Remember the giant chocolate chip cookie cake you always wanted from the mall? Now you can have it any time in your own home, for any occasion. This soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie cake recipe (with a simple buttercream frosting) couldn’t be easier to make, and is easily adaptable to what you have on hand. Let’s bake and then celebrate!

overhead shot of chocolate chip cookie cake

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake Recipe

If you, like me, as a child of the 90s, often walked by those intoxicatingly sweet-smelling cookie cake stores at the mall (the one that comes to mind for me is Great American Cookies) and always wanted a cookie cake but never got to sink your teeth into one, NOW IS YOUR TIME. This cookie cake is made at home, with simple ingredients, and will bring you right back to the days of yore. Here is what you can expect from this cookie cake recipe:

  • A soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie that’s bigger than your face
  • The perfect cookie cake recipe for celebrating birthdays, holidays, etc.
  • A simple ingredient list
  • No-chill dough!
  • A super-easy buttercream frosting that you can customize to any color(s) and pipe on your cookie cake in any way you want
chocolate chip cookie cake close up

Ingredients You’ll Need

As promised, the ingredient list here is super simple — we’re not adding any weird ingredients or hard-to-find items to make our cookie cake dreams come true. Here is what you’ll need:

  • All-purpose flour
  • Baking soda, for leavening
  • Cornstarch, which gives this cookie cake a soft texture
  • Salt, for flavor
  • Butter
  • Brown sugar
  • Granulated sugar
  • Egg + egg yolk (the extra egg yolk makes this cake nice and chewy!)
  • Vanilla extract
  • Chocolate chips
  • Powdered sugar
  • Milk
  • Food color and/or sprinkles, for the frosting/topping
overhead shot of chocolate chip cookie cake

How to Make

The start-to-finish time for this cookie cake is super-fast; like, you can get this done in the time it takes to watch an episode of Succession (with some snack breaks and kids-coming-downstairs-for-a-glass-of-water breaks, IYKYK). Here is the basic rundown for how to make this recipe (remember, scroll down to the bottom of this post for the full recipe + ingredient amounts + instructions):

  • Step One: Line a 12-inch cake pan with aluminum foil. You can find a 12-inch cake pan online. I highly recommend getting a 12-inch cake pan for this recipe, as it’s the perfect size for a cookie cake; however, if you don’t have one or not in the market for one, you can use a 10-inch cake pan or 9-inch cake pan (see Recipe Notes for recommended bake times for these sizes). The cake won’t be as thin or large in these pans, but still delicious. P.S. A 9-inch cake pan will give you One Giant Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie.
  • Step Two: Mix together the dry ingredients for the cookie cake, then mix the wet ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients to form a soft, thick dough. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  • Step Three: Press the mixture into your prepared pan. Top with extra chocolate chips to make it pretty, if you want. Bake the cookie cake until the edges are golden brown and the top is lightly golden. Allow the cookie cake to cool completely in the pan.
  • Step Four: Remove the cookie cake from the pan and the foil, then place on a serving plate.
  • Step Five: Make the buttercream frosting, then pipe on as desired. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.
chocolate chip cookie cake with candles in it

How to Decorate

As you can see, I kept my cookie cake simple with a light pink piped border + sprinkles. After I took these photos, I piped on a large “6” in the center for my daughter’s birthday party. It was fun to see which kids wanted the frosted pieces and which liked the unfrosted ones more. You can also use cookie icing, gel decorating icing, or completely cover the cake in frosting. Consider the cookie cake your blank canvas! If you’re not into vanilla buttercream frosting, here are a few other frosting options that would work really well on this cookie cake:

How to Serve

You can cut the cake into thin wedges/triangles, or you can cut it into squares or rectangles. Either way works really well! I recommend using a serrated knife to cut into the bars for nice, clean cuts that go through the chocolate chips. No matter how you serve this cookie cake, it’s guaranteed to make any celebration that much sweeter. For a birthday, serve next to these Brownies From Scratch!

chocolate chip cookie cake with candles in it

More Celebration-Worthy Cake Recipes!

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overhead shot of chocolate chip cookie cake

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

  • Author: Stephanie
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
  • Yield: 16 servings 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: American
Print Recipe

Description

This celebration-worthy chocolate chip cookie cake is soft, chewy and perfectly oversized to feed a crowd for a birthday party or any special occasion.

Ingredients

Scale

For the cookie:

  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping
  • Sprinkles for topping, if desired

For the frosting:

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • Pinch salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
  • Gel food color, if desired

Instructions

  1. First, make the cookie cake: Heat your oven to 350°F. Line the bottom and sides of a 12-inch round cake pan with aluminum foil; set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon salt until combined. In a separate medium bowl, whisk melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, egg yolk and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract until combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients; use a wooden spoon or spatula to stir ingredients together into a soft, thick dough. Stir in chocolate chips.
  3. Press dough evenly into prepared pan. Top with a few more chocolate chips, if desired (this is purely for looks!). Bake 17 to 21 minutes or until top of cookie cake is lightly golden brown and edges of cake are golden brown. Cool completely in pan on a cooling rack, about 1 hour.
  4. Use foil to carefully remove cookie cake from pan; peel off foil, and transfer cookie cake to a large serving plate.
  5. Next, make the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, beat powdered sugar and softened butter until combined. Add pinch of salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon milk. Beat on medium speed until smooth; add more milk if needed to form a smooth, pipeable frosting. Beat in gel food color, if using.
  6. Transfer frosting to a large piping bag fitted with a decorating tip. Pipe frosting on cookie cake as desired. Immediately top with sprinkles, if desired. Serve immediately, or store loosely covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Notes

  • You can freeze this cookie cake, fully baked and cooled, unfrosted. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and foil; freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw, covered, at room temperature until soft enough to cut.
  • If you don’t have a 12-inch cake pan and don’t want to buy one, you can press this dough into a foil-lined 10-inch cake pan or 9-inch cake pan, though the dough will be much thicker. Add 12-15 minutes to the bake time; check the dough as it bakes to make sure it’s not under-baked or over-baked.

Keywords: chocolate chip cookie dough, cookie cake, chocolate chip cake, giant cookie