This soft & chewy basketball cookie cake is less than $10 to make at home and can be made in under 1 hour! Perfect for a basketball-themed birthday cake or March Madness treat!
Why You’ll Love This Basketball Cookie Cake
- No fancy decorating required! The basketball cookie cake design comes together easily with a simple dough, chocolate chips, and frosting!
- Soft & chewy! This homemade version uses my best cookie cake recipe, which has a soft and chewy texture that is similar to Mrs. Field’s cookies!
- Cheaper than storebought! Coming together with one bowl, and easy ingredients make this the perfect sports cookie cake for a basketball loving crowd!
What you need
- Cookie Cake: Follow the recipe below to make your homemade cookie cake!
- Orange Frosting: I recommend using the Wilton orange gel food coloring to achieve the coloring for the basketball design.
- Chocolate chips: To make the basketball design, we used regular-sized semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- 11.5” Round Cookie Cake Pan (don’t have one? You can use my DIY Cookie Cake Pan hack to make one!).
- Helpful tools:
- Wood skewer or ruler: this will help make a perfectly straight center line of your basketball cookie cake design.
- Large Mixing bowl OR rimmed plate: these will help create the guides for the basketball’s circles.
Make it gluten-free! Use my chewy gluten-free cookie cake recipe to make this basketball cookie cake gluten-free!
How to Make a Basketball Cookie Cake:
Step 1: Bake Cookie Cake
Mix ingredients for your cookie cake according to recipe below. Using a spoon or your clean hands, drop the dough into small chunks in the pan. This will help disperse everything so that you can easily smooth it out.
Once all dough has been added, use a spatula or your hands to press down the dough into a smooth layer (being sure to get all the corners). This method is my best tip to make a cookie cake evenly.
Don’t have a round 11.5″ pan? You can bake in a 9×13 light metal pan (they’ll be a little thinner so watch the oven around the 12 minute mark) or create a DIY cookie cake pan. Because you don’t have as much heat from a real metal pan, these typically take an extra 4-6 minutes to bake.
Step 2: Make Orange Frosting & Guide Lines
- Make orange frosting: use the ingredients in the recipe card below to make vanilla buttercream or use canned frosting. To match the shade, use 10 drops of Wilton Orange gel food coloring per batch of frosting (i.e. each batch is 1 3/4 cups).
- Spread: Once the cookie cake has cooled, spread the orange buttercream across the cookie cake evenly.
- Make guidelines: Using a rimmed plate or mixing bowl, create 2 half circles representing the grooves of the basketball. Use the skewer to create lines through your cookie cake, one from top to bottom and another from left to right. These will help you create the perfect basketball cookie cake design that looks like it came from a bakery!
Step 3: Add Chocolate Chips
Follow the guides created with the bowl and skewer and add chocolate chips upside down to complete this basketball cookie cake recipe.
Storage & Freezing
- Storing: This homemade buttercream icing will start developing a crust, which makes it a great frosting to make a day ahead. Because of the sugar content, you don’t need to refrigerate the frosted cookie cake if you plan to enjoy it within 1 day. If you are making ahead earlier, I’d suggest waiting to frost until day of OR gently wrap the frosted cookie after the frosting sets and place in the fridge.
- Freezing: I don’t typically like refrigerating freezing chocolate chip cookies because I feel like they get dry and not as chewy in the freezer. If you do need to make this in advance, you could wrap the baked, unfrosted cookie in plastic wrap and when you’re ready to eat it, let it thaw to room temperature then frost.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What if I don’t have a cookie cake pan?
Don’t have a round 11.5″ cookie cake pan? You can bake in a 9×13 metal pan (they will just be a little thinner, so you may need to bake a couple minutes less) OR create a DIY cookie cake pan using foil.
How do you know when cookie cake is done?
The top should be slightly brown (see below) and the center baked through. The cookie may still look slightly underbaked but this is the trick to a soft, chewy cookie. If you overbake it and it gets too brown, you will have a crunchy cookie cake. Allow the cookie cake to cool completely before removing.
Can I make this cookie cake gluten-free?
I’ve already done the work for you and turned this popular recipe into a Chewy Gluten-Free Cookie Cake!
How much does this cookie cake recipe cost to make?
A store-bought cookie cake will likely run you around $20 and if you’re getting one from somewhere like Mrs. Fields or Great American Cookies, those can go upwards to $40. If you’ve already got the staples on hand (like sugar and eggs), then this sports cookie cake costs less than $10 to make (less than most store bought birthday cakes too!)
Basketball Cookie Cake
This soft & chewy basketball cookie cake is less than $10 to make at home and can be made in under 1 hour! Perfect for a basketball-themed birthday cake or March Madness treat!
