Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake

Cale turned 30 in January!! He has never been a cake fan. He'll eat it, but he prefers other deserts more. I LOVE cake and I felt because it was such a BIG birthday he deserved a BIG birthday cake. But I put spin on it and made the "cake" layers out of giant chocolate chip cookies.

I found a recipe for this cake from  Martha Stewart, but I adapted it a little.

One last note, the original recipe has you spread barely sweetened cream cheese in between the layers. I made a cream cheese frosting and it was excellent. However, Cale didn't love the cream cheese. So if and when I make this again I would use  a Swiss Butter cream/Marshmallow/Regular Butter cream (choose one of the three not all of them) as the frosting to hold the cake layers together. That way the "cookie" taste comes through more.

For the cookie dough

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 cups semi sweet chips

For the frosting

16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
confectioners sugar to taste
vanilla extract, optional
milk,  to thin the frosting if it get to thick
To make the cookies

Preheat oven to 350º.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.

In a larger mixing bowl, add butter and sugar - mix until combined. This will look dry and not creamy as you would expect. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing until well combined after each. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the cream. Stir in the chocolate chips.

You need to make 5 cookie layers for this cake. Drop about 1 cup worth of batter on a piece of parchment paper - use an off-set spatula to spread the mixture into an evenly round 8" circle. Bake one at a time.

Bake until the edges are a rich golden brown and the center looks lightly golden on top, about 18 to 25 minutes, turning around halfway through. Remove to a wire rack and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining cookie dough until you have 5 rounds.

To make the frosting

In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter  until soft and creamy. Add  confectioners' sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract if using and mix in milk if the frosting is too thick. Spread mixture onto 4 of the giant cookies. Stack the cookies on top of each other and place the final unfrosted piece on top. Cover and place in the refrigerator to set the cream cheese, about 20 to 30 minutes. Serve at room temperature.