Recipe request

I've been making birthday cakes for my great niece and great nephew for soon to be 10 years. The sweet thing is that they think I can make anything. The horrible challenge is that they think I can make anything.

Soon to be 10 year old Allison recently told me she knows what kind of cake she wants next month. In her words, it should taste like cookie dough but not have any raw eggs in it. It should also look like a zebra. Then she thew her head back and laughed, telling me she was kidding about the zebra.

Dang...the zebra would have been the easy part!

I found a recipe last week and made it this past weekend to audition it before the birthday event. It smelled wonderful baking. There were 7.5 sticks of butter total in the batter, filling and icing. Sweetened condensed milk and a lot of brown sugar were also involved. Five adults sampled it yesterday. Today I am throwing out 3/4s of a cake.

The batter was heavy going into the pans, much more like actual cookie dough than cake batter. It baked a little dry, but that wasn't the real problem. The filling and icing were icky sweet. Both began by creaming butter with brown sugar. I'm not new to making icing, but this was the first time I used brown sugar in icing. Was it my technique or does brown sugar icing tend to feel granular in your mouth no matter how long you work it?

I admit to liking raw cookie dough itself, but only a spoonful (or finger full) when the the last batch is being scooped onto baking sheets. None of the adults that taste tested the cake are crazy about cookie dough ice cream so maybe this cake was successful but we just don't care for this taste in large quantities.

The other matches that turn up most often online include one with raw cookie dough that you chill and form into balls to use in the filling. Baked cookies decorate the sides of the cake. This doesn't appeal to me, plus I am hesitant to serve raw eggs (in the cookie dough) to a large group of people.

Does this mean I don't mind poisoning smaller groups of people? We'll save that debate for another post.

Seriously, the party will be outdoors so temperature is a factor in spoilage and I always hesitate to take cakes that must be refrigerated because refrigerator space is often tight on the day of a party. I don't know what the hosts have going and never assume they'll have room for a layer cake.

Another frequent match to my internet search was a three layer cake that had a chocolate cake layer, a cookie dough layer that did not include eggs, and a cheesecake layer. The cookie dough layer is not baked so even if I skipped the cheesecake, this cake would still require refrigeration.

The last match was a boxed yellow cake mix brown sugar and chocolate chips in the frosting. It didn't sound impressive, especially after my brown sugar icing attempt.

Does anyone have a recipe they've used that tastes like cookie dough and doesn't make your teeth ache?

Maybe I can distract Allison with a rented zebra for her party and some cookie dough ice cream. Renting a zebra might be easier than this cake request!