If you love to nibble on cookie dough (and who doesn’t?!) you HAVE to try this quick and easy Cookie Dough Frosting! It’s packed with mini chocolate chips and has that PERFECT brown sugar cookie dough taste. Best of all, unlike regular cookie dough, it’s totally safe to eat raw, thanks to one little kitchen trick!
🍪 Cookie Dough Frosting for Cakes, Cupcakes, and More!
This thick and creamy cookie dough frosting tastes just like chocolate chip cookie dough! It’s delicious on top of cakes and cupcakes, makes a killer layer cake filling, and can even be used as a dessert dip. It’s made with heat-treated flour and no eggs, which means it’s completely safe to eat raw–which is a huge bonus if you like to sneak giant spoonfuls like I do. And the best part? This easy recipe can be whipped up in a single bowl in a matter of minutes!
Once you’ve made a batch of this frosting, you can stuff it inside these adorable Cookie Monster Cupcakes to really complete the chocolate chip cookie love!
🧁How To Use Cookie Dough Frosting
Don’t be put off by the thought of using “dough” to frost your desserts – this recipe is smooth, creamy, and spreads like a dream on brownies, cakes, and cupcakes. It’s a little too chunky to pipe easily, but you can us an offset spatula (or even the back of a spoon) to give your desserts rustic, picture-perfect swirls.
It also makes a wonderful filling for layer cakes. You can tweak the texture by adding more or less liquid, so if you need a sturdier filling for carved or extra-tall cakes, add less cream to make it thicker.
If you want to go the opposite direction, add additional cream to make it thinner, and voila! Now you have a cookie dough dessert dip—perfect for serving with strawberries, vanilla wafers, or Ritz crackers.
Try pairing this chocolate chip cookie dough frosting with my ultra-moist chocolate cupcakes, Rocky Road Cake, Cookies & Cream Cake, or on top of my Ultimate Fudgy Chocolate Brownies!
Table of Contents
🧾 What You’ll Need
Ingredients
This one-bowl cookie dough frosting recipe can be made with just a handful of pantry staples! You likely already have everything you need to get started. (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
- All-Purpose Flour: Any flour will work in this recipe, but I typically use all-purpose flour. It should be heat-treated before you add it to your frosting–see instructions below for how to do this.
- Butter: Unsalted, room temperature butter gives this frosting a creamy texture.
- Sugars: A mixture of brown sugar and powdered sugar will give you that classic cookie dough flavor and perfect frosting consistency.
- Heavy Cream: Cream adds additional richness, but you can swap in milk if you’d like.
- Vanilla Extract: I think this Madagascar vanilla extract adds the best pure vanilla flavor!
- Mini Chocolate Chips: These tiny chocolate morsels add the perfect amount of chocolatey flavor without overwhelming the other ingredients. You can use larger chocolate chips if you’d like, but I think the minis are easier to work with.
Equipment
You won’t need any specialty pieces of equipment to make this chocolate chip cookie dough frosting! Just a few of your kitchen basics will do the trick. (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
- Electric Mixer: Either a stand or hand mixer will do!
- Sifter: Super important since heat-treated flour tends to clump pretty badly, a sifter is great!
- Mixing Bowl: You’ll only need one bowl for this super simple recipe!
Ready to Make These?
- Get the recipe below 👇👇
- Scroll below the recipe for step-by-step photos
- Read important FAQs and more
Leave a Review!
If you make this recipe, let us know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on the recipe below, and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram @elabau, or use #sugarhero on IG!
Cookie Dough Frosting
Ingredients
- 2.25 oz all-purpose flour, (1/2 cup)
- 6 oz unsalted butter, (3/4 cup), at room temperature
- 4 oz brown sugar, (1/2 cup), packed
- 8 oz powdered sugar, (2 cups)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 TBSP heavy cream, or milk
- 4.5 oz mini chocolate chips, (3/4 cup), can increase to taste
Instructions
- Since raw flour can contain harmful bacteria, the first step is to heat-treat the flour to make it safe to consume raw. Place the flour in a microwave-safe bowl and heat at full power for 1 minute. Let it cool completely.
- Combine the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or large bowl if using a hand mixer). Beat at medium-high speed using a paddle attachment for 2-3 minutes. The mixture should be lighter in color and fluffy by the end.
- Stop the mixer and sift the flour over the top of the butter/sugar mixture – microwaving the flour tends to make it lump, so don't skip the sifting step.
- Add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and cream, and mix for an additional 2-3 minutes until everything is incorporated and the frosting has a smooth, light texture.
- You can further adjust the texture by adding more liquid for a softer frosting, or more powdered sugar for a stiffer frosting/filling.
- Finally, add the mini chocolate chips and stir them in.
