Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Get into the March Madness spirit with this tasty Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake!
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It’s almost tournament time. The upcoming several weeks rank right up there at the top of the list for my favorite times of the sports year. You can pretty much turn on the tv any time of the day and find a college basketball tourney game on. And because these are tournament games, everyone is playing with extra purpose. Lose, and you’re out. Win, and you move on.
I fill out a tournament bracket every year. I can usually make it through the first day or two without sustaining major injuries…but then everything usually falls apart. The team I predicted to win the whole thing loses in the Second Round. Or another team I predicted to make the Final Four bows out early. There’s a reason why Warren Buffett offered $1 billion dollars to anyone who could pick a perfect bracket back in the 2014 tournament. The odds of picking perfection were 1 in 9.2 quintillion. In case you’re wondering, no one made it past the first 31 hours of the tournament that year. Warren’s billion stayed safe under his mattress. Or wherever else you hide a billion dollars.
Do you guys fill out tourney brackets each year? Do you put thought into each game, or do you just take a random guess at it? I’ve heard of the whole ‘going with the team colors’ thing. “I like royal blue more than baby blue, therefore I’m picking Duke over UNC.” Sound logic. I’ve heard of the whole ‘going with team mascots’ thing, too. “A devil with a pitchfork could easily defeat a sheep, therefore I’m picking Duke over UNC.” Again, sound logic.
But speaking of team mascots, can we take a moment to celebrate some of the best team names in the country? There’s the mighty Banana Slugs of UC-Santa Barbara. And there’s the Idaho Vandals. What exactly does a vandal do? Does it inspire fear in their opponents by threatening to break their car windows?
Not to be outdone, there’s the Fighting Artichokes from Scottsdale (AZ) Community College. (Since community colleges games aren’t usually televised, their athletic budgets are usually small. But I’m guessing Scottsdale rakes in the money on t-shirt sales for the Fighting ‘Chokes. Genius move on their part, really.)
Ok, ok, just one more and then I’ll stop. From the ranks of minor league baseball, my favorite is the Hartford Yard Goats. Rumor has it that there will be a petting zoo at some of Hartford’s home games this year. Yes, you can pet a yard goat.
But before we wrap up this talk about college basketball, we have to talk about this Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. Truthfully, this cookie cake could make an appearance at all sorts of events. Birthdays, anniversaries, Super Bowl, Mondays, etc. But with March Madness right around the corner, I decided to go with a simple basketball decoration here. No matter what color frosting you use, this Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake is one legit dessert! Forget braving mall traffic to get a cookie cake…make one at home yourself. And no matter your team, good luck in this year’s tournament! I’m off to decide who would win the battle between a yard goat and an artichoke. (Just kidding, we all know that a yard goat > an artichoke!)
Do you have any other favorite sports mascot names?
What is your favorite occasion for Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake? (The correct answer is all occasions.)
And just one more…because it’s my favorite mascot name of all time. The mascot for The Arkansas School for the Deaf is the leopards. Think about that one for a moment.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Ingredients
For the Cookie Cake
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips
For the Frosting
- 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ cups confectioner’s sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp milk
- ½ Tbsp vanilla extract
- orange and black food coloring gel
Instructions
For the Cookie Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Spray or lightly grease a 9” round tart pan; set aside. (Note: If you don’t have a tart pan, feel free to use a larger pan like a cheesecake pan. The extra height won’t matter!)
- Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (~3 minutes on medium speed).
- Add egg and vanilla extract; mix until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir until well combined. Add this dry mixture to the mixing bowl and mix on low speed until just combined. Fold the chocolate chips into the dough.
- Press dough into prepared baking pan. Bake at 350°F for 21-23 minutes, or until edges just begin to turn golden brown. Side aside to cool.
For the Frosting
- Using a countertop mixer, beat butter on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
- Add powdered sugar cup at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition until well incorporated.
- Add salt, milk and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Place ⅓ cup of frosting in a small bowl. Using black food coloring gel, color this frosting black; set aside.
- Place remaining frosting in a separate bowl. Using orange food coloring gel, color this portion of the frosting orange.
- Using a piping bag fitted with a small star tip, pipe a ring of orange stars around the outer edge of the cake.
- Using a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, pipe curved lines on cake to resemble a basketball. Slice into wedges before serving.
This is the PERFECT dessert for watching March Madness! I’m pretty much drooling on my keyboard…so many chocolate chips! I started watching the tournament my first year in college, because I was procrastinating and didn’t want to study for finals, but I ended up getting so into it that I actually cried when my college’s team lost in the Final Four. Having a big slice of this cookie probably would have consoled me, though!
