Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

For Ava's recent birthday party she requested a completely different kind of birthday cake. I use the word "cake" loosely, because her cake wasn't actually a cake. Rather, it was thick, chewy chocolate chip cookies stacked on top of each other with layers of icing in between. A chocolate chip cookie cake! Doesn't it look delicious?

The theme of Ava's birthday party was Pokémon, so in keeping with the theme I made a few cake toppers featuring some of her favorite characters. I love how the cakes turned out. They look a little more grown up than the cakes I usually make, so they're perfect for a 10 year old, but the cake toppers tie them in with the party theme and add a little fun.

I originally got the idea for a chocolate chip cookie cake from Foodstirs, a kid friendly baking subscription box that I receive each month. Each month's box features a fun baking idea along with all the (non-fresh) ingredients required. A few months back our box featured a chocoloate chip cookie cake. We ended making it for Kim's birthday in December and it was such a hit with the kids that Ava decided then and there that she wanted the same thing for her birthday.

The chocolate chip cookie mix included in the Foodstirs box was absolutely delicious, but as I have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe that I like to use, I decided to go with that and modify it a little for Ava's cake. Today I'll be sharing my recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake as well as templates for the cake toppers.

What you'll need:

For the cookies:
Set of 3 mini spring-form pans (You can find them here on Amazon)
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli)

For the icing:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Sprinkles for decorating

This recipe made enough for 6 thick cookies (two cakes). I made three cakes all up so I made the recipe twice and we had one cake left over for home.

Preheat the oven to 325F (165C).

Grease the pans and put aside.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. If, like me, you don't own a sifter, you can easily sift the dry ingredients together with mesh colander and a wooden spoon or spatula (see photo further down). Set dry ingredients aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy.

Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. I don't own a sifter, so I used a fine mesh colander placed over the mixing bowl, and use a spatula or wooden spoon to "sift" the dry ingredients into the bowl.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.

Fill each mini pan 3/4 full with cookie mix. Use a spatula to press the mix into the pan and to smooth the top.

Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven or until a skewer poked into the center of the cookies comes out clean. Depending on the thickness of each cookie, the baking time may be a little longer.

Leave the cookies in the pans to cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

While the cookies cool, make the icing by mixing the icing sugar, butter, Greek yoghurt and vanilla together in a medium bowl until smooth.

Once the cookies have cooled it's time to assemble the cake (something I missed taking photos of as I prepared for the party). Based on personal preference, work out the order you would like to stack the cookies. I put the thicker cookies at the bottom and tried to use ones with smoother tops at the top. Apply a generous amount of icing between each layer of cookie. I found it easiest to apply the icing to the bottom of the middle and top cookies as the bottom is nice and flat. Once the stacked cookies are stuck together with icing, decorate the top with a generous layer of icing and sprinkles.

The cake looked pretty good as is, but in keeping with the Pokémon theme of Ava's party I added four small cake toppers featuring different Pokémon charcters. I made the cake toppers using my printer and Cricut machine. You can find the printable for the cake toppers here.

I used the "Print then Cut" option in the Cricut Design Space to make these cake toppers. You could always cut them out by hand if you don't have a Cricut machine. I find curved nail scissors handy for this sort of thing. Once the cake toppers were cut out, I attached a tooth pick to the back of each with tape and they were ready to put in the top of the cake.

 Ava and her friends love her chocolate chip cookie cake. It was a novelty because it was so different from the birthday cakes I usually make, but it also tasted fantastic!

Have you ever made a cookie cake before? Trust me, after you try this one you'll be making them for every party!

Lemonade & Cookies

 Yesterday the girls ticked another American childhood Summer must-do of their list.

They held a lemonade (and cookie) stand with friends!

Oh what a cute stand it was!

Thank You Cookies

As a little gift to show their appreciation for all their help throughout the year, Ava and Lola baked cookies for their teachers.

Cooking with Kids: Hand Drawn Cookies

Today Ava and Lola celebrated their friend Solly's 3rd birthday with a party in a nearby park.

The girls wanted to give Solly something special that they had made themselves so we decided to bake some cookies. To make the cookies special the girls personalised them with drawings.

Here's a look at the hand drawn cookies we made and how you can make them yourself too...

Happy birthday cookies

Easter Party

I mentioned earlier that last weekend was a busy one for us with a cheerleading competition and an Easter Party. We've already seen the cheerleading competition - go Berkeley Bear Cubs! - so now let's see the Easter party...

Little Easter cuties

Christmas Tradition: Honey Biscuits

Every year in the lead up to Christmas my Mum bakes honey biscuits. They've become one of my family's Christmas traditions, taking the place of gingerbread.

In keeping with tradition, making honey biscuits was one of the Christmas activities in Ava and Lola's advent calendar; the most delicious activity in the advent calendar!

Honey Biscuits

Lola's 2nd Birthday

It's official... my little baby is no longer a baby. Lola turned 2 yesterday so I guess now she's a fully fledged toddler.

To celebrate Lola's birthday we had a little party on Sunday up on our roof deck. After a foggy, grey start to the morning the sun eventually came out and we ended up with a glorious sunny day. Good friends, lovely weather, lots of sugar... what more could a 2 year old want?

Lola has been a little obsessed with Mickey Mouse since our trip to Disneyland last month so it was pretty easy to pick a theme for her party. Mickey Mouse ears everywhere! On the cake, the cookies, the cheese platter, the piñata, the guests...

Here's a little look at Lola's special day.

Stay tuned for a few detailed posts about some of the Mickey Mouse goodies I prepared for the day...

Mickey Mouse birthday cake. 

My little Mouseketeers!

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and for the first time ever I'm actually excited about it. Not for lovey-dovey romantic reasons mind you, but because Ava's class at pre-school will be exchanging valentine's cards/chocolates/treats etc - just like on tv!

In Australia Valentine's Day is really just for couples. Here in America Valentine's Day is embraced by everyone in honour of all the people they love; partners, family, friends, classmates etc. I really like this way of celebrating Valentine's Day. Sure it's over the top and Hallmark and Hershey must make a fortune from it, but it's nice to think about all the people who are special rather than just one person.

Ava will be exchanging valentines with 27 of her classmates tomorrow (plus her 3 teachers) and as with every other opportunity to hand out cards we've decided to go with something home made. I was going to help Ava make personalised cards for each of her classmates but this was going to be very time consuming and a lot of work for Ava. Instead I decided that we'd bake sugar cookies for the class and print labels that Ava can personalise with each child's name. More work for me but much, much less work for Ava.

Now, in my opinion Valentine's Day cards and gifts must have the cheesiest wording on them possible; think "I choo choo choose you" from The Simpsons. I ran through a few different heart and cookie themed cheesy sayings before Ava decided that "Sweet hearts for my sweetheart" was perfect. Actually, she thinks it's absolutely hilarious and laughs like a maniac every time she says it!

To make our little heart cookies even sweeter we decorated them with coloured sugar. I think they came out quite pretty. They're also very delicious!

Sweet little heart cookie