- If you are not immediately using the frosting, cover it with plastic wrap to keep it from forming a crust. Cookie dough frosting can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. If it has been refrigerated or frozen, let it sit at room temperature until soft enough to spread before using.
Video
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
Nutrition
📋 Instructions
Here’s a step-by-step photo tutorial of how to make this easy homemade chocolate chip cookie dough frosting! For a printable version, check out the recipe card below.
Cream the Butter and Sugar
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Heat treat the flour and Add Dry Ingredients
- Place the flour into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat on full power for 1 minute, then let it cool completely before using.
- Heat treating flour in this way eliminates any concerns about consuming raw flour (which might contain potentially harmful bacteria) so this frosting can be enjoyed by everyone.
- The flour can get quite clumpy after being heated, so you’ll want to sift it over the butter mixture to eliminate any flour lumps.
Mix in Sugar, Salt, Vanilla and Cream
- Add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and heavy cream.
- Mix everything together until no lumps of dry ingredients remain, and your frosting is light, fluffy, and wonderfully creamy.
Mix In Chips and Enjoy!
- Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the miniature chocolate chips.
- For the best results, use an offset spatula or the back of a spoon to spread the cookie dough frosting on cakes or cupcakes. I llike to finish my desserts off with a few more mini chips on top to complete the look!
💡 Tips and FAQs
Raw flour can contain harmful bacteria. Therefore, the safest practice is to heat treat the flour up to 160°F to kill bacteria. You can do this in the oven or microwave. Steps for microwaving flour can be found in the beginning of this recipe.
Simply adjust the amount of cream or milk you use! Add more for a thinner frosting or less for a thicker filling.
Unfortunately, no. Because there are no eggs in this frosting, it will not bake up into the delicious chocolate chip cookies you’re expecting. I don’t recommend it.
This recipe yields 24 oz of frosting (about 2 3/4 cups). This is enough to frost 24 cupcakes with a thin layer of frosting, or 18 cupcakes with a thicker layer of frosting. For use as a cake filling, it is enough to fill three layers of a 6″ cake or two layers of an 8″ or 9″ cake.
Leftover chocolate chip cookie dough frosting can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 3 months. To use it, allow the frosting to come back up to room temperature and stir well to restore the creamy texture before you attempt to spread it on anything.
💭 Variations
This chocolate chip flavored frosting is just the beginning when it comes to creating cookie-inspired spreads and fillings! You can use this basic recipe to create a whole bunch of different cookie dough treats.
- Make snickerdoodle cookie dough frosting by omitting the chocolate chips and adding cinnamon or cinnamon chips instead.
- Turn this frosting into cookie dough dip. Simply add an additional tablespoon or two of heavy cream. Serve it alongside some fresh fruit, graham crackers, or pretzels!
- Have fun with extracts! Create the creamy cookie dough frosting of your choice by adding almond, lemon, coffee, or coconut extract.
- Get creative with your mix-ins. Mini M&Ms, dried fruit, chopped nuts, milk or white chocolate chips, and caramel bits are a few of my favorites!
- Create a homemade ice cream topping by freezing this frosting into small balls. Use it as a sundae topping or add it to your favorite homemade ice cream base.
My kids love this frosting. It’s definitely a great frosting for those who like cookie dough flavor.
And who doesn’t love some cookie dough right!? Thanks for your comment 🙂
What a gorgeous frosting – love the idea of cookie dough cupcakes and this tastes JUST like it! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this frosting! Thank you for sharing!
I’ve never seen anything like this before! It looks incredible on top of cupcakes but I think I’d have a hard time not eating it right out of the bowl. Thanks for the recipe!
Hey now, there is nothing wrong with eating it right out of the bowl! 🙂
Wow! This is my kind of frosting! Will go perfectly on my fudgy Brownies, yummy!
This cookie dough frosting + brownies = YUM! Thanks for the idea 🙂
Have the best of both worlds with moist cupcakes topped with chocolate chip cookie doug. So good!
Thank you Erin!!
I love this recipe for Chocolate cupcakes. I made this recipe and toasted the flour in my oven for about 30 minutes and it got toasted and turned a light brown. Then I put it all together and it was amazing. It tasted so good on the cupcakes.
Who doesn’t like eating chocolate chip cookie dough? Now you can…..Thank you for the recipe..
I totally agree, who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookie dough!? Thank you for the feedback Donna 🙂
I have not made this yet but could you use a piping bag instead of scooping/spreading it on??
Hi Ellen! I have had more success spreading this frosting because it is pretty thick. If you wanted to pipe it, you could play with the texture of the frosting by adjusting the amount of milk added. Don’t forget to use a large tip so the chocolate chips don’t get stuck 🙂 Let us know how it works!