Christmas Sugar Cookie Dough Cake
Layers of extra soft vanilla cake, vanilla buttercream, and edible sugar cookie dough with Christmas sprinkles! A fun and decadent dessert for the holidays.
Servings 15 slices
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake
- 2 3/4 Cups (290g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 Cups (300g) granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs + 2 egg whites, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Cup (240ml) whole milk, room temperature
Edible Sugar Cookie Dough Filling
- 1 Cup (133g) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 Cup (75g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 Cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 Cup (30g) powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 Cup (45g) Christmas colored sprinkles optional
Vanilla Buttercream
- 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
- 4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 4 Tbsp whole milk, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
Garnishes
- sugar cookies** store bought or homemade
- Christmas colored nonpareil sprinkles
Instructions
Make the Vanilla Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare three 6-inch or two 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with a cooking spray (Baker's Joy is my favorite) and fitting a parchment paper circle to the bottom of the pan.
- 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!), beat the butter on high for two minutes until it's light and creamy. Add in the sugar and continue to mix on medium-high for another two minutes. Turn the mixer to low and add the eggs and egg whites, one at a time, mixing until just combined and scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the vanilla and sour cream, turn the mixer to high, and beat for one full minute. It will look curdled at this point, but don’t worry – it will become smooth cake batter at the end.
- Add in the dry ingredients all at once and turn the mixer to low speed. Mix until just combined, then slowly pour in the milk. Continue to mix on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs with a whisk to make sure there are no lumps. The batter will be slightly thick.
- Pour the batter evenly into the prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. They're 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 Edible Sugar Cookie Dough Filling
- Heat Treat the Flour: Preheat the oven to 300ºF (149ºC) and add the flour on top, smoothing it down into a fairly even layer. Bake in 2 minute increments until the temperature of the flour reaches 160ºF (71ºC). You can check by inserting a food grade thermometer into the deepest pile of the flour. It took about 4 minutes for mine to reach 160ºF (71ºC).
- Once the flour reaches this point, remove it from the oven. Carefully lift up the parchment paper and use it to slide the flour into a separate bowl. Set aside to cool for 20-30 minutes, until the flour is room temperature, before moving on to the next step.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a large bowl and hand mixer), add the butter, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar. Beat on high speed until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, almond extract, and salt. Mix on medium speed until fully combined, 1-2 minutes. Add the heat treated (now room temperature) flour and continue mixing on low speed until the mixture forms a uniform dough, about 1 minute, then fold in the sprinkles.
- Form the Cookie Dough Discs: Using the same diameter cake pans you used to bake the vanilla cake, line the bottoms with wax or parchment paper. If you baked three 6-inch cake layers, divide the cookie dough into two equal portions and line the bottom of two 6-inch cake pans. Press the dough into each cake pan until it is about 1/4 inch thick disc, leaving about 1/2 inch between the edge of the disc and the edge of the cake pan. If you baked two 8-inch layers, line the bottom of one 8-inch cake pan and press all of the dough into one disc, leaving the same 1/2 inch space between the disc and cake pan edge.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough disc(s) for about 15 minutes to make them easier to handle before using them in the cake assembly. Alternatively, you can wrap the whole disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough up to one week ahead.
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.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar a few cups 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 low for another minute until fully incorporated.
Assembly
- Once the vanilla cakes are cooled throughout, level and torte the layers to your desired height. Place a cardboard cake circle on top of your cake turntable, add a swipe of buttercream (to act as glue), and place the first cake layer on top of it. Add a thin layer of vanilla buttercream onto the cake layer, then place the sugar cookie dough disc on top. Add about 1 Cup of vanilla buttercream into a piping bag and use it to pipe around the edge of the cookie dough disc to fill in the gap between the edge of the disc and edge of the cake. Keep piping until you reach the top edge of the disc, then place the next cake layer on top. Repeat this filling and stacking process with any additional layers.
- Crumb coat the cake with vanilla buttercream and place it into the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to let the crumb coat firm up before frosting with a smooth layer of vanilla buttercream.
- To create the design pictured, while the frosting is still tacky to the touch, add Christmas-colored nonpareil sprinkles to the bottom edges of the cake. Add the remaining buttercream into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 1M and pipe 6 buttercream swirls on top of the cake, spaced about 1/2 inch apart. Place a sugar cookie (or half of a sprinkle sugar cookie in this case) in between each swirl. Top each swirl with more Christmas-colored nonpareil sprinkles.
Notes
*DIY Cake Flour Recipe: To make your own cake flour, spoon and level one cup of all-purpose flour and remove 2 Tbsp. Add 2 Tbsp of cornstarch. Repeat per the amount of cake flour you need, then sift the flour and cornstarch mixture 4 times (don't skip that step!). After sifting, spoon and level to re-measure the amount of cake flour you need.
**Sugar Cookies: I used this recipe for the sprinkle sugar cookies on top of the cake pictured, but you can use store bought sugar cookies or any homemade sugar cookie recipe.
Make ahead tips:
- The vanilla cake layers can be baked, cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap, and left out at room temperature up to two days ahead of decorating. Unfrosted cake layers can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to two months before thawing and frosting.
- The sugar cookie dough filling can be made ahead, formed into discs, wrapped in plastic wrap, then stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.
- The vanilla buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip in your stand mixer to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency.