Cookie Dough Cake Filling
I’ve filled cakes with a lot of things, but this cookie dough cake filling is one of my all time favorites!
I’ve made quite a few cookie dough cakes (like my funfetti cookie dough cake or my cookie dough cake) and feel like I’ve perfected my recipe for edible cookie dough.
It tastes just like your favorite cookie dough, and is rich, perfectly sweet, and full of all your favorite mix-ins.
Why This Cookie Dough Cake Filling is Safe to Eat Raw
This cookie dough is safe to be consumed raw for two reasons.
The first is that this recipe doesn’t use eggs! The second reason is that the flour is heated to a temperature that pasteurizes it.
Both of these factors make this cookie dough filling safe to eat raw.
How Do I Heat Treat or Pasteurize My Flour?
There are two easy ways to heat treat the flour for this recipe. I usually use my microwave, but you can also use an oven to pasteurize the flour.
MICROWAVE INSTRUCTIONS: Pour the flour in a large, heat-proof bowl. Heat it in 30-second intervals until the temperature of the flour reaches 160 F / 71 C.
Mix the flour around with a spoon between intervals to make sure it heats evenly. The time it takes to reach this temperature can vary a lot based on the size and age of your microwave. Mine takes 4 intervals (total of 2 minutes). Let the flour cool to room temperature (takes about 30 minutes) then use however you like!
OVEN INSTRUCTIONS: Preheat your oven at 300 F / 150 C. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the flour out evenly on the prepared pan. Bake the flour in 2-minute intervals and pull the pan out of the oven to check its temperature between each interval.
Mix the flour around with a spoon or rubber spatula each time you check the temperature to help it heat evenly. Check the temperature of the flour in a few different spots to make sure the entire batch is properly heated. Some ovens have hot spots, and this can cause the flour to heat unevenly.
Repeat this process until the temperature of the flour reaches 160 F / 71 C. When it reaches this stage, carefully lift the sheet of parchment paper and funnel the flour into a separate bowl to let it cool to room temperature. This usually takes about 30 minutes.
Ways to Use this Cookie Dough Cake Filling
This cookie dough filling can be used in so many different ways! Of course, edible cookie dough balls are the first thing that come to mind for me.
You can snack on them, add them on top of ice cream, or roll them into tiny balls to top just about any dessert. I like to think of them as cookie dough sprinkles!!
You can also use this recipe to make cookie dough disks to fill cakes. This takes a bit more time, but the good news is that you can shape them ahead of time to make the cake assembly a breeze.
Cookie Dough Cake Filling – Ingredients & Substitutions
While I love this recipe just the way it is, I know you might not have all these ingredients on hand! Or you might have food restrictions or allergies.
Below are some variations that can be made in this recipe.
- Unsalted Butter – If you only have salted butter, you can use it and omit the salt that this recipe calls for. You can also use vegan butter.
- Brown Sugar – I like using light brown sugar but dark brown sugar will work too.
- Heat-Treated All-Purpose Flour – You can use a gluten-free flour blend if needed in place of the AP flour in this recipe.
- Heavy Whipping Cream – Whole Milk or alternative milk can be used in place of the heavy cream.
- Mix-Ins – Feel free to use your favorite mix-ins! Butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or even bits of Oreo would be delicious. Make sure you don’t use more than 2 cups of mix-ins, otherwise the dough can have a hard time sticking together.
Making This Edible Cookie Dough in Advance
This cookie dough filling can be made in advance and frozen! It keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge or 1 month in the freezer if stored in an airtight container.
I like to form the cookie dough into whatever shape I need before freezing it.
To make cookie dough disks for a layer cake, I recommend double wrapping them in plastic wrap, then placing them on cake boards to help them freeze nice and flat.
Tips for Making the Best Cookie Dough Filling:
- Don’t over-mix the dough! Mix until the flour is just incorporated.
- Feel free to use your favorite mix-ins! I use mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and sprinkles. However, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or even bits of Oreo would be delicious!
- Make sure you don’t use more than 2 cups of mix-ins, otherwise the dough can have a hard time sticking together.
- This recipe makes enough batter to fill and decorate an 8-inch layer cake. If you don’t want to make that much cookie dough, I recommend making a half batch.
- A half batch of this recipe is enough to fill and decorate 1-2 dozen cupcakes, or a 6-inch layer cake.
Let Me Know What You Think!
If you try this cookie dough cake filling recipe, I’d love to hear what you think! Please leave a comment and rating below.
If you share on social media, don’t forget to tag me @chelsweets so that I can see your delicious creations.
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Cookie Dough Cake Filling
Ingredients
Edible Cookie Dough Filling
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature 339g
- 2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar 454g or a 1 lb. box
- 2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream, cold 30g
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste 4g
- 1 tsp fine salt 6g
- 2 1/4 cup heat-treated all-purpose flour 280g
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips 175g
- 1/2 cup mini white chocolate chips 85g
- 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles 90g
Instructions
Cookie Dough Cake Filling:
- Cream together 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter and 2 1/4 cups light brown sugar in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer and paddle attachment. Mix on a medium-high speed for 1 minute. The mixture should become a bit lighter in color as air is incorporated into the mixture.
- Add in 2 Tbsp heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tsp salt. Mix on a low speed until combined.
- Mix in 2 1/4 cups of heat treated flour on a low speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
- Pour in 1 cup mini chocolate chips, 1/2 cup mini white chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles. Mix on a low speed until the mix-ins are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
This was a big hit in my house! I made the chocolate chip cookie cake and had extra cookie dough balls. Nom nom nom for several days!
