Giant Layered Cookie Cake
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 1 hour plus 1 hour waiting time
Baking time: 30 minutes
- 340g/12ozs. butter softened
- 1.5 cups caster or superfine sugar
- 1/5 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1.5 tablespoons hot water
- 4.5 cups plain all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 1/4 cups white chocolate buttons
- 1.5 cups flaked almonds
- 750g/26.5ozs. cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup icing or powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup salted caramel sauce
- 2-3 large bananas sliced quite thickly (as thick as the height of the icing)
- Macarons and marshmallows to decorate. I also used butterflies but I don't know if they worked...
Step 1 - Line four identical round baking tins with parchment on the base and sides. Beat the butter and sugars until pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Dissolve baking soda in the water. Add this to the mix and incorporate. Fold in flour, salt and baking powder and mix until combined.
Step 2 - Divide dough into four and press the dough against the tin. I find this the easiest way although you can roll it out and cut it out too but it's a rather large cookie so it can be more difficult. Use a piece of baking parchment to smooth it over. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Bake each cookie for 25-30 minutes until golden on top. I took one out of the tin and realised that the base was too soft so I put it back in the oven for another few minutes. Cool completely on wire racks. You can bake these a day or two ahead of time and wrap in clingfilm and place in an airtight container.
Step 4 - Make the cream cheese icing by beating together the cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth. Place in a large piping bag with a plain tip and place in fridge for 20 minutes or so if the weather is hot. I made this on a really hot day so I needed to do this, you might not need to.
Step 5 - Pipe two concentric circles around the edge of the circle and then pour some of the salted caramel sauce in the centre and smooth this over with a spatula. Fill the centre with the bananas. The bananas will make sure that the weight of each cookie tier doesn't weigh down on the other layers-I use them in place of dowel rods. Repeat until you place the last layer on top. Spread or pipe more cream cheese icing. Top with marshmallows and macarons and serve!
Step 6 - The best way to cut it is to give someone a cake sized serve of one layer. Giving them four cake sized wedges is a bit too much. Did I really just say that? ;)