One of my favorite go-to things to bake are actually the simplest things ever: chocolate chip cookies. I don’t have a fancy recipe (I literally just use the one on the back of the Hershey’s chocolate chip package), but in my opinion, a warm chocolate chip cookie dipped in milk at the end of a long day is like heaven. So as I was whipping up a batch the other day, I had an epiphany: why not translate the deliciousness of chocolate chip cookies and milk into cake form? It didn’t take me long after that to start testing recipes for the best milk & cookies cake ever. Here’s what happened:
It’s a chocolate chip cookie flavored cake with vanilla buttercream, chocolate ganache, and plenty of homemade chocolate chip cookies on top! I’m calling it a Milk & Cookies Cake as a nod to its inspiration.
Let’s talk about this cake. I based the ingredients off of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, so there are both brown and white sugars involved in the creaming process. The brown sugar gives such a deep, rich flavor and adds a little bit of moisture. I wanted it to be extra moist though, so I added a some sour cream to the batter as well.
You can use regular sized chocolate chips in this recipe, but I opted for mini chocolate chips instead! Either way, be sure to coat them in a few Tbsp of flour before folding them into your batter at the end. That will make it less likely for them to sink to the bottom of your cake layers in the baking process.
Vanilla buttercream is the milk to this chocolate chip cookie cake, and it provides a nice subtle flavor to wrap it all up in. Just like milk to a cookie, it’s a great complementary flavor that doesn’t try to steal the spotlight. Not too sweet, just right.
I used Wilton Tip 1M to pipe a buttercream rope border on top, then topped it with some homemade chocolate chip cookies to really go the extra mile! Here’s a quick video to show you the entire decorating process, from filling and frosting the cake layers to garnishing with cookies and chocolate ganache:
Like I said before, I’m all about the basic recipe on the back of the Hershey’s chocolate chip bag (although sometimes I get a little crazy and substitute the vanilla extract for almond extract – so tasty!), but if you’ve got a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and want to make them your cake toppers, my hat’s off to you. If you want to use store bought cookies like Chips Ahoy instead, you totally have my blessing. However you decorate it, you can be sure that this cake will satisfy all the cookies and milk loving people in your life!
Milk & Cookie Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- 3 3/4 Cups (400g) cake flour, sifted before measuring
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/8 Cup (254g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 Cup (220g) granulated white sugar
- 3/4 Cup (140g) packed brown sugar
- 5 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 Cup (112g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 Cups (355ml) whole milk, room temperature
- 1 1/2 Cups (283g) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, coated in 1.5 Tbsp flour
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp (45ml) whole milk, room temperature
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
For Garnish (optional)
- chocolate chip cookies
- chocolate ganache drip (see link below)
Instructions
Make The Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8-inch or four 6-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a cooking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and a wax paper circle fitted to the bottom of the pan. Alternatively, you can grease and lightly flour the pans.
- Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning and leveling it in your measuring cup. Add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter for on high for two minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Add in white and brown sugars and continue to mix on medium-high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and sour cream, turn the mixer to high, and mix for one minute, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the whole milk and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps, then fold in the flour-coated chocolate chips. Batter will be slightly thick, but pourable.
- Pour batter evenly into prepared cake pans (about 2/3 of the way full) and bake for 35-40 minutes. The cakes are done when they spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pan for five minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack for an additional few hours of cooling. Make sure they’re entirely room temperature before applying any frosting.
Make The Vanilla Buttercream
- With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy and light (almost white) in color. About 7 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each cup is fully incorporated before adding the next one. Add vanilla, milk, and salt and mix on medium-low for another two minutes until fully incorporated.
Assembly
- Fill and frost the cake layers with vanilla buttercream. Crumble the chocolate chip cookies (either homemade or store-bought) and garnish the cake by adding them to the bottom third of the frosted cake, pressing the crumbles in to the sides.
- If garnishing with a chocolate ganache drip, chill the cake for 30 minutes before dripping with ganache. Finish by piping a border on top with vanilla buttercream (I used Wilton Tip 1M) and placing whole chocolate chip cookies on top.
If I only have two 8″ cake pans, should I bake 2 layers at a time, wait the 5 minutes for it to cool, clean one pan and then bake the final 3rd layer? Will the batter be ok resting that extra 45 minutes on the counter? Also, do I need to change anything if I leave out the mini chocolate chips? I can’t wait to try this, it looks delicious.
Hi Amanda! Yes, you can totally let the batter sit on the counter, covered loosely with a kitchen towel, until you’re ready to bake that third layer. You don’t need to change anything if you want to omit the chocolate chips, but it won’t taste much like a cookie cake without them.
If I use cake flour, do I need to sift more than once?
I seen a comment saying if making your own cake flour, to sift 5-6 times, and I’ve just never heard it before so I wanted to verify.
Or would sifting it into the mixer bowl until it weighs 400g work?
Hi Sara! If you’re using store bought cake flour you only need to sift it once. You can sift it into a bowl on your kitchen scale until it reaches 400g – that’s my preferred method of measuring!
