Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch or four 6-inch round cake pans with cooking spray and then line with parchment paper. Spray again. Set aside.

In a stand sized mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low until evenly combined.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk, hot water, vanilla extract, and vegetable oil until evenly combined.

With the mixer on the lowest speed, pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. There should be no flour streaks. With a rubber spatula, scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure the batter is evenly combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepped pans (about 15 ounces in each 8 inch pan) and bake for 30-33 minutes. After they are done baking, let them cool for 15 minutes in the cake pans and then transfer them to a cooling rack and let them finishing cooling there.

After the cakes have come to room temperature, level the tops of the cakes, if needed, and then wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them in preparation for frosting the cake.

Preheat your oven to 165 degrees F, line a sheet pan with parchment paper and evenly spread the flour across the sheet pan. Bake for 7-10 minutes to kill any bacteria. Let it cool and set aside.

With an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the vanilla extract and mix on low until combined.

Add in the (baked) flour and salt, mix until the dry ingredients are incorporated.

With a rubber spatula, mix in the mini chocolate chips.

Set aside ⅔ of the dough for the cake filling and use the remaining ⅓ to roll into small balls for decorating

With the other ⅔ of the cookie dough, divide it into 2 even parts. Place a generous layer of plastic wrap inside an 8 inch cake pan. Take one of the pieces of cookie dough and evenly spread to it the edges of the cake pan, making a cookie dough layer to use later. Repeat 2 more times and set aside.

In a medium sized sauce pan, melt the butter on medium heat. Keep stirring the butter until it starts to foam and the milk deposits on the bottom separate. Stir until the butter starts to brown and you hear crackling noises. Take off heat. Pour in a glass bowl, and let it completely come to room temperature.

In a bowl of a standard mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the room temperature browned butter, the regular butter, and beat on medium high speed for 2-4 minutes. If there are chunks of butter, don’t stress, they will eventually get beaten out.

After you beat the butters, add the brown sugar, sifted powder sugar, vanilla, cream and salt. Mix on low just until combined, once all combined beat on high for at least 2 minutes.

Beat by hand with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to get all the air pockets out.

Spread a small dollop of buttercream on the middle of the cake board. Place the first cake layer on the board.

Place prepped cookie dough right on top of the cake layer.

Place the second cake layer right on top of the cookie dough, top side down.

Repeat this step with the last cake layer

Spread a thin layer of buttercream around the entire cake to lock in any crumbs. This is called the crumb coat. Freeze the cake for 10 minutes to ensure the crumbs get locked into this coat of buttercream.

Frost the cake with the remaining brown sugar buttercream and top with the extra cookie dough balls.