Can you believe that this September marks our fifth year in business? It seems like just yesterday that we delivered our first order of cookies to The Gourmet Shop in Columbia. And here we are, five years later, with our hand-crafted cookies in over 150 stores across 27 states. It's been an incredible journey so far and we are so grateful for all the support from our customers, retailers, friends and family.
In our family, it's tradition to make my Mother's Pound Cake for almost any occasion. But how could we possibly celebrate our fifth birthday without cookies? We needed both. So we decided to use our pound cake base and put cookies in the batter. Inspired by our easy cookie cupcakes earlier this month, we created layered mini-cakes with some of our favorite flavors. They are the best of both worlds!
The fun thing about these cakes is that you can customize the flavors based on your favorite Grey Ghost Cookies. And while we love using our family pound cake recipe as the base, you can certainly use any neutral cake recipe that you like making at home.
We made our mini-cakes with Almond Toffee, Cinnamon Pecan and Chocolate Chip cookies. Plus we've added some complimentary ingredients to bump up the cookie flavor in the cakes. First you make the cake batter, then you stir in the cookies and additional ingredients. Bake the cakes as you normally would and then let them cool. You can frost them as is, but we like to use a large circular cookie cutter to make layered mini-cakes.
We started with our newest flavor, Almond Toffee. These chewy cookies are chock full of another delicious confection, Dottie's Toffee also made in South Carolina. With the buttery flavor from the toffee, we knew these cookies would be the best place to start building our layers. We really wanted to boost the almond flavor so we went about it in two ways: by adding toasted, slivered almonds and by stirring almond extract into the batter. And once the batter was in the baking pan, we swirled in a salty caramel sauce.
For the second layer, we wanted to use another nutty, buttery cookie. And since National Pecan Cookie Day is coming up on September 21st, we had our Cinnamon Pecan cookies on the brain. We added in more southern pecans, toasted of course, and also a couple of dashes of Pumpkin Pie spice to highlight the warm cinnamon flavor in my Dad’s favorite cookie.
The third layer was the hardest to choose. We knew we wanted chocolate but with four options to choose from, it wasn’t an easy decision. All of our chocolate cookies would be delicious, but we ultimately decided to stick with the classic Chocolate Chip. This layer was all about the chocolate, so we added cocoa powder AND chocolate chips to the batter.
So you see, there's no need to choose between your favorite desserts on your birthday. You can have your cookies and cake and eat them too! We hope you'll try out our Cookie Cake recipe at home. Get creative and share your pictures with us on Facebook and Instagram. We can't wait to see your custom cookie creations!
Grey Ghost Cookie Cake
Makes 1 1-inch layer
3 cups prepared cake batter
2 Grey Ghost Bakery Cookies, smashed
Add-ins (options below)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan and lightly coat with flour.
3. Combine the cake batter, crushed cookies and additional add-ins. Pour into the prepared cake pan and spread evenly.
4. Bake until the cake is firm and a toothpick inserted in the middle pulls out cleanly, about 10-12 minutes. (Baking time will vary depending on the batter you use.)
5. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from the cake from the pan and transfer to a wire rack.
7. Let cake cool completely before frosting.
ADD-IN OPTIONS
Almond Toffee - 2 crushed Almond Toffee Cookies, 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, 2 tablespoons toasted slivered almonds, 2 tablespoons salted caramel sauce
Chocolate Chip - 2 crushed Chocolate Chip Cookies, 2 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Cinnamon Pecan - 2 crushed Cinnamon Pecan Cookies, 2 tablespoons toasted pecan pieces, 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend
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