Brown Family

Six decadent layers of Oreo chocolate cake, Oreo Swiss meringue buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache. Draven’s birthday cake.

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup Oreo cookie crumbs, sifted first then measured to remove larger chunks
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 6 Tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
• 6 Tbsp black cocoa powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• ¾ cup hot water or hot coffee
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Oreo Buttercream

• 6 large egg whites
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
• 1 tsp clear vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 cup Oreo cookie crumbs, sifted

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 3 oz good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 oz heavy cream
• 1–2 drops black color gel (optional)

Assembly

• 10 Oreos, chopped
• Mini Oreos (optional)

Instructions

Oreo Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease three 6” round baking pans, dust with cocoa powder, and line bottoms with parchment.
2. Place all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk all wet ingredients together. If using hot coffee, pour it in slowly so it doesn’t cook the eggs.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix on medium for 2–3 minutes. Batter will be very thin.
5. Pour evenly into prepared pans — use a kitchen scale for even distribution.
6. Bake 30–35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out mostly clean.
7. Cool 10 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, cut each layer in half horizontally to get 6 layers total.

Oreo Buttercream

1. Place egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until combined.
2. Set the bowl over a hot water bath on the stove. Stir with a whisk until the mixture is no longer grainy to the touch, about 3 minutes.
3. Transfer bowl to the stand mixer and whip on medium-high until the meringue is stiff and the bowl is no longer warm to the touch, about 5–10 minutes.
4. Switch to the paddle attachment. Slowly add the cubed butter and mix until smooth.
5. Add vanilla and whip until smooth. Remove about 1 cup of plain buttercream and set aside.
6. Add the sifted Oreo crumbs to the remaining buttercream and whip until smooth.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1. Add cream to a medium microwave-safe bowl. Stir in black color gel if using. Add the chopped chocolate and microwave in 10-second intervals, stirring between each, until completely smooth and shiny.
2. Set aside to cool completely and thicken to a drip consistency before using.

Assembly

1. Place one cake layer on a cake stand. Top with about ⅔ cup Oreo buttercream and sprinkle with chopped Oreos. Repeat with remaining layers. Apply a thick crumb coat over the entire cake and chill for 20 minutes.
2. Frost and smooth the outside of the cake with the remaining Oreo buttercream. Chill for 30 minutes until firm.
3. Using a small spoon, place dollops of ganache around the top edges, allowing some to drip down. Fill in the top with more ganache and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Let set for a few minutes.
4. Fill a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip with the reserved plain white buttercream. Pipe rosette dollops on top of the cake. Place a mini Oreo in the center of each dollop if desired.