4th of July Layered Cookie Cake
I saw this recipe in my Google Reader and knew instantly that I would be making it soon. Since my family was going to be in town for the holiday and we all love cookie cakes, I had the perfect opportunity. And I would have the opportunity to use my flag plate which only comes out once a year.
My little sister and I made the cake and everyone LOVED it! The filling between layers was a perfect compliment to the chewy chocolatey cookie layers. We halved the recipe and it made about 12 servings. We made it with half chocolate chips and half M&Ms so that it was festive for the 4th of July. We had my little brother sort out a bag of M&Ms and just pull out the red and blue ones. What a great guy!
Below, I am listing the halved recipe that I used. Please see original post for original recipe and her story about the cookie cake. We used a small flag and some festive cupcake decorations so spice up the look of the cake. The cookies were very moist and easy to cut through. I ended up only using about 3/4 of the filling and it worked out to be a good ratio of cookie to filling.
Layered Cookie Cake – from Dozen Flours – originally from Martha Stewart Online
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
6 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
6 Tbsp heavy cream
3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cups red and blue M&Ms
If you have a Silpat mat: Trace an 6 1/2 inch circle on a piece of parchment paper using a marker. 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 and M&Ms.
Divide the batter evenly into 3 bowls. Drop batter onto center of baking sheet. Keep unbaked dough refrigerated while the other dough is baking. Using a small offset spatula, spread into a circle, using the drawing on the parchment paper, or as close as you can get it.
Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate cookie and reshape if necessary (mine did not need to be reshapen). Bake for 8-10 more minutes untile edges are golden brown. DO NOT OVER COOK! Remember you’re going to have to cut through all 3 cookies. Slightly under-cooked cookies is what you want. Transfer to wire rack; let cool. Can be stored airtight up to 1 day.
Cream Cheese Filling2 8oz packages of full fat cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cups confectioners’ sugar
Mix cream cheese, vanilla, and confectioners’ sugar in clean mixer bowl on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Divide in half spread onto 2 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.
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I love it! Where did you get the jars? Now I totally wanna do this for xmas gifts!
/Clara
I looked everywhere and just couldn’t find them. I ended up ordering them from Amazon. They weren’t very cheap so that was a bummer…
Ah bummer. What size are the jars? I wonder if Ikea would have them? Whats the amazon link?
/Clara
I ordered them from here. You want the wide mouth jars so the cupcakes fit and the 1/2 pint size is perfect.
The yellow cupcakes didn’t rise much so I added more frosting to fill the jar and the chocolate ones rose quite a bit so they had less frosting. My sister said that the chocolate one had the perfect amount of frosting or could use a smidge more, so you want a cupcake that has at least a small dome.
haha, i’ve never seen that before 🙂 love it!
OH FUN! I’ve seriously always thought about doing this and never did. I’m starring this post to remind myself at Christmas. Too cute!!
I have been dying to try this ever since I saw it last year on someone else’s blog. They actually baked the cake in the jar and then iced it like a cupcake. I am going to have to order some of those iddy jars! Too cute!
Hmmm…might have to do this for Christmas instead of those “ingredients in a jar” thing we were thinking of.
I really want to try this, but I keep reading online that you shouldn’t put frosting in the jar because it will get moldy by the time it reaches its destination. I’m sure you would have heard if it was moldy when it got to your friend right? I would just be so embarrassed if that happened. Any help?
Renee – I’ve done this twice and both times haven’t heard of any mold. I froze the cupcakes/frosting in the jars prior to shipping them. I also shipped in the winter. My one sister even didn’t go get her package from the office until a week after it arrived and it was still good. I would guess she ate her cupcakes about 10 days after I sent them. I’m not sure if shipping in warm weather will have an impact on potential mold…
Alright I’ll definitely give it a try then. It will make for a very good Easter present for my faraway friends =)
Oh that’s a good idea!! I might have to order some more jars and do the same myself…
What a clever idea! I would love to get a cupcake in the mail! 🙂 Maybe I’ll send out Valentine’s Day Cupcakesnext year!
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Love these!! We have featured you on our blog. http://cutecupcakesallthetime.blogspot.com
Did you freeze them before shipping? The jars looked frosted…
beantownbaker — February 24th, 2013 @ 10:21 am
I did freeze them. They defrosted as they were shipped. I’ve done it with and without the freezing depending on the weather and whatnot.
What shipping method did you use? Overnight or Express???