Milk and Cookies Layer Cake

This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please read my disclosure policy.

This Milk and Cookies Layer Cake is made with layers of brown sugar vanilla cake that’s filled with vanilla frosting and crumbled up chocolate chip cookies. It tastes just like milk and cookies and was declared a new favorite cake!

Milk and Cookies Layer Cake

Milk and Cookies Layer Cake recipe

Milk and Cookies Layer Cake Recipe

This post is sponsored by The American Dairy Association Mideast, but all opinions are my own.

June is Diary Month so of course it’s the perfect time to celebrate milk with a fun Milk and Cookies Cake. I grew up drinking milk every day. My dad was a stickler about it and my brother and I drank milk with dinner every night as kids. My nails have always been thick, strong and healthy and I’ve always kind of thought that all that milk as a kid must’ve had something to do with it. 🙂

Of course Diary Month isn’t only about milk. Dairy encompasses another food that I could never live without – cheese! My goodness, life couldn’t go on without my cheese. We have diary farmers to thank for all the tasty milk and cheese and in Ohio and West Virginia, about 2,500 dairy farms with roughly 275,000 diary cows produce 645 million gallons of milk a year. That is some serious milk!

And since there’s milk in this cake and milk provides protein and 9 essential nutrients, including calcium, this cake is totally healthy, right? I’m pretty sure we should just cut a nice slice and pair it with a big, tall glass of milk. 🙂

Glasses of milk with cakeBest Milk and Cookies Layer Cake recipe

Ok, ok, so I’m kidding about the cake being healthy, but it’s totally worth every single bite! I’m not kidding when I say it was declared a new favorite by many.

The cake layers are wonderfully soft layers of vanilla cake that are made more cookie-like with the addition of mini chocolate chips and brown sugar that gives it a rich flavor.

Between the cake layers is vanilla frosting and crumbled chocolate chip cookies. I considered mixing crushed cookies right into the frosting, but I thought they might get lost a little that way. I wanted to be able to really taste the cookies in there. Not to mention that with them separate, it further produces the separate flavor of cookies and milk and it’s SO good! The cookies are also dipped in a little milk before being broken up. It helps the cookies soften up a bit and they form a really nice layer in between the cakes.

The cake is finished off with the remaining vanilla frosting, more cookies and some additional mini chocolate chips.

This is not only a super fun cake to serve, but it tastes amazing! I can’t even fully describe how much I love it other than to tell you the feeling was unanimous! This is going to be your new favorite too. I know it. And it’s the perfect cake for celebrating Dairy Month!

Homemade Milk and Cookies Layer Cake
Milk and Cookies Layer Cake slice

NOTE: The video incorrectly lists baking soda as an ingredient. It should be baking powder, as listed in the written recipe. Please follow the written recipe for ingredients.

[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”l2PqX2a5″ upload-date=”Tue Jun 06 2017 22:27:46 GMT+0000 (UTC)” name=”Milk and Cookies Layer Cake” description=”A moist vanilla cake studded with mini chocolate chips and filled with crushed up chocolate chip cookies and vanilla frosting!”]
Read transcript

SHOP THE RECIPE

Print
clock clock icon cutlery cutlery icon flag flag icon folder folder icon instagram instagram icon pinterest pinterest icon facebook facebook icon print print icon squares squares icon
overhead image of Milk and Cookies Layer Cake
Recipe

Milk and Cookies Layer Cake

  • Author: Lindsay
  • Prep Time: 40 minutes
  • Cook Time: 22 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 2 minutes
  • Yield: 12-14 Slices
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American

Description

This Milk and Cookies Layer Cake is made with layers of brown sugar vanilla cake that’s filled with vanilla frosting and crumbled up chocolate chip cookies. It tastes just like milk and cookies and was declared a new favorite cake!


Ingredients

CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE

  • 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cups (155g) sugar
  • 3/4 cup (108g) brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup (115g) sour cream
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour
  • 2 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
  • 1/4 cup (60ml) water
  • 1 1/4 cups (211g) mini chocolate chips

VANILLA FROSTING

  • 1 1/4 cup (280g) butter
  • 1 1/4 cups (237g) shortening*
  • 9 cups (1035g) powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 67 tbsp (90-105ml) water or milk

FILLING/ADDITIONAL

  • 1 package chocolate chip cookies**
  • 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies, for on top
  • Mini chocolate chips

Instructions

TO MAKE THE CAKE LAYERS:

1. Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
3. Add sour cream and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until just combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then combine the milk and water in a small measuring cup.
6. Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well combined. Add the milk mixture and mix until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Stir in the mini chocolate chips.
7. Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for about 21-23 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
8. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

TO MAKE THE FROSTING:

9. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and shortening together until smooth.
10. Slowly add half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
11. Add the vanilla extract and 5-6 tablespoons of water or milk and mix until smooth.
12. Slowly add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add additional water or milk, as needed.

TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:

13. To put the cake together, use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round.
14. Pipe a dam of frosting around the edge of the cake.
15. Put the milk for filling into a small bowl. Dip several chocolate chip cookies into the milk, then crumble them up and spread them evenly over the cake layer, inside the dam. You want a full layer of cookie crumbles.
16. Add a thin layer of frosting over top of the cookies. I used a piping bag and tip to make it easier to add the frosting and spread it evenly.
17. Add the second layer of cake, then repeat another dam of frosting with the cookie filling and vanilla frosting on top.
18. 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.
19. Press more mini chocolate chips into the outside of the cake around the bottom. You might need to put a little frosting on the back of the cookies to help them stick.
20. Use the remaining buttercream to pipe swirls around the top of the cake. I used Ateco tip 829.
21. Top the swirls with chocolate chip cookies and add some additional mini chocolate chips, if desired. Store cake in the fridge, but serve at room temperature. Cake is best for 2-3 days.

*The shortening can be replaced with additional butter, if you prefer.
**I used Mini Chips Ahoy cookies

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 Slice
  • Calories: 907
  • Sugar: 94.4 g
  • Sodium: 312.2 mg
  • Fat: 46.2 g
  • Carbohydrates: 119 g
  • Protein: 8 g
  • Cholesterol: 72.2 mg

Keywords: layer cake, layer cake recipe, cookie cake recipe, chocolate chip cookie cake recipe, chocolate chip cookie cake, vanilla frosting recipe, homemade vanilla frosting

Filed Under:

Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links.

Decorated Milk and Cookies Layer Cake

Milk and Cookies Layer Cake - layers of brown sugar vanilla cake with mini chocolate chips, vanilla frosting and crumbled chocolate chip cookies between the layers!

Share a Comment

Have a question? Use the form below to submit your question or comment. I love hearing from you and seeing what you made!

Recipe rating 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

103 Comments
  1. Allison Coburn

    Hi! I’m thinking of making your great-looking cake for my son’s birthday party on Saturday.  How many people does your cake serve?  I will have between 28-32 people so think I probably need nine-inch-rounds instead of eight?  Is there a way to convert the directions for this larger cake size?

    Thank you! 

    1. Lindsay

      A 9 inch cake would probably be good. You’d probably want to do two cake layers instead of 3 and would possibly need to adjust the baking time a bit. Maybe a few more minutes baking time.

  2. Leslie Perkins

    Just made this cake last weekend and it was amazing!! The cake is super moist and tastes just like a chocolate chip cookie. I will definitely make this cake again!

  3. Naima

    Hi! In the description water is listed as an ingredient but it’s not used in the video. Is water optional (for consistency etc)? Thanks in advance. Your recipes look delicious! ????

    1. Lindsay

      It is there in the video, just not quite labeled correctly. I combine the milk and water and then add them, so when the milk is added, it’s actually the milk and water together. 🙂

  4. Kandi

    I made this today. I’m not sure what I didn’t wrong but the cake itself didn’t rise and I thought the frosting was too sweet. Maybe I’m just use to store bought. I followed the direction to a T. 

    1. Lindsay

      Did you make sure to cream the butter and sugar together for a full 3-4 minutes? I find it’s a common mistake people make that they don’t do that.

  5. Ivory

    Yum, I know you own a bakery, if not, girl get rocking, because you are so missing out on another calling you have.  

    1. Ondie Held

      I did. My cakes didn’t rise for some reason. I bake all the time so my ingredients are always fresh. I used them anyways and it was still a hit. I did add some heavy whipping cream to the frosting to help with that gritty texture I always find these types of frostings to have with so much powdered sugar.

      1. Khola

        I. Made this today and waiting to frost it but for some reason my cake did not rise as much. This has happened to me the second time in her recipe eventho it tasted amazing. Just not as tall as hers.

  6. Hannah

    I can never get over your beautiful cakes! They are always so pretty and delicious looking! You have used so many different and fun combinations.

  7. Julia

    Hi LIndsay!  I love your recipes ans I have already made a few! The problem is that there is no sour cream here in Greece! Could you please tell me with what I could replace it? Thanks a lot!!

    1. Lindsay

      I’ve had some people say they used yogurt. Another option you could try would be using some additional milk.

Lindsay
About Lindsay

I'm a wife and a mom to twin boys and a baby girl! And I've got a serious sweets addiction! Bring on the treats!

Scripture I’m Loving

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29