Hey, there! I made your vanilla cake recipe today and it’s love! I’m also making your edible cookie dough discs to put in between the layers. Will this recipe make more than one disc? My layers are 9in so I’m thinking I should get at least 2 discs out of this recipe, right?
definitely! I made my disks pretty thin (less than a centimeter thick)! I think you will definitely be able to get at least 2 disk!
does the edible cookie dough have to be refrigerated
yes! if you are not using it immediately, you can freeze or refrigerate!
So I’m making a chocolate cake with this cookie dough between… Does it keep the cake moist like a layer of mousse or buttercream would? Just have a worry about being too dry but I worry too much so I don’t know if it’s justified ?
I would definitely add some buttercream with it between the layers! It won’t dry out the cake, but it won’t be as moist as a mousse or buttercream would be!
I love your recipes. I am just wondering if the recipe should note that it is not safe to eat raw flour. The flour can be baked at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes to address this and used as indicated in the recipe.
I actually do discuss heating the flour in this blog post, before the recipe! you can use the microwave or the oven!
Can I use 18% cream in your cookie dough recipe?
yup, that should work just fine!
It turned out so very delish!
And your vanilla cake ?
The flavor was great and not super sweet but mine came out grainy, does that always happen or did I do something wrong?
it can vary based on the brand of sugar you’re using! It will be a bit grainy because there isn’t enough liquid in the recipe to dissolve the sugar! You could add a bit more heavy cream to smooth it out, or try beating together the butter and sugar longer. Hope that helps!!
My cookie dough keeps “breaking” with the brown sugar and the butter? It looks curdled and I thought I let the butter get too soft so I popped it into the freezer and it’s like melting still! I have no idea what’s happened ??????????????? Tried again and the same thing happened? It’s like it’s melting!
That’s so strange! try adding a touch more heavy cream, to bring the batter together, help dissolve some of the sugar, and make it smoother 🙂 Hope that helps!!
I followed the recipe but my dough tasted sour! Any reason why that would happen? It was almost as if I added buttermilk but I added heavy cream. I added more flour to try to even out the taste but to no avail. Help!
That’s so strange!! it might be the brand of butter you’re using?? Or if you didn’t already, use dark brown sugar! It has more molasses in it, which might change the flavor!?
The store by me does this with chocolate cake, marshmallow, and cookie dough… amazing.. I’m going to try and copy cat with this recipe and fluff!
can you bake this dough into cookies?
I was wondering that too
This is so incredibly delicious! I used it in a red velvet cake with cookies and cream frosting for my daughter’s birthday (her request) and it turned out amazing. Thanks for the great recipe!
Omg that sound INCREDIBLE Carmen!! What a delicious combo!!!! 🙂 Tell her happy belated birthday for me!
I don’t think you even need the flour to the cookie dough. It tastes great without it. Why do you need flour and so much?
Hi Kathy,
Great question! The flour in this recipe gives it the right consistency to make it easy to shape and mold, and I think it also has a huge impact on the flavor. I don’t think it tastes like cookie dough without the flour. Hope that helps, baking!!
If i make this filling a week prior to the event, am i able to decorate and frost the cake the day before the event with this cookie dough filling and still be able to leave it out of the fridge overnight? in an air tight container?
Hi Taylor,
It has a little bit of cream in it, but because there’s so much sugar it should be ok to sit out at room temperature for a day. That should work! Hope that helps, happy baking!
Can I use the regular white chips if I can’t find the mini white chocolate chips?
Hi Ashley,
You totally can! You can also give them a rough chop to make them slightly smaller if you want! But regular sized white chocolate chips should work great in this filling too. Hope that helps, happy baking!
Hi if I am looking into making a double chocolate edible cookie dough layer, how much cocoa powder should I add? Would I need to decrease the amount of flour then to equal the amount of dry ingredients to the original recipe? Thank you
Oh additional question(sorry)..if I use salted butter would that change anything? Or would it be ok? Thank you so so much
Hi Alayne,
You can totally use salted butter, just omit the salt that the recipe calls for. Happy baking!
Hi Alayne,
That is exactly what I’d recommend! I haven’t tested this out, but I’d suggest swapping out about 1/2 cup of flour for cocoa powder. Let me know how it turns out!
My dough has the texture of rough butter icing, can this be right? It is quite sticky.
Hi Lindsay,
It is quite stick/thick! But once it’s chilled it will be easier to handle and work with 🙂 Hope that helps, happy baking!
In your other recipe it states 1 tbsp vanilla and in the recipe it states 1 tsp vanilla both for the same cookie dough. Which is correct?
Hi Salma,
The amount of vanilla that you use really comes down to your preference, and how strong of a flavor you want there to be! It will turn out either way, and I’ve updated the recipes from my cookie dough ae and this post to align on the amount of vanilla to avoid confusion in the future.
I usually make it with one teaspoon of vanilla, just because vanilla is so expensive these days. Hope that helps, happy baking!
Delicious!
Made this to fill my little brother’s 21st bday! It was a big hit!
Hi Morgan,
Aww I love that!! So happy it was a hit—and how sweet of you to make it for your little brother’s 21st! 🙂 That’s such a special way to celebrate. Thanks so much for making the recipe and sharing it!
Hi! I love the idea of using this dough to fill vanilla cupcakes, but can you tell me how I would do that? Do I just cut a piece out of the baked cupcakes and smush some dough in?
Hi Lindsay,
Yes it’s so good in cupcakes!!! That is exactly what I do, I usually use a small circle cutter or a paring knife and cut out the center, then add like 2 tsp to a Tbsp of filling! You could either so this with a spoon or a piping bag. Hope that helps and that your cupcakes turn out amazing!