I like to have options.
I like to be picky and get what I feel like, not be constrained to one thing.
If I was a kid who had to wear a uniform to school, it would have been a rough K-12 life.
Says the girl who ALWAYS picks her clothes out for work the night before so as to avoid a 30 minute re-wardrobing crisis EVERY Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and FRIDAY morning. (Weekends don’t count here.)

Anyhow, options, choices, freedom, autonomy <-- all of these things appeal to our human selves naturally.
So here goes a cake that gives you the best of ALL THE WORLDS.
You make the cake layer. You can throw in chocolate chips or chunked up chocolate chip cookies if you want!
Then you make the frosting: it’s a cookie dough flavored one with butter, brown sugar. The ingredients are 90% identical to straight up cookie dough.
Minus eggs. Because salmonella.
You can swirl cookie crumbs into your frosting or dust the top of each layer with it.
OR you can say FUGGEDABOUTIT and make little eggless cookie dough balls to arrange on the top of your cake.
And if you make the eggless cookie dough and decide you want to eat it and not put it on your cake, you CAN!
And no one will ever know…

You can end up either here: the chocolate chip cookie cake decorated with cookie crumbs…

Or you can take the cookie dough approach and top the cake off with cute little dough balls reminiscent of the stuff found in the cookie dough ice cream! If you look carefully, you can see that I also stuffed the cake with cookies!!!

Did I mention how VERSATILE this cake is?

It all starts with some cookie crumbs. Chocolate chip, of course.

You swirl them into a chocolate chip cookie frosting for double the effect!

You frost that layer.

You sprinkle cookie crumbs on top.

Or keep it a blank slate.

STACKED.

And then you top it off like this… (Notice the cookies between the layers!)

Or like this… plus a few baby chocolate chips.

The possibilities are ENDLESS.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

Created by Jenny Barrett on May 9, 2016

Prep Time: 1h 30m
Cook Time: 30m
Total Time: 2h

Serves: 12
Yield: 12-16 slices

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

1 3/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup of 2% milk + 1 tbsp. lemon juice and let this sit for 5 minutes.)
1 cup hot coffee

Frosting

3/4 cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
dash milk, if
1/3 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chocolate chip cookie crumbs (about 6-7 medium cookies), divided

Edible Cookie Dough

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

Cake:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover the inside of two round 9-inch cake pans in foil and spray them with cooking spray. The foil is the best way to keep your layers intact.
Blend all cake ingredients-except the coffee-together. I like to add them in the conventional order as expressed above (sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, then mix, baking powder & soda, cocoa powder, then mix, and then alternate between adding the flour and milk) until thoroughly combined (a.k.a little to no clumps of dry ingredients remain)
Next, pour the coffee into the batter and stir until it is evenly distributed. The batter will be uber-thin. Pour the batter into the pans and pop them into the oven.
BUT WAIT-make sure you read this first! The key to even (versus rounded/uneven) layers is this: rotate the pans every 10-ish minutes AND pour an even amount of batter into each pan. I set my timer for 10 minutes, rotated the pans, set it again for 10 minutes, rotated the pans, and took them out somewhere between a total baking time of 25-30 minutes. To fill the pans evenly, use a measuring cup and alternate between scooping batter into each pan. The layers will be done They’ll be done when a fork or toothpick comes out almost- clean.
Let the cakes cool. Remove the cake layer from each pan and carefully pull back the foil from the cake. Flip the first layer onto a cake stand or carrier. I usually put a little dab of frosting onto the cake stand or carrier. to stabilize the cake.

Frosting:

To make the frosting, cream the butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar together until smooth and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in flour, salt, and vanilla, and mix well. Mix in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Add milk if you\'d like to alter the consistency (too thick); beat the frosting on high for 1-2 minutes if you\'d like the frosting to be fluffier. Once the frosting is your desired consistency, stir in 1 cup cookie crumbs and mini chocolate chips.

Eggless Cookie Dough:

To make the eggless cookie dough, cream the brown sugar and butter together on high for 1.5-2 minutes. Add in the flour. If the mixture is crumbly, add in milk 1 teaspoon at a time., being careful not to add too much. Mix in the chocolate chips. To assemble as seen in the picture, roll the cookie dough into balls about the size of cookie dough gobs you'd find in cookie dough ice cream. You will have leftovers.

Assembly:

To assemble the cake, frost the bottom layer and sprinkle with either chocolate chip cookie crumbs (about 1/2 cup) or layer whole cookies on top of the frosting. Place the top layer onto the cake and frost the top and sides of the cake. Top with eggless cookie dough balls or cookie dough crumbs and mini chocolate chips. Enjoy with a large glass of milk!