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An eggnog cookie cake, gingerbread cookie cake and peppermint chocolate chip cookie cake are layered together in this ultimate Christmas Cookie Layer Cake! It’s truly a thing to behold and so darn delicious! There isn’t a better way to enjoy cookies for Christmas!
I have been so darn excited to share this layered cookie cake with you! It’s based on my original Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Layer Cake that has layers of chocolate chip cookie cake, chocolate chocolate chip cookie cake and funfetti cookie cake. I’ve always been a fan of it and now I’m even more in love with this Christmas version! If you have tough time deciding how to enjoy all your favorite holiday flavors, you need look no further. This is peppermint, eggnog and gingerbread in one!
And while it may seem intimidating, it really isn’t. These cookie cakes are all based on my regular cookies, just baked in a 9 inch cake pan. You bake each of the three cookies, let them cool completely in the pan, then layer them all together with some vanilla buttercream frosting. I decorated with some sprinkles and a green border, but you can keep it as simple as you like.
Truly, if you are looking for a holiday cookie or cake, this baby is sure to satisfy all. It’s rich, dense and delicious. And it actually weighs a good bit.
What You’ll Need
These cookie cakes primarily use things you likely have on hand, you just might need more of those things, since you are making three cookie cakes. And with the exception of the flavorings and spices, they mostly use the same ingredients, with some little variations between them.
For the Cookie Cakes
- All Purpose Flour: The base of all 3 cookies.
- Baking Soda: All 3 cookies use baking soda. It’s my preference in cookies for a more tender texture.
- Salt: Always included for flavor.
- Butter: Unsalted, since we are adding our own salt, and at room temperature for creaming.
- Sugar: Two of the cookies use brown sugar and one uses regular granulated sugar. I love the extra flavor of the brown sugar in the peppermint chocolate chip cookie and gingerbread cookie, but used regular sugar for the eggnog cookie so as not to take away from the eggnog flavor at all.
- Eggs: Each cookie uses one whole large egg.
- Extracts: Vanilla extract makes an appearance in two of the cookies and peppermint extract is added to the peppermint chocolate chip cookie.
- Spices: You won’t find spices in the peppermint chocolate chip cookie, but ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon make appearances in the other cookies.
- Chips: Of the chocolate variety. I mixed it up with each layer. One uses chocolate chips, one uses butterscotch chips and one uses white chocolate chips. I personally love them all, but feel free to leave them out if you prefer.
- Peppermint Pieces: Clearly a standout for the peppermint chocolate chip cookie cake.
- Molasses: One of the most important parts of the gingerbread cookie cake.
- Eggnog: Clearly important in the eggnog cookie cake for flavor.
For the Buttercream Frosting
- Butter: Unsalted and room temperature.
- Powdered sugar: I’ll warn you, it’s a lot of powdered sugar. But it’s what gives the frosting it’s volume. You can reduce it, but you’ll have less frosting to work with.
- Vanilla extract: For flavor.
- Cream: Or water. For getting the right consistency.
- Salt: For flavor.
- Green gel icing color: This is the best way to color frosting. It’s thicker than food coloring so you don’t thin out the frosting and you don’t need as much to get a rich color.
- Sprinkles: Feel free to use your favorite Christmas sprinkle mix.
Where Can I Find Christmas Sprinkle Mixes?
My mix is one I actually purchased at Walmart a while back. I added a couple other sprinkles to it (I have quite an extensive sprinkle collection), but the mix alone would work well. While they don’t appear to have the same mix this year, they have a Christmas Tree Sprinkle Mix that is quite similar. Another great place to find fun sprinkles is Home Goods. Craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby might also have good options. And of course, Amazon. And if you want a super nice and fun sprinkle mix, I love Sweetapolita.
Make the cookies: You first need to bake the cookies. Each is really quick straight forward and as mentioned before, the ingredients are similar. The process is also nearly identical, with the exception of spices in some places, molasses and eggnog and the differing flavored chips.
- Combine Dry Ingredients: For each cookie, you’ll first combine the dry ingredients, including the spices.
- Creaming: Next, cream the butter and sugar together.
- Add Egg: Add the egg and mix until well combined.
- Add Flavorings: Add your flavorings, such as extracts, molasses or eggnog and mix to combine.
- Add Favored Chips: Stir in your flavored chips – chocolate, butterscotch or white chocolate.
- Bake: Spread the cookie evenly into a prepared cake pan and bake!
- Cool in Pan: Let the cookie cool completely in the cake pan. It will be too soft when warm to remove without breaking it.
- Make the Buttercream: It’s the same as my vanilla buttercream and quite straightforward.
- Build the Cake: Build the cake from the bottom layer up, with about 1 cup of frosting between each layer. I started with the gingerbread on bottom, eggnog in the middle and peppermint chocolate chip on top, but feel free to swap them around. Frost the outside of the cake.
- Add Sprinkles: Add the sprinkles immediately after frosting so that the sprinkles will stick. As the frosting sits, it’ll “crust” and the sprinkles won’t stick well.
