Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake | Vegan

This deliciously decadent chocolate chip cookie dough cake is stuffed with real cookie dough and baked into a chocolate chip speckled vanilla cake. With layers of cookie dough frosting and chocolate buttercream, it’s the best dang cake you’ve ever tasted. And guess what? It’s naturally vegan, eggless, and dairy free!

Why you’ll love this decadent cookie dough cake:

If you love chocolate chip cookie dough and you love vanilla cake, then let me introduce you to this amazing cookie dough cake. It’s the ultimate combination of two favorite desserts. It’s pretty fantastic.

We have deliciously rich cookie dough balls baked into a tender vanilla cake speckled with chocolate chips. It’s decadent, lush, tender, and the ultimate cake recipe. This is not your average cake.

And guess what? This cookie dough cake is naturally vegan, eggless, and dairy free. Yet, I promise, you’d never know. If you’re looking to surprise your non-vegan family and/or friends, then this is your cake recipe!

Now let’s bake it!

What you’ll need:

This cake, while easy in concept, is pretty extensive in terms of the steps and materials. Worth it? Absolutely. If you’re a cookie dough lover, you’ll fall head over heels in love with this cake recipe. But you do need a lot of ingredients, so this is a great cake for special occasions!

The cake is comprised of four main parts. The cookie dough, the actual cake, the cookie dough frosting, and the outer chocolate frosting. Below is a list of ingredients that you’ll need, with the exact measurements found in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. All ingredients can be listed as either Metric or US, but I recommend using the Metric measurements. This will give you the most accurate bake.

Vegan Cookie Dough:

• Flour: you don’t need to heat treat the flour here, unless you’re also using the cookie dough to decorate the outside of the cake (which I recommend making that additional cookie dough during the decorating stage!). You can also use gluten free flour here!
• Vegan butter: you can use coconut oil, but the cookie dough will taste best with vegan butter.
• Coconut sugar: this is what helps keep the cookie dough refined sugar free. You can swap in regular granulated sugar as needed.
• Chocolate chips: I used Pascha Organics chocolate throughout. Their stevia sweetened chocolate chips are amazing.

Vegan Cake:

• Flour: again, you can use gluten free 1:1 baking flour here!
• Vegan butter: stick with the vegan butter for the cake. It will yield the best results!
• Sugar: you can use coconut sugar here or granulated sugar.
• Leavening agents: this is your baking powder and baking soda.
• Unsweetened applesauce: this is an eggless cake, so we’re using applesauce as the egg replacement!
• Dairy free milk with ACV: mixing the vinegar with the dairy free milk will give you a vegan buttermilk. This is essential for yielding that super fluffy and tender texture!
• Vanilla extract

Cookie Dough Frosting:

• Vegan butter: for frosting, stick with vegan butter please!
• Flour: For the frosting, you will need to heat treat the flour. This is because you’re consuming this part of the recipe “raw” in essence.
• Coconut sugar
• Powdered sugar
• Chocolate chips

Vegan Chocolate Buttercream:

• Vegan butter
• Cocoa powder: you can also use cacao powder- just note that it will be richer in taste!
• Powdered sugar

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How to make an eggless cookie dough cake (overview)

For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.

You’ll make this cookie dough cake in 4 stages essentially. First, the cookie dough, followed by the cake layers. Then the cookie dough frosting, and finally the chocolate buttercream.

1. The cookie dough: this component is based off of my edible vegan cookie dough, and is similar in process. Just without the applesauce! Simply cream together the vegan butter and coconut sugar. Then add in the flour and fold in the chocolate chips. If your cookie dough is too soft, you can chill it in the fridge as you make the cakes.
2. The cake: this next section is based off of my vegan vanilla cake. You’ll make the cake as you would any other cake. Then when you’re about to bake the batter, add in dollops of cookie dough to the batter, and gently spread the batter over the cookie dough. Bake the cakes and allow them to fully cool before making the frosting.
3. The cookie dough frosting: this is like cookie dough, but more frosting like! Once you make the buttercream, you’ll add in the flour and coconut sugar, and cream everything together. Then gently fold in the chocolate chips. At this stage, you can assemble the cake. Apply the frosting in between the cake layers and store in the fridge as you make the final component.
4. The chocolate buttercream: this is actually my classic vegan chocolate frosting! You’ll make the buttercream and apply it to the outside of the cake. Then decorate the cake with cookie dough balls and serve!

Can I make this cookie dough cake gluten free?

Absolutely! To make this vegan cookie dough cake entirely gluten free as well, swap in gluten free 1:1 baking flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill in the blue bag.

Can I make the cake layers ahead of time?

You can absolutely make the cake layers ahead of time. I’d aim for making the cookie dough cake layers the afternoon before, and assembling the cake the morning of the next day. Allow the cake layers to fully cool before storing. This will prevent too much warmth and condensation getting into the cake layers, causing a soggy cake.

Then simply wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap and either store at room temperature or in the fridge.

Does this have to be a vegan cookie dough cake?

This cookie dough cake in particular was designed to be a vegan option in the array of cookie dough cakes out there! There are plenty of non-vegan cookie dough cakes on the web. So why not try a vegan version?

There are plenty of amazing dairy-free substitutes out there that taste just like the real deal, so if you’re dairy free, then this is the cake for you. I recommend using Flora Plant Butter for the best tasting vegan butter in baking.

In terms of eggless baking, unsweetened applesauce is fairly easy to find in the U.S., but I know for overseas readers, especially in the U.K., it can be a bit harder. Plus, homemade applesauce is not always a great substitute if you’re making it for the first time (the consistency can be a bit off for what we’re using it for!). You can replace the applesauce with dairy free yogurt here if needed, but the best recommendation is using the applesauce.

Tips for success

Use room temperature ingredients: I cannot stress this enough, especially to my first time bakers. Room temperature really does matter. And it doesn’t mean 72F for vegan butter either! For more on room temperature, check out this post.

Don’t over-mix the batter: this is for both the cake and cookie dough! Mix until the dry is just incorporated into the batter or dough.

Please make sure that you heat-treat the flour for the cookie dough frosting: again, you won’t need to for the cookie dough that’s baked into the cake. But any flour that will be consumed not-baked, including cake decorations and frosting, please heat-treat the flour.

Don’t over-bake the cakes: these cakes will take a bit longer to bake than normal, but it’s still crucial that you don’t over-bake the cake. Use a toothpick to test for doneness.

Make sure that the cakes are fully cooled before frosting: because these are denser cakes, they will take a bit longer to come to room temperature and cool. It’s essential that you give the layers that time, as you don’t want the frosting to melt!

Love vegan cakes? Check out these amazing vegan cake recipes!

Best Vegan Chocolate Cake

Cookie Dough Brownie Cake

Best Vegan Coconut Cake

Ultimate Vanilla Cake

Classic Zebra Cake

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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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