• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a 9-inch round springform pan and set aside. Start the base: Cream together butter and shortening together with a stand mixer for roughly 1 minute.
• Add in sugar and beat again for another 2-3 minutes. Scrap bowl the bowl as need.
• Add in egg to the stand mixer. Beat it together until everything is combined for about 1-2 minutes. Scrap bowl the bowl as need. Then, add in vanilla and milk and beat again for another 1-2 minutes.
• Add in all the dry ingredients to the stand mixer and mix until just combined (it's okay if there's are a couple of streaks of flour).
• Set aside 2-3 tablespoons of chocolate chips and add the rest of the chocolate chips to the dough. Gently fold into the cookie cake dough with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula.
• Press the dough into the prepared 9-inch springform pan. Gently press extra chocolate chips onto the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the pre-heated oven, until the edges turn a golden brown. Cool: in the pan on a cooling rack until completely cooled. Carefully remove the cookie cake from a spring form pan.

Frosting Instructions

• Start by beating butter with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a handheld mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes until creamed.
• Then, add in powdered sugar, vanilla extract and heavy cream. Beat on low speed for about 30 seconds, increase to medium speed for 30 seconds and then increase to medium-high speed and beat for another 2 minutes.
• Divide and color frosting. I am estimating how much frosting I used. The most you would need is about 1.25 cups of frosting. The only colors you NEED are the white and black for the spider and the spider web. But, I used 4 different neon/bright colors for the accent flowers and design.

  White - I use a tiny amount of violet to offset the 'yellow' tint in the vanilla buttercream and to create a 'brighter' white. ¼-1/3 cup using an acteo 4 round piping tip.

  Orange - 2-3 tablespoons using an acteo 30 closed star piping tip.

  Red Orange - 2-3 tablespoons using an ateco 8 round piping tip.

  Lime green - I use both yellow and green to get a lime green color. 2-3 tablespoons using an ateco 199 drop flower piping tip.

  Violet - I use a tiny bit of blue and violet. 2-3 tablespoons using an ateco 5 star piping tip.

  Black - 1-2 tablespoons using an ateco 2 round pipping tip. If you want multiple spiders, you will need to increase the amount of black frosting.

Decorating Instructions

• Pick a somewhere in the middle-ish of the cookie cake to be the center of your web. Pipe straight lines from that center to outer edges. It can be in the middle OR off center (like pictured)
• Connect lines by piping curved lines in between, creating a web pattern.
• Pipe orange drop flowers sporadicly on cookie cake. Create a drop flower by piping a star shape and pulling straight up as you release pressure. I did groups of three and bunches of three slightly spread out.
• Pipe mini purple rosettes by squeeze the piping bag slightly to form a single dab, or star, of buttercream and then pipe around the star in a circular motion, almost like writing a lowercase letter “e.”
• Pipe drop green flowers sporadicly on cookie cake. Pipe a drop flower by piping a star shape and pulling straight up as you release pressure.
• Pipe red-orange drops by piping an egg/oval shape and pulling straight up as you release pressure.
• Pipe a large black circle roughly the size of a fingernail on the spider web. This is the body of the spider. Pipe a much smaller circle next to the body. This is the head of the spider. Then pipe 8 thin lines, 4 on each side of the body to act as the spider legs. Making sure to keep all the legs the same size and length.
• Using leftover frosting, pipe randomly and sporadically until you have reached your desired design. I decided I wanted to spread the flowers more out among the entire cooki cake with some reaching the edge and creating a more organic flow to the cookie cake.