Delicious cakes, but not a fan of how they baked up. Very crumbly and the sugar almost seemed to bubble to the top as it baked and carmelized in patches all over.. I followed the recipe exactly. Hopefully once I frost it, the flaws in the cake layers will be hidden, so we’ll see!
Hi Mary! It sounds like something went awry. What kind of oven do you have? Conventional or convection (fan-assisted)?
Hi,
Should this cake bake at 350 regular or convect? I would assume convect as you are cooking the 3/4 pans at the same time, but I just want to make sure. Thanks
Hi Samantha! I use a regular oven. If you have a convection oven you may need to alter this recipe: https://www.marthastewart.com/8071049/convection-oven-recipe-conversion Hope that helps!
Hi! I can’t rate the cake yet as we haven’t tried it but did have a question. All the mini chocolate chips sank to the bottom of the cake during baking. Any idea why? I did coat them in flour as instructed. My daughter’s bday is tomorrow so I’m going to push though with this cake since I won’t have time to make another but am sad the mini chips all sank.
Hi Sarah! I’m so sorry the mini chips sank! That is very sad. The only thing I can think of is that the batter ended up too thin somehow. This can sometimes happen with ingredients that were warmer than room temp (oversoftened butter, etc) or mis-measuring the liquid. Either way I’m so sorry about your daughter’s birthday cake!
Question- Instead of using chocolate chips could I remove a cup or so of batter, add cocoa to it and swirl in? We don’t like chunks in cake. Also how much denser is the cake using the ap/starch combo vs cake flour? Thanks
Hi Jordan! I think adding cocoa powder to a little of the batter will work but I’m not sure exactly how much to add. Feel free to experiment! The cake shouldn’t be more dense with the homemade cake flour BUT the all purpose flour does weigh more than cake flour so go with the Cups measurement when substituting instead of the gram measurement.
I have not tried the recipe yet but I was wondering if when you toss the chocolate chips in flour, is it all purpose flour or the cake flour? Would it be okay if you used all purpose even though cake flour is in the recipe?
Hi Ashley! You can use either kind of flour for tossing the chocolate chips in 🙂 all purpose is fine!
Hi, I plan on making this cake for a birthday party. Can I substitute the sour cream for buttermilk? I saw online it can be but I was wondering if I could get your opinion on it beforehand. I can’t wait to try this, it looks super delicious
Hi Cassandra! The best sub for the sour cream in this recipe is plain yogurt. I have never tried subbing it with buttermilk so it would be an experiment if you decide to do that! Let me know how it goes if you do try it
Hello! This looks delicious- I would like to make this for my sons birthday- can I make in a 9×13 pan?! Thanks!
Hi Amber! I’m so excited for you to make this! It can be made in a 9 x 13 pan and here’s how to convert the recipe into a sheet cake: https://sugarandsparrow.com/sheet-cake-recipes/
I’m making this with 3 8” layers…should I increase the buttercream for crumb coat, frosting and piping?
I would make 1.25x the frosting recipe to make sure you have enough for filling, frosting, and decorating. Enjoy!
I’m making this cake(has been a hit before) for a combination 30th birthday cake for my son and a Mother’s Day celebration… this time I’m doing your Nutella ganache drip, which is INSANE… you make me look talented with your tutorials…THANK YOU.
Yay, Kathy! So so happy you’ve been getting so creative with my recipes! You make me want to mix and match more of them 🙂
Hi Whitney! I just made this cake and followed the directions exactly. All my chocolate sank to the bottom and the wax paper was STUCK to my cake. Did you mean parchment paper? I’m hoping it tastes great when we serve it for my daughter’s birthday party today.
Oh no, Amy! I’m so sorry to hear that the chocolate sank. I use Reynold’s brand wax paper to line my cake pans (it says you can do so on the box) and have never had a problem with it sticking. You could absolutely use parchment paper as an alternative next time. I hope it’s still a hit for your daughter’s birthday!
Hi Whitney! I’m currently trying your recipe but I’m getting tripped up with the flour measurement. I’m weighing my flour and only 3C reaches 400g. I’m using the all purpose flour with the corn starch method you mentioned. Is that making the difference?
Hi Stacey! Cake flour weighs much less than all purpose, so the cake flour substitute (which is essentially ap flour) will weigh more. Go ahead and disregard the cake flour weight in this recipe and go with the cups measurement when using the cake flour substitute. Hope that helps!
Can I use 2 9 inch cake pans
Hi Andria! You can, just be sure to fill them no more than 2/3 full. Enjoy!
I have a question, is the batter supposed to be smooth? I’m making it now and i still just put it in the oven just to see, but the batter was almost a little curdled??? Maybe my kitchen is too cold? Is this normal lol help
Hi Chasia! The batter will look a little curdled after adding the sour cream and vanilla, but when you add the dry ingredients and milk at the end it should look smooth and no longer curdled. Let me know how they baked! It sounds like the milk might have been too cold if the batter looked curdled at the end.