Mocha Cookie Cake

i cheated on valentines day.

no no not on joe duh, on my diet. but just a little bit. and just a little bit for a little bit of this cake.

this cake…. is not like any other cake. this cake is like pure heaven. it’s everything i want in a cake. not as rich as pure chocolate cake and perfect with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee.

we stayed in for valentines day this year and i wanted to make something special. i saw this cake on one of my food network tv binges when they had a chocolate marathon running the previous weekend.

i’m not  a chocoholic. i aint never craved no chocohol. thats i lie i have from time to time but i could easily give up sweets/desserts if it came down to sweet or savory. i usually pass on dessert unless it involves one of two things. lemon or cookies. this cake is super simple to whip up just make sure you give yourself at least 12 HOURS for the cake to set. otherwise it won’t get that cake like texture. it will just be cookies with frosting. which lets be honest wouldn’t be the end of the world. the original recipe came from the barefoot contessa’s chocolate special but i couldn’t find all the ingredients she requested for the cake. so i substituted with what i could find around the ahem “allegan village market” where… i was shocked they at least had mascarpone cheese. please note: if you click on the original recipe mine is the umm….rustic version. either way it’s chocolate and cookies mmmk?

here is what you need for le cake:

2 cups of cold heavy whipping cream
12 oz of mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of kahlua
2 tbsp of unsweetened coco powder
2 tsp of instant coffee
1 tsp of pure vanilla extract
15-20 dry or crispy chocolate chip cookies*

*you could probably buy waferish type chocolate chip cookies but allegan had nothing but chips ahoy. which …. could probably work. i just made mine extra crispy. i always was curious about using those milano cookies…hmmm maybe next round.

ok step one. mix almost everything together into the mixer with the whisk attachment. (heavy cream, mascarpone, sugar, kahlua, coco powder, instant coffee, vanilla) start off by whisking slow and then once it has all come together whisk at a higher pace until stiff peaks form.

see how the mixture became really thick? the heavy whipping cream will help the mascarpone and other ingredients to become a whipped cream like frosting.

next comes the assembly. grab your pan and line the bottom with cookies. you might have to break some to fill in the gaps.

add a layer of the frosting and then top that with another layer of cookies. keep layering until you get to the last layer which should be a nice thick layer of frosting. i managed to sneak in three layers.

cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 12 hours preferably over night. remove the pan side and serve! it’s super easy. while the cake is resting in the fridge the frosting is soaking into the dry cookies and turning it into a nice cake like texture. it cuts like a cake, it looks like a cake but it tastes like delicious cookies in a marvelous cocoon of whipped frosting.

enjoy!