. I made this the day before and by the time it was served I didn’t feel any grittiness.
I am making this for the first time and just about to frost but it is gritty also. Fingers crossed it goes away.
Hey Lindsay! Is the heavy whipping cream absolutely necessary? What about normal whipping cream? I don’t think it’s sold in my country
That should be fine. Even regular milk would work.
Hello Lindsay, I just love your recipes, from Cookies & Cream cupcakes to your MoistVanilla Cake. Today I’m baking Strawberry Cupcakes & at our Easter Market I sold Easter Cookie Cups, which were amazing.
South Africans, are not generally adventurous eaters, but I have been toying with making/ using cookie dough & this recipe sounds amazing.
Please would you insert the grams of Butter required for the Cookie Dough.
A HUGE FAN
So glad you enjoy everything. I’ve updated the grams for the butter.
How do you toast/heat treat flour?
I believe I mentioned it in the post, but bake it in the oven for about five minutes at 350°, then let it cool.