How to Prep This Cake
Don’t let this intimidate you. You can definitely do it in stages. The cookies keep really well, so you can easily make them one day and then make the frosting and layer and decorate the next day. The cookie cake layers should also freeze well, so you could even make those further in advance, wrap them well and freeze them, then thaw them in fridge when ready to use and then proceed.
Freezing the full cake might not be as great of an option, simply because sprinkles can bleed their colors when thawing sometimes and they can also begin to fall off of a cake when frozen. But if you aren’t doing sprinkles, then it would probably work fine. Again, just be sure to wrap it well and thaw it in the fridge.
Print
- Prep Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Cooling Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours 50 minutes
- Yield: 12-16 slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
An eggnog cookie cake, gingerbread cookie cake and peppermint chocolate chip cookie cake are layered together in this ultimate Christmas Cookie Layer Cake! It’s truly a thing to behold and so darn delicious! There isn’t a better way to enjoy cookies for Christmas!
Ingredients
Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- 2 cups (260g) all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (168g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 1 cup (169g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 4 tbsp crushed peppermint pieces
Gingerbread Cookie Cake
- 2 1/4 cups (293g) all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- Pinch of cloves
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (168g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp (45ml) molasses
- 3/4 cup (126g) butterscotch chips, optional
Eggnog Cookie Cake
- 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cups (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (207g) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 tbsp (75ml) eggnog
- 3/4 cup (126g) white chocolate chips, optional
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 3 cups (672g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 12 cups (1380g) powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 6–7 tbsp (90-105ml) water or milk
- Salt, to taste
- Green gel icing color
- Sprinkles
Instructions
To make the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.
- Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter and brown sugar together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.
- Add the egg and mix until well combined.
- Add the vanilla extract and peppermint extract and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until the dough is well combined, but don’t over-mix.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and peppermint pieces. The cookie dough will be thick.
- Spread the dough evenly into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in the cake pan. If you remove it while still warm, it’s likely to break.
To make the Gingerbread Cookie Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.
- Combine the flour, spices, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter and brown sugar together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.
- Add the egg and mix until well combined.
- Add the molasses and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until the dough is well combined, but don’t over-mix.
- Fold in the butterscotch chips.
- Spread the dough evenly into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in the cake pan.If you remove it while still warm, it’s likely to break.
To make the Eggnog Cookie Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.
- Combine the flour, spices, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.
- Add the egg and mix until well combined.
- Add the vanilla extract and eggnog and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until the dough is well combined, but don’t over-mix.
- Fold in the white chocolate chips.
- Spread the dough evenly into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in the cake pan.If you remove it while still warm, it’s likely to break.
To build the cake:
- When all the cookies are baked and completely cooled, make your frosting. To make the frosting, beat the butter in a large mixer bowl until smooth.
- Slowly add half of the powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract, 4-5 tablespoons of water or milk and salt and mix until well combined.
- Slowly add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Add additional water or milk, as needed to get the right consistency of frosting.
- If any of your cookie cakes have raised edges, you can use a serrated knife to trim them, if desired. This will help with layering and make sure you don’t have to use as much frosting between layers to keep things level.
- Place the gingerbread cookie cake on a serving plate or cardboard cake circle and spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top.
- Add the eggnog cookie on top of the frosting and add another layer of frosting.
- Top the cake with the peppermint chocolate chip cookie cake.
- Frost the outside of the cake. Feel free to use my tutorial for frosting a smooth cake.
- Press sprinkles into the sides of the cake. You’ll want to do this immediately so that the frosting doesn’t crust over. Once it does, the sprinkles won’t stick as well.
- Color the remaining frosting with green gel icing color and pipe a border around the top of the cake. I used Ateco tip 847.
- Store cake in an air tight container. Cookie cake should be good for 4-5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 1356
- Sugar: 136.7 g
- Sodium: 329.5 mg
- Fat: 69 g
- Carbohydrates: 180.7 g
- Protein: 9.1 g
- Cholesterol: 199.6 mg
This is the most creative recipe I’ve come across. Kudos to you, Lindsay and thanks for sharing. I don’t like peppermint so I’ll see what i can do to substitute.
Thank you! I have lots of cookie cake options, so hopefully you can find a substitution. I love this cake and hope you do too! 🙂
I tried making the cookies, but all my edges were really raised and the middles completely collapsed… all of my ingredients were fresh, do you have any ideas how to prevent it from being so extreme? I was thinking maybe using cake strips around the pans?
You can definitely try cake strips. But if it was that extreme, it makes me wonder if something was off. I played around with the baking soda in each of them to make sure that didn’t happen. Maybe you accidentally added too much? Or you try reducing it further.
I made this for Christmas. Bit was good, but so dense, most people could only eat about 1/3 of their piece, even the really small slices
I made the cookie part and realized I made it with salted butter. How bad will it be?
Are we sure that the Frosting ingredients are right, that seems like a lot of frosting for this size cake?
It is right per what I used. But feel free to reduce it.