Sweeth Tooth Tuesday: Cookie Dough Chocolate Cake

Ummm....what to say about this cake?  It is amazing!!!  I have a total sweet tooth (okay...every tooth in my mouth is a sweet tooth.  Usually I could probably eat a whole cake and not be satisfied.  But after half a slice of this cake, my sugar craving was done.  It is a rich cake.  So you can totally get away with only making one to fee a bunch.  I  am a huge fan of cookie dough.  I usually make cookies just to eat the dough (admit....you do too!!!).  Well, forever ago I pinned this recipe and have been looking for an excuse to make it.  It is too big for just my family so I needed to make it when we had people over.  Then my husband volunteered us to feed the missionaries one night (go to lds.org for some more info that....)  From what I hear from missionaries is that they miss having home cooked meals and things like that.  So I decided this would be a nice treat for them.  They loved it.  

So the gist of this cake is it is a fudgy cake, with balls of cookie dough in it and then a layer of cookie dough frosting inbetween and on top.  Sound yummy?  well...it is!!!  I got the original recipe from Java Cupcake. (and no there is no java in this cake) In their version they did 3 layers....that was a bit much for what I needed so I cut the recipe in half and baked it in 2 9 inch rounds.

I copied her recipe and posted it, but go visit her site because she has some amazingly mouth watering pictures!!! 

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Fudge Brownie Cake
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, sliced
• 6oz unsweetened baker’s chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
Cookie Dough Frosting
• 36 Tbsp (4.5 sticks or 2 1/4 cups) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, loose - not packed
• 5-6 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 + 2 Tbsp cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp salt
• mini & regular chocolate chips to garnish

Instructions

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, sugars, milk and vanilla until smooth.
3. Whisk in the dry ingredients.
4. Add the mini chocolate chips and fold together.
5. Cover and freeze 30 minutes or until firm.
Fudge Brownie Cake
6. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Grease 3 8in cake pans, line with parchment paper, grease again then flour.
7. In a large sauce pan over medium-high heat, melt together the butter and bakers chocolate until smooth. Whisking often.
8. Add the sugar and whisk together until smooth.
9. Pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl.
10. Add the eggs, one at a time, and whisk after each addition. NOTE: Make sure to whisk well after each egg. The batter should become thick.
11. Whisk in the vanilla.
12. Sprinkle the flour, baking soda and salt over the batter and whisk until just combined.
13. Pour 1 1/2 cups of batter into each prepared cake pan.
14. Remove the cookie dough from the freezer. Roll marble sized balls of dough and drop into the batter. Add as many dough balls as you want... I added 12-15 per pan.
15. Using your finger, press the dough balls down into pan and cover with batter. You want all the balls to be completely submerged and covered with batter.
16. Bake on the center rack of your oven for 25-28 minutes or until the top begins to crack slightly and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
17. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. NOTE: It will be helpful to run a butter knife along the edge of the pan before removing the cake to help prevent sticking.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frosting
18. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
19. Crumble the brown sugar so that there are no lumps and add it to the butter. Cream together until smooth.
20. Sift the powdered sugar into the bowl and mix on medium-low speed until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again.
21. Mix in the vanilla.
22. Sift the flour into the bowl and mix on medium-low speed until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again.
23. Add the heavy cream and salt and mix on high for 1-2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix another minute.
Assembly
24. Place one cake layer on your cake stand and spread 1/4 inch layer of the frosting chips over the top. Place the second layer on top and spread another 1/4 inch layer of frosting. Place the last layer of cake on top.
25. Crumb coat the outside of the cake. Freeze the cake for 20 minutes.
26. Reserve 1 cup of frosting for decorating. Fold in 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips into the remaining frosting.
27. Cover the outside of the cake with the cookie dough frosting.
28. Using the straight edge of a cake decorating comb, make sure the sides and the top of the cake are smooth and even.
29. Using the edge with the triangle scallops, run the decorating comb along the outside of the cake.
30. Press mini chocolate chips onto the bottom 1-2 inches of the cake at the base.
31. Using a large star piping tip fitted to a disposable piping bag, pipe small swirls/mounds of frosting along the top edge of the cake. Place a chocolate chip, upside down in the center of each swirl.