This high altitude frosted sugar cookie cake features a layer of soft, frosted, bakery sugar cookies, sandwiched between two layers of fluffy vanilla cake, covered in pink vanilla buttercream and rainbow sprinkles.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for chocolate chip cookie birthday cake, rainbow birthday cake, and fudge brownie cake.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Cookies + Cake. With this sugar cookie cake, you get the soft, fluffy texture of moist vanilla cake, as well as the more dense, slightly chewy texture of sugar cookies in the middle. The frosted sugar cookies from my grocery store bakery are pretty soft, cakey, and crumbly, and in the photo below, you’ll see that they look almost like a layer of cake in the middle. Today’s recipe is different from my other sugar cookie layer cake recipe, which is made with layers of dense and chewy cookies instead of cake, frosted with fluffy chocolate buttercream and birthday sprinkles.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Cake Flour. Cake flour gives the cake a softer, fluffier crumb, as cake flour has less protein than all purpose flour.
- Sugar Cookies. Look for the clear plastic containers of frosted sugar cookies in your grocery store bakery – the cookies should be about three inches in diameter, and they come with a variety of colorful icing and sprinkles.
- Granulated Sugar + Powdered Sugar.
- Baking Powder.
- Salt.
- Butter + Oil.
- Milk + Sour Cream.
- Eggs.
- Vanilla Extract.
- Rainbow Sprinkles.
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray, and line the pans with circles of parchment paper.
- In large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the melted butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until well combined, about 10-15 seconds. Divide the batter between the cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 30-35 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, and the tops spring back when gently touched.
- Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn them out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter for one minute, until smooth.
- In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the sugar mixture by spoonfuls, then add the vanilla. To color your buttercream a vivid pink, add several drops of “electric pink” or “super red” gel food coloring.
- Increase the speed to medium and whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to “stir”, and mix for one more minute.
Assembly
- Place one of the cooled cake layers on a cake plate or serving pedestal. Frost the cake with a layer of buttercream.
- Arrange the cookies over the buttercream. I left the cookies whole, since they’re soft and easy to slice through, but you could also crumble them.
- Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the cookies, to fill in the gaps between the cookies, and to help adhere the top layer of cake.
- Place the second layer of cake on top, and frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 15 minutes to set the crumb coat, then frost the cake all over with a final coat of buttercream.
- Before the buttercream crusts over, scatter rainbow sprinkles over the sides and top of the cake.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
I used “super red” gel food coloring.
To find similar ballerina cake toppers, you can try searching for “vintage ballerina cupcake toppers” on either Etsy or eBay.
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
High Altitude Frosted Sugar Cookie Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment (for the buttercream)
- 9 Inch Round Cake Pan (x2)
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 ½ + ⅛ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 9 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ¾ cup sour cream, room temperature
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 6 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Buttercream and Cookie Layer
- 2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp meringue powder, optional
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 frosted bakery sugar cookies (3-inch diameter)
- rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with non-stick baking spray, and line the pans with circles of parchment paper.
- In large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the melted butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and whisk until well combined, about 10-15 seconds. Divide the batter between the cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for about 30-35 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, and the tops spring back when gently touched.
- Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes, then turn them out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter for one minute, until smooth.
- In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the sugar mixture by spoonfuls, then add the vanilla. To color your buttercream a vivid pink, add several drops of "electric pink" or "super red" gel food coloring.
- Increase the speed to medium and whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape down the bowl several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to "stir", and mix for one more minute.
Assembly
- Place one of the cooled cake layers on a cake plate or serving pedestal. Frost the cake with a layer of buttercream.
- Arrange the cookies over the buttercream. I left the cookies whole, since they're soft and easy to slice through, but you could also crumble them.
- Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the cookies, to fill in the gaps between the cookies, and to help adhere the top layer of cake.
- Place the second layer of cake on top, and frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream. Refrigerate the cake for 15 minutes to set the crumb coat, then frost the cake all over with a final coat of buttercream.
- Before the buttercream crusts over, scatter rainbow sprinkles over the sides and top of the cake.
Notes
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