Triple Chocolate Cookie Cake

My brother's birthday was August 8th. We celebrated a few days early while my parent's were still in town because they were about to leave to go visit my sister in Virginia. She was supposed to have her baby any day! Her actual due date was on my brother's birthday, but unfortunately for her she was 8 days OVER DUE when that little bundle of joy decided to make his debut.

ANYWAY...While my parent's were gone I still wanted to celebrate my brother's birthday on his ACTUAL birth day. So we went to dinner with my grandma and Aunt who was in town for a couple of weeks.

Then afterwards we celebrated with this amazing cookie cake. It was quick and easy (which is a PLUS PLUS in my book) and it tasted even better! To simply sum it up, it was DA BOMB.

Triple Chocolate Cookie Cake Recipe:

Ingredients

Cookie Cake:

3/4 cup salted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2-3/4 cup of chocolate chunks

1/2 cup M&Ms

Chocolate Buttercream frosting:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup cocoa

2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons water

Instructions

Instructions for cookie cake:

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).

2. Mix in egg and vanilla extract.

3. Add flour, cocoa and baking soda and mix until combined.

4. Stir in chocolate chunks and M&Ms. Dough will be thick and sticky.

5. Chill for at least 3 hours overnight

6. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

7. Put parchment paper in the bottom of your cake pan to help the cookie not to stick. (I used a 9 inch cake pan.)

8. Spread the dough out into the cake pan and bake for 18-20 minutes.

9. Remove from the oven and let it cool for about 15 minutes.

Instructions for chocolate buttercream frosting:

1. Beat the shortening and butter until smooth.

2. Slowly add cocoa and half of powdered sugar. Mix until combined.

3. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water.

4. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add water the get the right consistency.

Snickers Overload

For my Mom's birthday on July 29th I made her a Snickers cake. It.was.delicious. I found a few recipes I liked and took things that I liked about each recipe and made my own!

Snickers Overload Cake Recipe

• The cake:

I used my same chocolate cake recipe that I use in most of my chocolate cakes.

1 box Duncan Hines Devil Food cake mix
1 large box instant chocolate pudding
1 cup oil
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup warm water
4 eggs
1 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Mix first six ingredients, stirring well, Stir in mini chocolate chips and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

• The nougat filling:

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 cup of granulated sugar

1/4 cup of evaporated milk

1 1/2 cups of marshmallow fluff

1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups of salty peanuts, roughly chopped

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar and evaporated milk, stirring until dissolved, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from heat and add the marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, and vanilla extract, stirring until completely smooth. Fold in the peanuts. let the nougat mixture cool to room temperature before using it in the cake. You can do this leaving it at room temperature or you can pop it into the refrigerator to speed up the process. Be sure to give a stir occasionally as it cools.

• The frosting:

2 sticks of unsalted butter; room temperature

1/2 cup of shortening

2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 pounds of powdered sugar

1/3 cup of caramel topping

1/4 teaspoon of salt

Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract, salt and caramel syrup and combine well.

Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, give it a taste and decide if you want to add in more caramel syrup. For thicker frosting you can gradually add in a little more sugar.

Garnish the cake how you would like.

Pics from dinner: