The Giant Cookie Cake

Believe it or not, I have a child who doesn't like cake.  Or ice cream for that matter.  Strange you say?  I totally agree.  He is a pretty good eater though so I guess I can't complain. Though I aways get a confused look from parents at birthday parties followed by, "Your son says he doesn't like cake?"  I don't understand it myself.  I did make his very first birthday cake from scratch and I sometimes wonder if that did him in. Hmmm,  everyone else seemed to like it!

Getting to the point.  A child who doesn't like cake still needs something with "Happy Birthday" on it and candles to blow out at his parties.  My son was pretty um, healthy, as a baby, weighing over ten pounds when he was born, so my husband and I used to joke that we would just grill him a steak and write "Happy Birthday" on it with steak sauce.  Ha ha!  Dont' worry, we never did that.  Anyway, I decided to go the cookie route.  He loves cookies so a cookie cake just made sense.  And he was thrilled when I offered to make him a giant cookie.

Who doesn't love a slice of soft chocolate chip cookie with a yummy blob of icing?  Odds are most of the ones you have had are store bought because well, they are just not that easy to make.  I began searchingfor a recipe.  I found one that required you to bake the cookie in a cast iron skillet.  It seemed like a good idea but it was very dry and hard.  I had to smash it with the skillet because I didn't want to go all the way to the garage for the chainsaw. 

So that got me thinking about the softest chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten and that make me think of my dear sweet Meema.  She always brought cookies over for Christmas.  She would put them in a cardboard Christmas gift box lined with wax paper.  We always looked forward to the treats she brought us.  Ok, so enough reminiscing.  The cookies were made with a yellow cake mix.  Which perfectly explained why they were always so soft.  There was cake in there. 

So I mixed up the batch but instead of dropping them on a cookie sheet, I put the whole mix in a round pan and cooked it up.  I had to adjust the cooking time a bit but it came out perfect.

It was soft and moist and he loved it.  So then my older son decided he wanted one for his birthday too. 

And then my husband like them so much I made one for his birthday too. Phew!  Fortunately they are all several months apart.

I did this one a little different because I needed it to feed more people.  I made two complete recipes and made sort of a giant Oreo cookie with vanilla icing in the middle.  It was yummy but very heavy.  Great for a lot of people but not so much if you're going to have leftovers.  I also made it with a chocolate cake mix instead of a yellow one.  Same cooking instructions.  I imagine you can use any sort of cake mix you want, but I have only tried the two.  Please let me know if you try something different.

Now I'm sure you are all dying to know the recipe.  I have wondered if I should share it with you or just keep it a family secret.  But I think my Meema would like to know that her recipe was getting passed around.  So here it is, in her very own handwriting.

To make the cake just spread the mixture in a round pan, the larger the better, and watch it closely until its done.  Oh, and I feel the need to add that my Meema probably got this recipe out of a newspaper or off the side of a box many years ago.  Enjoy!  And happy baking!