CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE CAKE (GLUTEN-FREE/DAIRY-FREE)

i’ve been meaning to share this post for weeks now. amesy turned 3 years old (!!!) at the end of september. we had a small gathering with family - there was a little dinosaur egg hunt (naturally), a cardboard castle, dinosaur masks, water painting, shake shack burgers and fries, and this chocolate chip cookie cake! amesy is an equal opportunity cookie lover, but his absolute favorite is chocolate chip. naturally, a chocolate chip cookie cake was where my mind went. i’m still not sure where this last year went. while it was one of the most emotional and trying in some ways, it was also such a special year of getting to know my growing little boy as more than a baby, but a little human with interests and ideas, and questions, and curiosities.

i’ve been making amesy’s cakes for 3 years now, and each year they’ve inevitably had a dinosaur theme because, well, he loves dinosaurs! i’ve tried to switch it up each year. for his 1st birthday i went with more dinosaur decorations on the cake - cookie “dirt”, teeny plastic dinos and tropical trees. his 2nd birthday, i made cut-out marzipan dinosaurs to place on the top and sides of his cake. and this 3rd birthday, i opted for the simplest amazon-purchased dinosaur cake topper because i decided to give myself some relief with having my newborn joey and all. and each year i've tried to keep the cake as low in sugar as i possibly could without it tasting like “healthy” cake. when it comes to sugar i usually stick to a few sweeteners: coconut sugar, monkfruit sweetener (both the granulated and the powdered), maple syrup, honey, and stevia. those are what i generally stick to for kids cakes. and just so everyone can partake in the cake eating, i make them gluten-and-dairy-free as well.

in my haze as a mom to 2 kids, one being a newborn, i opted to use google to find myself a chocolate chip cookie cake recipe. the recipe i landed on was grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free cake that looked great! i made a few minor adjustments - using almond butter instead of tahini, swapping out some of the coconut sugar for monkfruit sweetener, and omitting almond extract. i also used store-bought vegan icing, because, if i’m honest, i hate making frosting, and i wanted to cut the time down since i was making the cake while joey napped which didn’t give me much time. i also made the cake layers a couple days ahead of time, and frosted and assembled the cake the day of. this makes it easier to frost (pro-tip: when your cake layers are cold you get less crumbs in the frosting). then i took it out of the fridge about 1 1/2 hours before i was ready to serve it. it couldn’t have been more of a crowd (and amesy) pleaser :)

method

preheat oven to 350°F. oil three 6-inch round cake pans, and line the bottoms with parchment rounds.
in a large bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients until combined.
in a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. using a rubber spatula, add the dry ingredients to the wet a little at a time until fully combined and the batter is smooth. fold in the chocolate chips.
divide the batter evenly between the 3 pans, using your spatula to smooth the tops. bake for 18-25 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. remove cakes and set them on a cooling rack. once they are completely cool wrap them tight in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 12 hours (or overnight).
the day of, frost cake one layer at a time. then lightly frost the top and sides of cake. refrigerate until 1 hour before serving. then slice and serve!