It’s my son’s ‘sweet 16 in quarantine’ birthday and we decided a cookie cake was just the thing for celebrating. Usually we have traditional (gf) cakes for birthdays but considering we are just three beings sheltering in place without any chance of friends coming by to celebrate, a cake just seemed too much. I suggested a cookie cake to my son and he said he’d never had one (?!) and that it sounded great. That got me thinking…where have all the cookie cakes gone? I seem to recall every mall in the 90’s having a specialty store that sold nothing but cookie cakes. One year in high school I got my then boyfriend one for Valentine’s Day and then somehow ended up carrying it sideways to get it through a small space which of course made it a cookie lump, instead of a cookie cake. Apparently it was still tasty anyway, and of course it was because cookie cakes are ridiculously good no matter what, right?!
I found a recipe on Pamela’s website and intended to use it with Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, but I realized just in time that there is dairy in the mix and my son has been really trying to keep all dairy out of his diet so that wasn’t going to work. I replaced the mix with Bob’s Red Mill One to One GF Flour and added salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and also substituted the egg with flax and water and the butter with vegan butter. Here’s the link to Pamela’s directions if you want to do a (simpler) dairy and egg version, and below is the recipe that I did with all the modifications.
GF, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake:
-
- 1½ cups Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF Flour
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 Tbs flax seeds with 3 Tbs water
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (make your own!)
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 Tbs non dairy milk (only if mix looks too dry. I used nutpods vanilla
creamer.)
I put a piece of parchment paper in my 9 in circular pan and preheated the oven to 325°. I went ahead and put the flax in a small mug with the water because it take about 10 minutes to thicken into a proper egg replacement. Next I softened the vegan butter a bit before creaming it with the sugars. After that, I added the flax with water and vanilla to the bowl and mixed well. Once everything was fairly well blended, I added the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and blended again until well mixed. Then I added the chocolate chips and 1 Tbs of nutpods creamer because it just looked a tad too dry. You can use any non dairy milk you have on hand if your mix looks dry as well. Pour the dough into the pan and spread it out as flat as possible. Bake for 33 to 38 minutes, checking the middle with a toothpick or fork before taking it out to cool. Mine took 35 minutes and then about an hour to fully cool enough to decorate.
Celebrations are looking pretty different these days but I hope you are all doing well and have something to celebrate in this strange time, even if it’s just the change of seasons.
Health and happiness to you!