This Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake is one decadent, rich dessert! Brownie and peanut butter cookie dough are layered together and topped with chocolate ganache & a touch of peanut butter icing!
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake
If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you know by now that while I love super simple treats, I also have a major love of an over the top dessert! In fact, this dichotomy is indicative of my own personality as well.
Most of the time, I’m a pretty laid back kinda gal. Jeans and a top, hopefully cute, but not trying too hard. I mean really, I just don’t have time for that. I used to. But not these days. And ultimately, I want to be comfy. Not comfy = me in a bad mood.
However, when I’m feeling particularly fabulous or I’m going somewhere that maybe I can get dressed up, I really do love to dress up. Sometimes I wish was like Kate Middleton or something (you know, a princess) and always got to be super cute and have places to dress up for.
But of course, I’m not a princess…
So this cake is basically my dressy side. Monday’s recipe – the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pizza – was my laid back side. It seems fitting that with two posts for cookie dough week, I’d do one for each side. Just so neither side feels left out. 🙂
This cake really isn’t hard to make, despite being dressy. Yes, you have to bake the brownies, but after that it’s smooth sailing.
I used my new favorite brownie recipe, Easy Homemade Brownies From Scratch, rather than using a box mix. Not only do I totally love this brownie, but a single box mix wouldn’t be quite enough for 3 layers. So if you decide you’d rather go the box mix route, you might want to do 2 mixes.
Once the brownies are made, it’s all about the cookie dough. It’s eggless, so totally safe to eat without baking. No worries there.
To hold the layers together, I used a little bit of chocolate ganache. So little, you really can’t tell in the photos that it’s there, but it is. It’s just a little glue to hold all the fun together. 🙂
The method of layering everything together and getting nice, even edges is very similar to the method I use in my Snickers Peanut Butter Brownie Ice Cream Cake. Basically, you layer everything in a cake pan and then lift it out using parchment paper or saran wrap. It might sound confusing, but it’s explained in the directions and is easy peasy and works like a charm.
Of course I thought about just letting this cake go all natural on me. I still think it’d be super cute with rough cookie dough edges. Maybe just use a cookie scoop to add the cookie dough and then stack with the brownies? It’d be beautiful and elegant in it’s own way.
But since this was my “dressy” day, I went with the well kept edges. 😉
I sure hope you have an occasion coming up, because this cake would be perfect!
UPDATED 9/7/16: See the cake getting put together in this new video!
Read transcript
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 14-18 Slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake is one decadent, rich dessert! Brownie and peanut butter cookie dough are layered together and topped with chocolate ganache & a touch of peanut butter icing!
Ingredients
BROWNIES
- 1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 cups sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup cocoa (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
COOKIE DOUGH
- 1 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, toasted
- 3–4 tbsp milk
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
CHOCOLATE GANACHE
- 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided
PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp water or milk
- Mini chocolate chips, for topping, if desired
Instructions
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 1007
- Sugar: 81.1 g
- Sodium: 144.7 mg
- Fat: 62.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 109.9 g
- Protein: 12.8 g
- Cholesterol: 117.7 mg
Keywords: peanut butter cake, peanut butter cake recipe, brownie cake recipe, cookie dough cake, layer cake, layer cake recipe, peanut butter frosting, peanut butter frosting recipe, peanut butter frosting chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting brownies
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Enjoy!
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Is there an alternative to peanut butter, for allergies. And I loved this cake!!
★★★★★
Peanut butter, cookie dough, brownies? This has so many of my favorites in it! This sounds amazing.
Looks amazing. I only have natural (no sugar added) peanut butter in the house. Will that work for this recipe? Or should I buy sugar-added peanut butter. I’m not concerned about sweetness – just wondering about texture and the cookie dough part holding up.
I’ve never tried a peanut butter like that. I feel like it should be ok.
Hi,
In the cookie dough and brownie recipes, where it just says sugar, what kind of sugar do you use?
I also wanted to check what size eggs you use.
Can’t wait to make this cake.
I use regular granulated sugar and large eggs.
I made the cake and it tasted amazing… Thank you 😀👍
★★★★★
This recipe was a huge success. I baked in a number shaped tin. I “vegan”ised the cake with chia seed “egg” substitution and non-dairy milk and margarine, and didn’t use peanut butter as I was afraid not everyone likes that flavour the cake.
It was for a fifth anniversary party for my cinema group and it was a huge hit! It looked amazing and the cake itself was a huge success with everyone! Thank you.
★★★★★
Taking it to a cookout tonight! Mine doesn’t like as pretty as yours but I’m sure it’ll be delicious!
★★★★★
I’m sure it will be delicious! I hope everyone enjoys!
Made this for a co-workers Birthday, omg delicious. Everyone raved about it. Absolutely delicious, thank you for sharing the recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Shoot too bad raw flour has a risk of E Coli.
The recipe suggest toasting the flour to “cook” out any bacteria and make stable for unbaked cookie dough.
Made this yesterday for my cousins birthday and it didn’t come out quite as pretty. The ganache didn’t drip down as pictured above so I just covered the entire thing with the ganache lol! It was a huge success though, received many compliments. This is a keeper in my books and I can’t wait to try your other recipes!!! Thx!
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this today for my nephew’s birthday and it was a huge hit! So decadent, no one could hardly finish a whole piece (but they tried!). My question is, how do you cut the cake, or what kind of knife do you use, to get such a perfect piece of cake for the photo?
I have a very large knife that I use. It’s been a while since I took these photos, but I don’t remember doing anything special for the cake slice. I’m pretty sure the cake was nice and cold.
Glad everyone enjoyed it!