Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

This is one of my family’s favorite birthday treats. My son loves this cake. I made it as his birthday treat for his class from kindergarten through high school. I usually send in 1½ cakes for his class of 24 students. This is enough for a nice serving for everybody and some extra for the teacher.  I also made it to celebrate my daughter’s first birthday and recently made it for her 18^th.

I copied the original recipe for “Monster Cookies” from a magazine, possibly Southern Living, when I was in college. You can omit the nuts and increase the chocolate chips to 2 cups.  For variety, substitute white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips, and use different nuts. White chocolate chips with pecans works well.

For a home party, you can serve the cake directly from the pizza pan, using a serrated bread knife to cut it. If you need remove the cake from the pizza pan, I recommend cutting a round piece of parchment paper the size of the pan. Put this parchment on top of the greased and floured pan bottom and grease and flour it also. When the cake is taken out of the oven, run a knife around the edge to loosen it. When cool, carefully invert cake onto flat surface (e.g., cookie sheet.). When sending the cake to school, I put the cake on a piece cardboard covered with aluminum foil. I then like to put this into a flat cardboard box from Sam’s or Costco. When the cake is finished, the cardboard can be thrown away. I send a large plastic serrated knife to cut the cake. 

Ingredients

½	cup	butter or margarine, softened
1	cup	brown sugar, packed
½	cup	sugar
2		eggs
2 ¼	cup	all purpose flour
1	tsp.	baking soda
½	tsp.	salt
1	tsp.	vanilla
1 ½	cup	semi sweet chocolate chips
¾	cup	nuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour the bottom and sides of a 14-inch deep-dish pizza pan. If not planning to serve the cake from the pizza pan, cover bottom with parchment circle and grease and flour it also.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream butter in an electric mixer.  Gradually add sugars, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until blended.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture, mixing well.
4. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts by hand.
5. Spoon batter into pizza pan. The dough is sticky so flour the top and press with your hands until the pizza pan bottom is evenly covered.  Alternatively use a floured pastry roller (small hand held rolling pin) to spread the batter (i.e., this works really well). Bake 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in pan. Then loosen edges and carefully remove. Brush extra flour off cake using a pastry brush. Decorate with frosting