My middle child turned 11 this week… to keep up with tradition, I “had” to prepare a cookie cake for him to celebrate at school. Bringing a cookie cake into a classroom with 20 kids is always a hit. Throw it in a pizza box and it’s even better.

This year his birthday party was going to be at the movies, so I wanted to throw some kind of a popcorn or movie theme in. There are a ton of great popcorn decorated cake options. Many use marshmallows to simulate popcorn, others use the real thing. I was kind of pressed for time, so I went with the latter.

If you want to do a cookie cake, choose a sturdy cookie base like sugar, chocolate chip or peanut butter. I went with chocolate chip… these are 10 and 11 year olds remember… I had loaned out my cake decorating tips, so I had to improvise with a tip-less decorating bag (Ziploc). It didn’t really matter to a hyper group of kids though…

(I shot the picture in the school hallway before taking it into the class…so I can’t say much for the pic, but the cake disappeared quickly).