Dreamy & Delicious Cookie Butter Cake
If cookie butter has ever tempted you to eat it straight from the jar with a spoon (🙋🏻♀️), this cake is for you. This cookie butter cake is rich, cozy, and super flavorful, with soft layers of cake and a thick, dreamy cookie butter buttercream that tastes like caramelized spices and nostalgia in dessert form. Are you drooling yet? I am!
Cookie butter has a chokehold on a lot of people-me very much included. I mean, it’s literally crushed cookies blended into a spread… how could it not be good?
But somehow, it gets even better when you turn it into this cake.
This cookie butter cake has thick, moist layers flavored with warm spices and stacked with a rich cookie butter buttercream that takes the whole thing completely over the top.
As a professional baker and someone who loves the holiday baking season, I like to make this cake around the holidays along with these thin gingersnap cookies and these gingerbread biscotti because it just feels so festive and makes my house smell incredible!
Lemme show you how to make it!
Ingredients
You will need ingredients for the cake and then ingredients for the buttercream.
Recipe instructions
This comes together easily especially if you use a stand mixer, but you can mix by hand too.
- Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl or on a large piece of parchment paper
- Add oil, cookie butter, and brown sugar to the bowl of a hand or stand mixer
- Mix on low, adding in the vanilla and eggs one at a time.
- Alternate adding in the dry mixture and the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour.
- Mix until a smooth batter forms.
- Bake on 350°F for 30-35 mins for 6″ pans or 25-28 mins for 8″pans
Baking Pan Size
You can either bake this recipe in 3 six inch cake pans, or 2 8″ cake pans. If you want to stack a two tier cake (stacking the 6″ on top of the 8″) you need to double this recipe and the buttercream recipe too.
You can also make this in a 9×13 as a snack cake! The baking time would be about 30-35 mins.
Decorating the cake:
Now for the fun part!
If the cakes have domed tops, level them off with a long serrated knife. Then you can frost this cake easily by frosting the top of one cake and stacking the other layer on top. Then use a knife or back of a spoon to layer that buttercream on thick.
If you want to make it look super professional you can use a cake turntable and an offset spatula to smooth the edges.
Dreamy & Delicious Cookie Butter Cake
Ingredients
Cookie Butter Cake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ¾ cup smooth cookie butter
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs, large
- 1 cup buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray 3, 6” pans or 2, 8” pans with baking spray or line with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium size mixing bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, and whisk lightly to combine.
- In another bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the oil, brown sugar, and cookie butter. Mix or beat on low- medium until a smooth batter forms. Add in the vanilla and one egg at a time, mixing in between.
- Next add ⅓ rd of the dry mixture and alternate adding buttermilk- starting and ending with the flour- usually ⅓ of the flour at a time, and ½ of the buttermilk at a time. Mix on medium speed or with a spatula until a thick smooth mixture forms.
- Pour even amounts into your baking pans. Bake 30-35 minutes for 6” pans or 25-28 minutes for 8” pans.
- The cakes are ready when the edges start to pill away from the sides and when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- While the cakes are cooling make the buttercream. You will need to clean your mixer if you used it for the cake.
- Add the butter, cookie butter and confectioners sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Start the mixer on low speed so that the sugar doesn’t blow up in your face. Gradually increase the speed to medium as more and more sugar gets mixed in. Scrape down the sides as necessary. Add in the amount of half n half needed depending on which type of cookie butter you’re using, and depending on how thick or creamy you like your buttercream. If it’s too loose add more confectioners sugar. If it’s too thick, add a little more half n half.
What is ‘cookie butter’ please? Would you have a link for where to buy it from please? Is it just peanut butter?
Hi Paula! Cookie butter isnt peanut butter, it is butter made from crushed up cookies! Also know as Biscoff of Speculoos. You can find it at most grocery stores in the panut butter aisle!
Amazing! My family has been a cookie butter fan for awhile so when I saw Sam created this recipe I knew it was a must. My husband said it’s his new favorite.
Ahhh Adrianne! I am so happy to hear that thank you so so much!! I am so glad he loved it! Isn’t cookie butter the best!
I made this cake for a birthday and it was insanely good! Packed full of cookie butter flavor! It recipe was also very easy to make!
Im so happy to hear that Amanda!! Thank you so much!
I made this recipe as cupcakes. I cored the cupcakes and filled them with cookie butter and then iced them with a cookie butter Swiss meringue buttercream. They were delicious! Next time I think I will add a bit of cinnamon and ginger to the cake batter. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you so much for making this recipe Karen!
Hi Karen! I’m late to the party, but would you mind sharing how long you baked your cupcakes and how many this recipe yields? Thanks!
I’m happy to answer that for you! The standard baking time for cupcakes is 18-20 minutes. The tops should feel slightly firm and not jiggly at all. I would say this recipe probably makes between 12-16 cupcakes because it is a smaller cake, but can be doubled if you need more! Please let me know how they come out if you make them!
Hi! I was wondering if it would be possible to add food coloring to the buttercream. With it being a darker color do you think the food coloring final color would come out differently than if I was using a regular buttercream frosting?
Hi! Yes it would be a darker color or the color would be off because its not starting with white. I would make Vanilla frosting instead and color it. f
When measuring the brown sugar, did it have to be packed?
Yes its best that way 🙂
Can you freeze the cakes before icing them.
Yes absolutely Lianne! I’d let them thaw out a bit before you start icing so that they aren’t rock hard while you’re working with the icing.
This is my most loved flavour by everyone. It is my go to celebration cake. Versatile – 6 or 8 inch.
Plus I make the larger version in various layers- cookie butter for base , cookie butter biscuit crumb stirred through a basic butter cake and then top layer is vanilla. Superb
Im so glad Gianna!! That combo sounds spectacular, I’ll have to give it a try! Thank you so much for the 5 star rating!!