M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cake

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This show-stopping M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cake is perfect for Valentine's Day! This giant cookie is loaded with M&M's® Red Velvet chocolate candies and a from-scratch Red Velvet Buttercream Frosting! Perfect for sharing with a friend!

While shopping at Walmart this past weekend, I decided to take a stroll down the aisle with all of the Valentine's Day candy. I am always suckered in by the seasonal stuff - aren't you?! I love seeing if I can find "new" things to try! Score! I spotted some M&M's® Red Velvet chocolate candies. I thought it would be fun to create a dessert using them - because who doesn't love Red Velvet and M&M's®?!

And let's be real ... the seasonal flavors are so much fun! My husband is a huge fan of Red Velvet, so I picked up a few extra bags for him ..... at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Haha! I really had no idea of what I was going to make, but I knew it would be awesome with these M&M's® Red Velvet chocolate candies.

Baking is my therapy - it unclutters my mind. I got to think ... usually, when we think of Valentine's Day, we think of a special dinner with our spouse or significant other. Perhaps, a small gift exchange. Flowers. Chocolate. You know, the usual stuff.

Sometimes, we even share small tokens with our children for Valentine's. I have been known to buy my kiddos their own boxes of chocolates or share homemade Valentines with them. When my kiddos attended public school, we had a local pizza joint that made heart-shaped pizzas on Valentine's Day and I would order each of my kiddos a pizza and have them delivered to school for lunch for them.

Here's the thing - We don't always think to share Valentine's with other special people in our lives ... our friends, neighbors, our pastor's family, our children's coach .... and the many other people who are a part of our life. I'm just as guilty as anyone - it's too easy to get caught up in life. Sometimes we forget or we take those relationships or friendships for granted.

This Valentine's Day, I want that to be different.

A funny coincidence - as I was taking pictures for this post, my neighbor Alyce stopped by to bring a soccer ball over to my kids. True story. I had my camera around my neck and told her she had caught me in the middle of taking pictures for my blog. No big deal. She asked what kind of treat I had made and I showed her a few quick pictures. She asked if I still had it all set up - and asked if she could see it. Of course!! One thing I can talk a lot about is my blog! :) I showed her my set-up and gave her a quick run down of what I do.

It dawned on me right then and there that she was really our first friend when we moved here to Phoenix. As we were moving in, she stopped by and introduced herself and invited us to have dinner at her house. I remember thinking at the time that it was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for us. I mean, we have five kids, y'all .... 3 of them are teenage boys. They can put away some food. Not only that, but people just don't seem to go out of their way for other people anymore.

I offered to have my boys take this M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cake over to her house after I was done with the pictures. It seemed very fitting to send it to her house since she was our first friend here - she didn't even mind that I had cut into for pictures! I think she was actually rather fascinated by the whole thing!

After my kiddos took this M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cake over to Alyce, I started thinking, it would be so easy to whip up a few more M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cakes for some of my other neighbors too! I'll definitely be getting a few more bags of M&M's® Red Velvet chocolate candies on my next shopping trip to Walmart!

I can't wait to share more of these M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cakes with a few more friends. Maybe sharing a fun Valentine's Day treat with friends should become a tradition?! Who wouldn't love a fun little treat from a friend?!

Just a side note before we get to the recipe - I used a 1M tip for the Red Velvet Butter Cream Frosting. You can create any kind of design you like! I have to admit, I was quite pleased with how easy this recipe was to make and the final outcome. I thought the M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cake looked gorgeous! Although it looks fancy, let me assure you, this recipe is really easy! Enjoy!

M&M's® Red Velvet Cookie Cake

by Jamie @ Love Bakes Good Cakes

Yield: one 9-inch cookie cake

Ingredients

¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 bag (9.90 oz.) M&M's® Red Velvet flavored candies
¼ cup white chocolate chips

For the Red Velvet Buttercream Frosting:

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
3 tbsp. water
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. LorAnn Red Velvet Bakery Emulsion

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-inchcake pan with cooking spray, or line bottom with a piece of parchment paper. Set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and continue to mix until well combined.

3. In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.

4. Set aside ¼ cup of the M&M's® Red Velvet flavored candies. Stir in the remaining M&M's® and white chocolate chips into the batter.

5. Spread the dough into the cake pan, using your clean hands or spatula to help press out and evenly fill the pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.

6. Remove cookie cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely in the pan.

7. While the cookie cake is cooling, prepare the frosting by creaming the butter in a mixing bowl. Add the remaining frosting ingredients and mix until combined, stopping the machine and scraping down the sides once, then continuing to mix until frosting is light and fluffy.

8. Carefully run a butter knife around the outside edge of the cookie and carefully remove it from the pan. Place on a serving plate. Decorate with the Red Velvet Buttercream Frosting. Chop up the reserved M&M's® and sprinkle them over the cookie cake.

Note: Store covered, at room temperature.