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Gingerbread Cookie Butter Crunch Cake with Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting (Milk Bar Inspired)

Gingerbread Cookie Butter Crunch Cake with Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting (Milk Bar Inspired)

Four layers of gingerbread cake are each topped with a thick layer of crunchy cookie butter and creamy eggnog cream cheese frosting.

Course Dessert
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings 16 people

Ingredients

Cake

  • 1 1/4 cups butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 cup molasses (Do not use blackstrap.)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp allspice
  • 1 cup +2 tbsp buttermilk

Cookie Butter Crumbles

  • 1 jar crunchy cookie butter (14.1 oz)
  • 2 1/2 cups cookie crumbs see note

Eggnog Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 16 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1/2 cup eggnog

Instructions

Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare 4 9-inch round cake pans by lightly greasing and flouring. Set aside.

  2. In mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamed.

  3. Add molasses and sugars, beating until light and fluffy (pausing to scrape down sides of bowl as needed).

  4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition.

  5. Add in vanilla extract.

  6. In a separate bow, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices (ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice) until combined.

  7. With the mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. (Add about 1/5 of the flour, as soon as it is mostly combined add about 1/5 of the buttermilk, continuing in this pattern until all of the flour mixture and all of the buttermilk has been added.) Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to be sure ingredients are well-combined.

  8. Evenly divide batter between prepared cake pans.

  9. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes. (To check for doneness, a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan should come out clean or with crumbs, not batter.) Be sure to check each cake separately, since the oven may not cook evenly.

  10. Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes and then run a knife around the inside rim of the cake pan to loosen from the sides. Allow cakes to cool about 10 more minutes, then invert to continue cooling on a rack. Do not attempt to stack and frost the cake until all layers are completely cool. My cakes were slightly crumbly so I had to wrap them in parchment and freeze them about 45 minutes before flipping them back over to stack and frost.

Cookie Butter Crumbles

  1. Add the entire jar of cookie butter to a microwave safe bowl. Cook on half power for about 2 minutes, then stir. Repeat heating in 30 second increments until completely melted. Then mix in 2 cups of cookie crumbs until completely combined.

Eggnog Frosting

  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip butter and cream cheese until creamed, scraping down sides occasionally. Add in eggnog and powdered sugar, then mix for 2-3 additional minutes until light and fluffy.

Assembly

  1. Start with one layer of cake. Add 1/5th of eggnog frosting in a thick layer. Then top with 1/3 of the cookie butter mixture as an even layer on top of the eggnog frosting. Repeat this process three more times, then frost the outside of the cake with the remaining frosting. Decorate and enjoy! <3

Recipe Notes

I buy my crunchy cookie butter from Trader Joe's. You can also use Biscoff Cookie Butter.

Note on cookie crumbs: use a food processor to make 2 1/2 cups of cookie crumbs. 1/2 cup of these will be saved to decorate the cake. Speculoos or any gingerbread cookie will work. I prefer the mini gingerbread people from Trader Joe's because they're nice to decorate the cake with as well. 

This frosting is sweet enough without being too sweet. I tend to reduce the amount of powdered sugar that frosting calls for, so feel free to add extra powdered sugar if you want it sweeter. I found this version to be the perfect balance to the sweeter cake and cookie butter.

Cake recipe adapted from: https://sugarspunrun.com/gingerbread-layer-cake/. The filling and frosting portions were both completely invented by myself.