Over-The-Top Cookie Cake Recipe

Cakes are cakes and cookies are cookies, but the lines started to blur back in the '70s with the birth of the first cookie cake. While the first such cakes were little more than oversized cookies decorated with frosting, over time they evolved into multi-layered marvels like this truly over-the-top example. Recipe developer Katie Rosenhouse introduces her creation by saying, "working your way through the marshmallow, chocolate, and caramel fillings makes each bite more interesting than the last and downing a slice a little too easy." Her favorite part, she says, is the outer edges as they stay a little more crispy and cookie-like.

While this recipe is made with kitchen sink cookies (chocolate chip with the addition of toffee, M&Ms, and pretzels), Rosenhouse does say that you can use any kind of cookie dough you wish. As she tells us, "there's so much room for creativity when it comes to this cookie cake." This means that substitutions are definitely on the table, such as using chocolate fudge sauce in place of caramel, potato chips in place of pretzels, peanut butter in place of chocolate hazelnut spread, or anything else you think might work. Rosenhouse even allows that "store-bought fillings can be great in a pinch," which can cut down on all of the prep time needed to make this cake. Still, if you want something truly OTT, you've got to put in a little effort, and when you're done, you'll have something truly impressive to dish up.

Needless to say, an over-the-top cake is going to require a bunch of different ingredients. For the cookies themselves you'll need the usual suspects: butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla. You'll also be using several mix-ins: chocolate chips, toffee bits, M&Ms, and pretzels. For the edible glues that hold the cake together, you'll also need caramel candies, cream, corn syrup, egg whites, chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella or similar), and oil.

Set the oven to 375 F. As that's preheating, beat the butter (which you'll want room temperature) with the brown sugar and ½ cup of the granulated sugar for about 2 minutes at a low to medium speed. Once the mixture looks light and fluffy, add both of the whole eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. (The egg whites that we call for separately don't go into the cookie dough.)

Set aside a tablespoon each of chocolate chips, toffee bits, and M&Ms as well as several pretzels to decorate the top of the cake. Now mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla into the butter/sugar/egg blend along with the remaining chocolate chips and toffee bits. Once the mixture looks dough-like, fold in the rest of the M&Ms and pretzels.

Get out at least 2 large cookie sheets and either line or grease them. Scoop out ½ cup-sized balls of dough (about 4 ounces each), two per sheet, and situate them with at least 3 inches of space between each cookie as well as the edges of the pan. Top the cookies with wax or parchment paper, then flatten them out into 6-inch circles. "By flattening room-temperature cookie dough," Rosenhouse tells us, "you get an evenly-baked round layer that's perfect for stacking." Before you put the cookies in the oven, though, don't forget to take off the paper topper.

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until they are golden brown. Halfway through the cooking time, swap the positions of the baking sheets so that the one on the bottom oven shelf can spend some time on the top and vice versa. This will let the cookies bake evenly.

Cool the cookies on the countertop. If you'll be re-using a cookie sheet for the next batch, let it cool for at least 10 minutes before you do the dough-squishing step. Keep baking the cookies in batches until you've used up all of the dough, by which time you should have about 10 giant cookies.

For the caramel sauce, put the unwrapped caramels in a pot with 2 tablespoons of water and melt them over low heat, stirring now and then. Once they are melted, add the cream and bring the mixture to a simmer. When the sauce starts bubbling, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Next, move on to the marshmallow filling. Simmer the corn syrup with ½ cup water and the rest of the granulated sugar. If you have a candy thermometer, watch for it to hit 235 F. The mixture should be about as thick as corn syrup once it's done cooking. Meanwhile, whip the egg whites to soft peaks. As soon as the syrup is done, add it slowly to the whipped whites, continuing to beat the mixture at a low speed. Keep beating the marshmallow mixture for 4 to 5 minutes more until it thickens, then stir in the vanilla and salt.

Rosenhouse likes to use piping bags to apply the fillings to the cake, suggesting a medium round tip for the marshmallow filling if you have one. For the chocolate spread, she says you can simply cut a half-inch opening (you can do this with a plastic zipper bag, too).

Start by putting a blop of marshmallow filling on a cake plate, then use this to stick down a cookie. Squirt a circle of marshmallow filling about ¼ inch inside the outer edge of the cookie, then apply a ring or two of chocolate spread inside this. Fill in the center with the caramel, then top the cookie with another cookie and repeat the process. Keep going until you've used up all of the cookies, leaving the one on the top unadorned at present.

Drizzle the rest of the caramel sauce over one side of the cookie cake in a drip fashion. Mix the oil into the remaining chocolate spread until it's pourable (you may need more or less oil, depending on how much spread you have left), then dribble it over the caramel. Use the marshmallow stuff to decorate the top of the cake — Rosenhouse says you can even brown it if you have a mini torch. Sprinkle the reserved candies and pretzels over the cake, then stick the whole thing in the fridge.

The cake needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour, then brought back to room temperature for another half hour, before you attempt to slice it. The reason for this rest period is that it helps the cookies to soften. As Rosenhouse explains, "they turn almost cake-like over time, meaning this cake can be easily sliced." This also means that you should be able to eat this extra-tall concoction without needing to unhinge your jaw like a boa constrictor. Although that would be pretty over-the-top, to be honest.