This chewy chocolate chip cookie cake recipe is easy to make and a serious crowd pleaser: the perfect treat for book clubs and pitch ins!
This cookie cake recipe was invented out of necessity. You see, Alex and I are in a book club. (This relates, I promise!) It’s a co-ed group that meets monthly to drink wine and discuss a book: and man, has it become the bright spot of our month! We read everything from graphic novels to thrillers to memoirs to YA, from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Gillian Flynn to John Green. And cookie cake: we also have cookie cake to mark the passing of each year. Keep reading for this cookie cake recipe — AND a list of book club recommendations!
Want to go for cookies instead? Try our Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Why a homemade chocolate chip cookie cake?
Celebrating with a cookie cake is the tradition of our book club on our “book club birthday.” It was just our fifth anniversary of meeting together, so of course: a cookie cake was in store! This year, I wanted to try to create one at home instead of buying it at the store.
Why make a homemade cookie cake recipe? While many of Alex and my dessert recipes are on the healthier side, take note: this cookie cake recipe does not have a healthy spin! We can’t really say homemade is healthier in this case. BUT, it is 100% more delicious than a store bought cookie cake. (We think, at least!) The dark chocolate chunks and a hint of orange zest make it seriously irresistible: the flavor is oh so real. And the texture: perfectly soft and chewy, just how we like our cookie cakes.
We sent this out to a recipe tester Erin, who made it with her two girls. She said, “It was SO GOOD. The orange zest was perfect. Why isn’t orange in all chocolate chip cookies?” Why indeed. And when we served it to our book club for the fifth anniversary bash, complete with “Happy birthday book club!” in icing, everyone loved it too. Are you ready to get cooking?
How to make this cookie cake recipe
This cookie cake recipe is pretty similar to a typical baked recipe: but as the name would suggest, it’s a cross between a cake and a cookie! The texture comes out perfectly soft and chewy, like a soft version of a cookie. For our version of a cookie cake, we used a normal 9-inch pie pan, which works perfectly.
For the flavor of this cookie cake, we wanted it to taste nuanced enough to taste grown up, but yummy enough to please kiddos too. Here are our tricks;
- Use both granulated and brown sugar. For this cookie cake, we’ve used two types of sugar to bring in a more nuanced sweetness.
- Use best quality dark chocolate. The better the chocolate, the tastier the recipe. Here we used over-sized dark chocolate chips for a fun visual.
- Use orange zest. Adding a bit of a tang to desserts brings out the flavor even more: just like adding a spritz of lemon to any recipe. Here we’ve played off the natural pairing of chocolate and orange. It brings in an undertone that makes it seriously addicting!
This cookie cake recipe is perfect for all sorts of occasions. Of course, it’s a fantastic treat or snack for a book club! Alex and I just brought it to a family cookout pitch in, which was fabulous. And if you’re celebrating a birthday, it’s also a really fun birthday treat for kids or adults! Whatever way you try it, let us know in the comments below if it’s a hit!
Book club book recommendations
Just for fun, here a few of the books we’ve read in our book club:
- Educated
- A Gentleman in Moscow
- Between the World and Me
- Crazy Rich Asians
- Where’d Ya Go, Bernadette?
- 11-22-63
- The Complete Persepolis
- Turtles All the Way Down
This cookie cake recipe is…
Vegetarian.
Print
Chewy Cookie Cake Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
This chewy chocolate chip cookie cake recipe is easy to make and a serious crowd pleaser: the perfect treat for book clubs and pitch ins!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon orange zest
- ¾ cup best quality dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch pie pan.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt in a bowl. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with an electric mixer), cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar with paddle attachment for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the vanilla, egg, milk, and orange zest and beat for 1 minute.
- With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture until just combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in ½ cup of the chocolate chips. Use a spatula to press down the dough into the pie pan. Top with the additional ¼ cup chocolate chips.
- Bake 25 to 27 minutes, until the edges are starting to brown and the center has fully firmed up. Cool several hours at room temperature before serving (the cookie cake is much too gooey to cut when it’s first baked, so the longer you can cool it the better!). Store at room temperature covered for up to 3 days or refrigerated for 1 week (bring to room temperature before serving.)
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Cookie Cake recipe, How to make a cookie cake, Chocolate chip cookie cake
Looking for easy dessert recipes?
This cookie cake recipe is very easy to make at home. Here are a few more of our favorite easy dessert recipes:
- No-Bowl Applesauce Cake
- Bliss Bites (Healthy No-Bake Cookies)
- Affogato
- Easy Bananas Foster
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
So delicious I might try and make this in my cast iron!
Yum!!! Have you made it with a flax egg and Miyoko vegan butter? Think I’m going to try it with those substitutions.
Did you use fresh or dry orange zest?
We used fresh orange zest!
Why do you use orange zest?
★★★★★
It adds a ton of flavor, but you are welcome to omit.
can i leave it overnight?
★★★★★
Good question! It stays fresh at room temperature covered for up to 3 days.
Wouldn’t this work better in a cake pan?
That would work too!