On May 1st Clara turned 8! This year was definitely different having a birthday alone at home but we made the most of it. I might have driven an hour to pickup her favorite Mediterranean take-out near our old house… we’re crazy about food like that! She received lots of gifts and love from family afar and a surprise drive-by visit from friends. And she requested an Oreo Cake so that’s what we made!

I’ve never been much of an Oreo fan so I was skeptical that I would like any Oreo cake I baked her. But WOW was I wrong. This cake was amazing and slightly converted me to Oreos (at least in cake/buttercream form)! The original recipe comes from Preppy Kitchen and I didn’t deviate much from it. His site has lots of pictures of the cake baking and even a video on the decorating process. Definitely check it out if you have questions or need more tips.

My cake didn’t turn out as picture perfect but I learned a few things along the way: Don’t crushed your Oreos too fine for the frosting (or cake batter) or they’ll turn it basically black. Not the prettiest color but it tasted amazing nonetheless. Also, pouring perfect chocolate ganache is harder than it looks. This was my first attempt EVER and in hindsight I should have let it cool a bit longer first. I didn’t use any ganache between the layers as I was worried about sliding and the ganache just on top was plenty rich. (I especially enjoyed licking it right out of the pot. So good.) And I skipped the white buttercream dollops on top. You could use this reserved buttercream to decorate in any way you wish. I went with white sprinkles because I was trying to please kids and didn’t feel like bothering with frosting tips.

Oreo Layer Cake

INGREDIENTS

Oreo Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 cup chopped Oreos

Oreo Buttercream:
1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 1/3 cups crushed Oreos (don’t crush them too finely or your frosting will turn out super dark like mine)
1/4 cup heavy cream
pinch salt kosher

Chocolate Ganache:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream, heated

DIRECTIONS

For the Cake:

1. Butter and flour three six inch pans. I use cake strips on my pans for more even baking as well. (I did it without cake strips and it turned out fine.) Preheat oven to 340F.
2. In a standing mixture fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter until light and fluffy.
3. Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. Beat the dry ingredients into the butter until well incorporated, scrape the bowl at least once.
5. Beat the wet ingredients together in a medium bowl.
6. Add the wet to the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the crushed Oreos at the very end and mix until just combined.
7. Divide the mixture evenly into the cake pans
8. Bake at 340 for about 25-30 minutes or until the centers are springy to the touch.

For the buttercream:

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar and cream and mix.
2. Reserve about a cup of the buttercream for the white dollops. Which will be piped with an 869 tip. (I didn’t end up doing white dollops, and just used white sprinkles on top.)
3. Mix in the crushed Oreos into the large batch of buttercream.

For the ganache:

1. Melt chocolate and cream together on low heat. Whisk together and set aside. You might need to add more or less cream to achieve the desired consistency. (Then set aside to cool to the ride consistency for pouring.)

To assemble the cake:

1. Oreo buttercream goes between each layer as well as a swirl of chocolate. Don’t go overboard with the ganache as it will overpower the other flavors. (I didn’t add the chocolate ganache between the layers)
2. Coat outside with buttercream and smooth.
3. Add a skirt of crushed Oreos at the bottom of the cake. (We decorated with whole Oreos instead.)
4. Pour the ganache on top and allow to drip. Smooth top with an offset spatula.
5. Pipe white buttercream dollops on top with an 869 tip. (Once again, we didn’t do this and added white sprinkles instead.)

Adapted from Preppy Kitchen