Vegan Baking Contest 2024 – First Place – Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

Our First Place award for our 2024 Vegan Baking Contest went to Barb Weber for her Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake- it was absolutely delicious, and looked amazing too.  It’s a pretty involved recipe, but the taste is definitely worth it for a special occasion.  Everyone loved it!

 

Ingredients

For the Cake

1 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour

2 teaspoon Baking Powder

¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt

1 Cup Brown Sugar

¾ Cup Non-Dairy Milk

8 tablespoon Non-Dairy Butter, melted and cooled

2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

⅓ Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

For the Cookie Dough

4 tablespoon Vegan Butter

½ Cup Light Brown Sugar

3 tablespoon Non-Dairy Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Heat Treated All-Purpose Flour see note

¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt

½ Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

For the Frosting

1 Cup Vegan Butter

4 Cups Powdered Sugar, sifted

2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 tablespoon Non-Dairy Milk

To Decorate

½ Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

 

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease 3 6-inch cake pans OR 2 8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment circles to prevent sticking.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well.

 

In a large bowl, combine sugar, non-dairymilk, melted vegan butter and vanilla. Whisk to combine.

 

Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk to form a batter.

Divide the batter equally between pans. See note for weights.

Sprinkle the tops of the batter with the chocolate chips and using a knife, swirl the chocolate into the batter while also spreading the batter out evenly across the pan.

 

Bake the cakes in a 350* oven for 21-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before decorating.

 

Make the Cookie Dough:

In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer or a wooden spoon, cream the butter and brown sugar until well combined. Add the non-dairy milk and vanilla and mix well.

 

Add the heat-treated flour and salt and mix to form the dough. Then, add chocolate chips and mix to distribute. Set aside at room temperature until the cake is cool. If you put it into the refrigerator it will be too hard to spread!

 

Make the Frosting:

In a large bowl using a hand mixer, cream the vegan butter until no lumps remain. Then add the powdered sugar and mix to combine. Then add the vanilla and non dairy milk and mix until light and fluffy.

 

To Build the Cake:

Place one layer of cake upside down on a cake stand or cake board. Then dollop a scant ½ cup of cookie dough across the cake. Use a knife to spread the cookie dough out, then top with another cake layer.

Repeat. And be sure to reserve about ¼ cup of cookie dough for decorating.

Frost the outside of the cake with vanilla buttercream and decorate with more cookie dough pieces and mini chocolate chips.

 

Notes:

To heat treat the flour for the cookie dough, preheat the oven to 350, then add the flour to a baking sheet and bake it for 5 minutes. Allow it to cool, then proceed.

If using 3 6-inch pans, 8oz of batter per pan.

If using 2 8-inch pans 12.75 oz of batter per pan.

There are a lot of elements to this cake so feel free to use store-bought vegan cookie dough and or frosting!