You can’t ever have enough chocolate chips! 🙂 Wow…your team made it to the Final Four that year? You must support a pretty darned good team then! Do you still watch the tourney? I seriously love this time of the year. That Thursday and Friday of the first rounds of the tournament are so much fun. So many crazy upsets…and a great excuse to make cookies!
Hi David! We are on the same flavor page once again – I made chocolate chip cookies yesterday! I use mini chips because they distribute through the dough more evenly and I like lots of walnuts! My favorite time to eat them is around 3 a.m.and I think Thursday is the perfect “occasion”. 🙂 Have a great weekend!
You beat me to it this time, Dorothy! Mini chocolate chips are a solid choice for cookies…and walnuts = yes! I often add nuts to my cookies (and quickbreads) because I love the texture. Any day ending in “y” is a good day to eat cookies as far as I am concerned! 🙂
This chocolate chip cookie cake is gorgeous! The yello star piping is perfect!! I never knew much about basketball (in SA we just know about rugby, cricket, and a little soccer) until we became friends with a basketball player from the States that moved here on a contract. I really like it because it is fast pased and so much fun to go watch a live game 🙂
Haha…I had to dig out my star frosting tip for this one, Johlene. But it was totally worth it. Nothing beats a frosted chocolate chip cookie! Wow, you are friends with a pro basketball player? That’s pretty awesome. Where did he/she play in college? College bball is by far my favorite! I just don’t find the game very interesting at all once it hits the pro level.
If I had a million, I would definitely hide it in my lavender fields. It’s not an obvious choice, is it? But just for the record: I don’t have a lavender field. But talking about this recipe, you nailed it, David! What could be better than one large cookie? A dozen of large cookies or even better – such a delicious gigantic cookie pretending to be a cake. I am only wondering…if someone (not me!) by a chance eat the whole cake, would it count as just one cookie?:)
Well that is definitely an obvious choice for you, Ben. But here’s the thing. That million would be pretty safe…because I’m guessing there wouldn’t be a lot of people tromping through your lavender fields! Oh, and for the record, this definitely only counts as one cookie. That’s how we like to roll around our house! 🙂 Hope you guys had an awesome weekend up there north of the border!
The mascot for the Interlochen Arts Academy is “the fighting blueberries.” Which would be very scary if your team was “the undiagnosed tumors.” No kidding, though. They grow a lot of blueberries up there, and I happen to know of a secret, blueberry patch from which I gather my pie berries every summer.
Fighting blueberries, eh? I mean, what sort of fear does that inspire? But better yet, what does the mascot look like? Does he/she throw pints of blueberries out to the crowd at halftime? Because I do love me some blueberries. Wait. Hold up. A secret blueberry patch. Tell me the location now. Please. I’ve also dreamed of having secret berry patches hidden away. I’ll make you a cookie if you tell me where to find blueberries. Deal?
1 in 9.2 quintillion, holy heck, that’s insane odds. I guess Warren’s was a sure bet – that he’d keep it!
As for this one here, I’d under bake it a tad so it would be a little gooey and not tell anyone. All mine 🙂
Hey, I’m guessing Warren didn’t get filthy rich by making dubious bets. He only made that bet because he knew he would be safe! (That, and I’m sure the bet was insured by one of those game insurance companies…) As for this cookie, I won’t tell a soul if you underbake it…and then hide it under your bed for safe keeping. 🙂
I love me a chocolate chip cookie in any form, but cookie cakes might be one of my all time faves 🙂 Pinning!
Tell me about it, Medha! I love a good cookie cake! 🙂
I am going to focus on the cookie. It looks great. Tasty and large – plenty to have and share. I like how you decorated it too.
Thanks so much, Peter! I definitely had plenty of this cookie to share. I took it up to the curling club, and we devoured it after one of our games. I appreciate you leaving a comment! 🙂
I am not much of a sports fan, but my hubby is. He will be watching these games for sure. I probably would watch at least some of the games if I had this chocolate chip cookie cake to munch on while watching the game. It looks fantastic! I love all of those chocolate chips.
Yeah, my wife doesn’t really watch the games…and that’s ok by me. It means I can go down in the basement and yell at the tv all by myself! Well, all by myself with a giant cookie. Haha! 🙂
I never fill out the brackets….but I would have been all over it had I know there was big bucks in it for me! I’m certain I would have picked the winners….see you all over think it, but for me it would have been just total randomness! Bound to be a winner that way. Since I missed that opportunity, I will just have to settle for something else great – like this cookie cake! I’m all about chocolate chips! This looks like a winner!
I’m with ya, Kathy. Total randomness! That would have most certainly netted you the billion dollars. And I know you would have shared that billion with everyone, right? (Including the chickens…the chickens need bucks, too!) But oh well. That contest is over. I’m sure there are some other great prizes to be had in this year’s tourney contests…but I’ll be happy with another one of these cookie cakes! 🙂
Your chocolate chip cookie cake made me smile! When I was a little girl (not long ago) I used to dream of big cakes and giant cookies. Well, I guess I still dream about the same!