Ingredients
Cookie Cake
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick) You will be melting this
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (You’ll be chopping 1/2 cup and adding the remaining 1/2 cup whole).
Orange Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- Pinch of Salt
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
- 10 drops Wilton Orange Food Coloring
Decorating
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Before you begin! If you make this, will you do me a huge favor and leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe? This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350°F.
-
Chop ½ cup of the chocolate chips. The goal here is to have a mixture of tiny chocolate flakes throughout the dough, while still have the whole chunks in there for texture. Set aside.
-
In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter for 20-30 seconds until JUST melted.
-
Add in granulated sugar and brown sugar and use a spatula to stir until combined (* do not use a mixer!). Add in egg and vanilla extract, then mix. Next, add in baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix again. Add in flour and mix until all the flour disappears into the dough.
-
Add the ½ cup of chopped chocolate chips and ½ cup of whole chocolate chips into the dough and mix. Immediately proceed to pressing into pan (you don't want the dough sitting out or it will set too much with the melted butter).
-
Grease a 11.5" metal cookie cake pan (don't have one? See notes below.) Although this cookie removes cleanly, if you are worried about it sticking, line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper first. Using a spoon or your clean hands, drop the dough into small chunks in the pan. This will help disperse everything so that you can easily smooth it out. Once all dough as been added, use a spatula or your hands to press down the dough into a smooth layer (being sure to get all the corners).
Tip: If you notice 2-3 chocolate chips are stuck together, separate them before baking. This will allow the chocolate to be evenly dispersed and prevent the cookie from having a giant clump of chocolate in one spot (which could cause it to more easily break while cutting).
-
Bake at 350°F degrees for 12-14 minutes – do NOT overbake or your chocolate chip cookie cake will not be soft. You want the cookie cake to be slightly brown on the top and look slightly underbaked (my oven was perfect at 12 minutes). Remove from oven and place entire pan on a cooling rack. Allow the cookie cake to cool completely before removing.
Tip: To remove from pan, use a knife to go around the edges, place a flat platter on top, then flip over the pan to remove. If you used parchment paper, this should come out rather smoothly. After flipping over the cookie cake, flip it over again on the final decorate plate or platter (I LOVE these cute paper trays and the largest one in the pack is perfect for a 10" cookie cake).
-
Once the cookie cake has cooled, spread the orange frosting (instructions below) over the top.
-
Using a rimmed plate or mixing bowl, create 2 half circles representing the grooves of the basketball. Use the skewer to create lines through your cookie cake, one from top to bottom and another from left to right.
-
Follow the guides created with the bowl and skewer and add chocolate chips upside down to complete this basketball cookie cake recipe.
To Make Frosting:
-
Beat the softened butter on medium-high speed for 2-minutes until smooth. Turn the mixer to low speed then add the powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time. You may need to stop and scrape down sides. Add vanilla and salt and turn mixer to medium speed. One tablespoon at a time, add milk. Then, add 10 drops of Wilton Orange Food Coloring, and combine. Beat on high for 2-3 minutes until creamy and the frosting is at a good consistency to pipe. If it looks too runny, add more powdered sugar. If it looks too stiff, add a tiny bit of milk until you get to the desired consistency.
This will make just enough frosting to cover the top of the cookie cake or 1 ¾ cups frosting.
Last Step! Please leave a review and rating letting me know how you liked this recipe! This helps my small business thrive so I can continue providing free recipes and high-quality content for you.
Recipe Notes
Don’t have a round 11.5″ pan? You can bake in a 9×13 pan (they’ll be a little thinner) OR Create a DIY cookie cake pan.
Frosting Tip: This homemade buttercream will start developing a crust, which makes it a great frosting to make a day ahead. Because of the sugar content, you don’t need to refrigerate the frosted cookie cake if you plan to enjoy it within 1 day. If you are making ahead earlier, I’d suggest waiting to frost until day of OR gently wrap the frosted cookie after the frosting sets and place in the fridge.
Freezing/Make Ahead Tip: I don’t typically like freezing chocolate chip cookies because I feel like they get dry and not as chewy in the freezer. If you do need to make this in advance, you could wrap the baked, unfrosted cookie in plastic wrap and when you’re ready to eat it, let it thaw to room temperature then frost.
Can I double this recipe? You can, but you still want to make sure the dough is only 1/2″ thick once spread in the pan (so you would need a larger pan than 10″). Note that thicker dough will require longer baking times and won’t be as much like the traditional, chewy cookie cake recipe you may be used to. If you want a larger cookie cake, try my Sheet Pan Cookie Cake (you could do a circle in the middle for the basketball).
Gluten-Free: For those asking, I turned this popular recipe into the best Chewy Gluten-Free Cookie Cake!
Nutrition information is just an estimate but based on 12 servings.
