12 Apr Kicked Up Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
As I was looking for a good Cookie Cake recipe, I came across quite a few that include cornstarch in the recipe. Huh? Cornstarch in cookies?
The only things I’ve ever done with cornstarch are add it to gravy and make homemade silly putty. The rest of the time it just sits in the pantry taking up space.
I did a little research and apparently corn starch has a plethora of uses. Did you know you can use cornstarch to…make face paint?…as a dry shampoo?…polish silver?…kill roaches???
It also makes a pretty amazing cookie. Many bakers credit it as they “secret ingredient” for making the perfect, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie.
What does it do exactly? Well I’m not actually sure. The best reason I’ve found, without attempting go all Bill Nye the Science Guy on you, is that since cornstarch is a thickening agent and tenderizer, when you add it to baked goods some magic happens and it produces a softer, fluffier product.
Now let me tell ya, I’m no cookie expert. They have never really been my thing. I’m not very good at telling when they’re done and I have a really hard time getting that chewy, soft balance. I’m using a recipe I found on Pinterest from Life, Love & Sugar originally from Sally’s Apple a Day. I doubled the recipe below so that in addition to the cookie cake I could make some normal sized cookies for my dad (I’m sweet like that). I found them to be more fluffy and cakey (thank you, corn starch) than chewy, but still delicious.
I decided to KICK UP this recipe by making it a 2-layer cookie cake with an extra layer of fluffy American Buttercream. YUM!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- food coloring, if desired
Instructions
- Grease two 8" round cake pans, set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- In a stand mixer with paddle attachment or with hand mixer, cream butter and sugar until well blended.
- Add egg and vanilla and combine.
- Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl (do not sift) and use a spoon to mix so that baking soda, corn starch & salt get distributed throughout the flour.
- Slowly add to wet mixture, blending until just combined.
- Add in chocolate chips.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes - as long as overnight.
- Half the dough and press into cake pans. This dough will not spread much so if you want the top of your cake to look flat and flawless you'll need to smooth out the dough before baking.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.
- Cream together butter and shortening until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla and mix until combined.
- Begin adding powdered sugar in half cup increments. Continue adding until desired consistency and sweetness is reached.
- Add food coloring, if desired.
- Layer the cookies like you would a cake, adding a layer of icing in between them.
- Prepare an icing bag (or large ziploc) with a large star tip and get creative!
Candice
Posted at 14:58h, 12 AprilIt tasted even better than it looks!