Love the piping on the giant cookie, looks so cute David 🙂
You can totally still dream about big cookies, Muna…and then you can make them! And if you happen to make an extra giant cookie just for yourself? Well, your secret will be safe with me! 🙂
Okay. This is ridiculous. I need you to teach me yet another sporting event/game/sport thing I am unaware of!!! Geebuz, I thought I had JUST learnt the super bowl.
If I break ice cream to have with this cake, is that a fair compromise?
Oh, you need to learn about college basketball, mate. 68 teams make the tournament every year. 67 games later, you have a champion. That’s right. A 68 team bracket. That means we can have 68 cookies right? We’ll just decorate each one in the colors of the team that is playing! 🙂
Cookie in a cake? Okay, I am sold! The decoration looks kind of Halloween like too 🙂
This cake is just screaming for ice cream too.
Yeah, I was totally thinking that as I was making this one, Dannii. It looked like I was making a Halloween cake. You know what? That means I can make this cake for Halloween AND college basketball season now. And I’m ok with that! 🙂
I’ve never filled out tourney brackets but I will gladly fill my pie hole with this cookie cake! Notice, I didn’t say I’d fill my pie hole with a SLICE of this – no – I want the whole darn thing! Love how nice and thick and Uniform it is!
BTW, a petting zoo at a minor league baseball game might actually have me wanting to go to said game – that’s bad right?! )
Hope y’all had a lovely weekend my Upstate NYC friend!
Haha! Since this is a cookie, does that make it a cookie hole? 🙂
This is absolutely delicious David! I pinned this yesterday I guess but forgot to comment, lol! love love this, I have always loved this idea of turning cookie into a cake!
Thank you so much for pinning this one, Manali! I hope you had a great weekend! 🙂
I could DEFINITELY go for a nice big slice of this cookie cake right now! Looks so good!!
While I don’t bet on basketball, I get really into Fantasy Football every year.. so I get it! I love how with football, it lasts for months… months of ups (when your QB bangs out 35 points and gives you a big W) & downs (when you picked Adrian Peterson in the first round, then he doesn’t play all season because he beat his kid). It’s a lot of fun!
Haha…Adrian Peterson seemed like such a solid fantasy pick this year. You just never know. I guess that’s kinda what makes fantasy football fun…and annoying! I didn’t do fantasy football this year, but I will most definitely be filling out a tourney bracket. I usually don’t do it for money since that’s just hard to organize…bragging rights are good enough for me! (Of course, I also never win…so there’s that.) Either way, let’s eat cookie cake and watch sports? 🙂
First of all, I’d love to be a fighting artichoke. That makes total sense to me, given the number of times I’ve impaled the end of my finger on one of those spiky leaves. Artichokes ain’t messing!
And thanks to my alma mater, I am a Maryland Terrapin, as in a fighting turtle. I mean, WTF. A turtle?!
And I grew up a Hoosier. Nobody knows what that is.
But I do know that this cookie cake is magnificent and adorable at the same time. Cookie cakes are SO much better than just cake cakes!
Haha! You should totally order yourself a Fightin’ Chokes shirt, Mir. 🙂 Hey, watch out. Those fightin’ turtles will get ya…if they can ever catch you! Let’s bake up a gigantic cookie cake and pick a tourney bracket based on who would win in mascot fights, ok?
I always love the concept of cookie cake.. It makes me smile.. And I was just wondering that even after baking your chocolate chips looks perfect. Have properly mix them in you dough or just sprinkled that on the top just before baking.I am very new baking so just curious about that ☺
Hey there, Priya! I just added the chocolate chips in at the end of the mixing, but I did use my countertop mixer to make sure they were fully mixed in. (This can be done by hand, but the mixer just makes it easier.) Oh, and I did use larger chocolate chips than normal. Not on purpose…it just happened to be what was in my pantry. Baking is so much fun, and I’m glad you’re getting into it! There are so many awesome things you can bake! 🙂
Wow! This recipe is fantastic! I made it to celebrate Chocolate Chip Cookie day. Soft and gooey cookie with a creamy chocolate frosting. Amazing! Sally, I have loved all of your recipes that I’ve made! Your blog is my go-to for recipes. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks, Elizabeth! Glad you enjoyed this recipe…it’s one of my favorites when I’m craving a good chocolate chip cookie! 🙂
Cake looks awesome david. i envy the baking grace you have. Cream on it just adds a sparkle to the cake. Craving for a piece
Thank you so much, Smitha! You know…I taught myself a good bit of what I know about baking. So that means you can teach yourself, too…just get in the kitchen and start practicing! 🙂