25 Jun Chocolate Chips Ahoy Dinosaur Cake

I’d like to pretend that the timing of this cake was intentional. Carefully planned to coincide with the film release heard around the world (or at least by those of us whose formative years fell in the 1990s) – the feat of computer-generated imagery (though perhaps not storytelling) that is Jurassic World. Or in other words, the movie that made you really want to see Chris Pratt shirtless…the guy whose abs, three years ago, we were all pretty sure we’d never even dream of shirtless. Or maybe I’m just late to the game?

Okay, backing up. This place of chocolate cake pushing and butter praising is definitely not the platform for objectifying rock hard abs. Forget abs. Love cake.

And this cake, which ever-so-conveniently happens to be dinosaur-themed during the record-setting run of one of the most anticipated film releases of the year that also happens to be dinosaur-themed? Coincidence. Swearsies.

Really.

The inspiration, I think, is even cooler. A 60-something geologist, owner/grower/manscaper of what I think has to be a record-setting 45-year-old mustache, with a strong affinity for stiff bourbon cocktails, western movies, cargo shorts and who uses his iPhone exclusively for Googling whatever he’s watching on TV – or, the dude, my numero uno, my dad.

A self-proclaimed “purist”, he’s a die-hard fan of both simple chocolate cakes & the lunchbox staple Chips Ahoy. Since crushed Chips Ahoy look like rocks (remember, geologist), and Sunday was Father’s Day, this fortuitous cake was born into creation. And just for funsies, (and to tie my rambling loose ends together) we did go see Jurassic World, which, while maaaaybe a little underdeveloped and mostly hokey, I thoroughly enjoyed.

Two tiny T Rex arms up!

This is a somewhat simple cake that pays homage to chocolate in all of its finest forms, those being: cake, icing, ganache and cookie. If I could have fit in ice cream, I would have, but ice cream cakes don’t last long in the Texas summer heat so instead I just ate a big, fat scoop on the side.

So let’s break this monster down. Two layers of my favorite chocolate cake (yes, again), frosted with a light, fluffy chocolate buttercream, covered in rich, unsweetened chocolate ganache (which looks like lava and, for some reason, lava reminds me of dinosaurs – and we’re sticking to a theme, here!) and piled high with crushed Chips Ahoy cookies (because, rocks…and cookies). Oh, and some more crushed cookies thrown in between the two layers for good measure.

And because your ten-year-old would LOVE this and from what people with children tell me, ain’t nobody got time for from-scratch cakes, cheater alert: this one could easily be faked, ahem, adapted, to be made top-to-bottom with store-bought mix and icing. Though, if you have the time, I highly recommend making it from scratch, because I’m a food blogger and I’m supposed to say things like that. (But really, you do you.)

Enjoy!

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