So, I turned 48 this year. I’ve been baking for probably 40 or so of those years, and in all that time I’d never made a cookie cake. This summer I’ve made three, and let me tell you, they’re delicious.

You can buy special cookie cake tins that yield the traditional 1/4 inch thickness of a grocery store or shopping mall cookie cake, but I used a standard 8-inch round cake pan instead. While the edges get very, very brown (read: almost burnt), the end result is still delicious.  This recipe comes from Sally’s Baking and she recommends a glass pie dish, which I’d like to try next time. I tweaked her recipe by adding more vanilla (as I always do) and going with vanilla buttercream for the decoration instead of chocolate, and it turned out really well.

Ingredients

For the cookie dough

• 12 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips, plus about 1 tablespoon to sprinkle over the top

For the vanilla buttercream & decoration

• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Multicolored sprinkles

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch round cake tin with baking spray and set aside.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and beat to combine. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt and beat until just combined; be careful to not over-mix the dough. Stir in chocolate chips.

Press dough evenly into the baking tin; cover loosely with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs. You can remove the foil for the last 5 minutes or so of baking, but be very careful about your edges! Cool completely in the tin, then turn out onto your serving plate.

While the cookie cake cools, make your buttercream: Beat butter and powdered sugar on low speed until the sugar is completely incorporated into the butter. Add vanilla extract and beat to completely combine. Fit a piping bag with a large plain tip (I use the Wilton M1) and pipe a star border around the edge of the cake; I also piped my 48 in the center. Add sprinkles if desired.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days; this treat holds its moisture pretty well. Makes about 9 servings.