Behemoth Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

I learned it was Jeff's birthday during our weekly Monday morning meeting. Honestly, I hear the word "birthday" and its hard for me to focus after that.When the meeting was over, the first thing I did was send him an email to find out what special birthday treat he wanted; but he said he wasn't picky and I could surprise him. Yikes!


I talked it over with a few coworkers and although one of the suggestions was to make Raisin Bran Muffins (Jeff often eats the cereal for breakfast and lunch), we knew it had to be something rich, involving chocolate, and extremely caloric. It was then when I remembered a brief conversation I had last Friday when my coworker Peter, who told me I should check out "this amazing giant chocolate chip cookie cake on the Martha Stewart website". I'm so glad I did because it turned out Jeff really wanted chocolate chip cookies!

Don't be fooled by the pictures, this cake was HUGE! It weighted about 5 lbs and was close to 6 inches tall!

I LOVED watching everyone's reaction to the cake. I just left it on my desk and as people walked past me, they'd see the cake, do a double-take, and get this huge little kid like smile on their face. Those smiles, those "oohs!" and "aahs!" is why I bake. 

Behemoth Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Yield: I was able to get 16 slices out of the cake but they were so big and rich that I ended up splitting them in half (except for Jeff's slice!) which yielded about 30+ servings. Adapted from Martha Stewart Online

Cake
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 light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Filling - Plain
4 8oz packages of full fat cream cheese, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar

-or-

Frosting Variation - Peanut Butter and Nutella - (thanks to Jeff who left a comment)
3 8 oz packages cream cheese
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.5 cups confectioners' sugar
3-5 spoonfulls peanut butter (or more to taste)
3-5 spoonfulls nutella (or more to taste)

 

If you have a Silpat mat: Trace an 8 inch circle on a piece of parchment paper using a thick pencil. Place it face up on a cookie sheet. Place your Silpat mat face up on top of the parchment. You should be able to see the circle you drew peeking beneath the Silpat. If you don't have a Silpat mat, flip the parchment paper face down on the cookie sheet.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Put butter and brown and granulated sugars into mixer bowl and mix on medium until well combined (it will look very dry and not fluffy at all). Mix in vanilla, eggs, and yolks. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the cream. Stir in chocolate chips.

For each of the 5 layers, drop 1 level cup batter + plus a little extra onto center of a baking sheet lined with parchment (I used about 1 and 1/4 cup of batter per cookie. I measured out 5 separate cups and then divided the rest of the left over batter evenly). Keep unbaked dough refrigerated while the other dough is baking. Using a small offset spatula, spread into an 8-inch circle, or as close as you can get it.

Bake until edges are pale golden brown, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven. Use offset spatula to reshape circle.(Here's an alternative approach - I used the frame of my 8.5 inch spring form pan. I very carefully coaxed the undercooked cookie inside the buttered pan. I then returned the cookie and the pan to the oven to cook for the remaining 8 minutes. You could just bake this in a spring form pan but if you do that, the edges of the cookie will bake up high and cake like. I prefer the uneven cookie like edge.) Return to oven; bake until edges are golden brown, 7-9 minutes (DO NOT OVER COOK! Remember you're going to have to cut through all 5 cookies. Slightly under-cooked cookies is what you want. Transfer to wire rack; let cool. Can be stored airtight up to 1 day.

Frosting (both Plain and PB & Nutella) - Mix cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar in clean mixer bowl on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Original - Divide into 4 separate equal portions and spread onto 4 cookies. (I reduced this from 5 8oz blocks to only 4, but after I made this and I watched people eat around the massive amounts of frosting, 3 blocks might be better. It looks pretty to have lots of frosting in between the layers, but it's a bit of overkill in my opinion.)

Variation - Divide frosting into 2 bowls. Add 3-5 spoonfuls of peanut butter to one bowl and 3-5 spoonfuls of Nutella to the other and mix until well blended. Spread half of the peanut butter frosting on one cookie, top with another cookie and spread half the Nutella flavored frosting. Repeat with remaining two cookies.

Stack cookies onto a cake board or platter, placing unfrosted cookie on top. Refrigerate until frosting is set, at least 20 minutes or overnight. Serve at room temperature.