Cookies and Cream Cake | Cookies and Cups

This cookies and cream cake turns a favourite chocolate cookie into a brilliant decadent layer cake! It has wealthy chocolate cake layers frosted with fluffy selfmade buttercream and crammed with Oreo frosting inside. You solely want two spherical pans!

I like seeking to my favourite treats and desserts for layer cake inspiration. Do this Neapolitan cake and this triple-decker cannoli cake, subsequent!

Why You’ll Love This Cookies and Cream Cake

I turned my son’s love for Oreo cookies right into a decadent quadruple-layer cookies and cream cake! You solely want a number of straightforward substances and two spherical pans to make it. Right here’s why you’ll find it irresistible:

• Layers of Oreo goodness. This cake combines extra-fudgy chocolate cake layers with the fluffiest chocolate cookie-filled frosting, completed off with a beneficiant coating of vanilla buttercream. I couldn’t resist adorning it with additional Oreos, too.
• Straightforward to make. Don’t let the concept of a 4-layer cake intimidate you. You may make this cake with two spherical cake pans. I’ll present you how one can halve and stack the muffins, and it’s nice apply should you’re simply stepping into making layer muffins.
• Versatile. After all, should you’re not up for the duty of creating a layer cake, don’t let that cease you both! Make chocolate cupcakes smothered with cookies and cream frosting as an alternative.

Substances You’ll Want

This cookies and cream cake isn’t for the faint of coronary heart: it’s a wealthy and chocolatey, Oreo lover’s dream! And it’ll 100% fulfill any longing for chocolate or cookies. And the very best half is, you don’t want something fancy to make it. 

I’ve included some notes on the cake and frosting substances right here, and you’ll want to scroll to the recipe card for a printable checklist with quantities.

For the Chocolate Cake

• Butter – Dropped at room temperature.
• Sugar – I like to make use of each white and brown sugar, however you should use all of 1 or the opposite should you’d like.
• Eggs and Vanilla – It’s worthwhile to convey your eggs to room temperature, too. For the very best taste, keep on with actual vanilla extract over imitation.
• Buttermilk – Sure, buttermilk in chocolate cake! It brings all types of moisture and a contact of tanginess to the crumb. For those who don’t have any, make a selfmade substitute with common milk and white vinegar (or lemon juice).
• Bitter Cream – Together with buttermilk, bitter cream is the second secret to moist chocolate cake. For those who don’t have it, use Greek yogurt as an alternative.
• Brewed Espresso – Rounding out our trio of “secret” substances for the proper chocolate cake is a smidge of espresso, or espresso, to bloom the chocolate flavors. I take advantage of on the spot espresso, however any brewed espresso works. For those who’d desire a caffeine-free cake, nonetheless, use milk as an alternative.
• Dry Substances – These are your baking necessities, like all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt.
• Cocoa Powder – My first alternative is all the time Hershey’s Particular Darkish unsweetened cocoa powder, however you should use any cocoa powder within the pantry.

For the Buttercream Frosting

• Butter – Just like the butter you employ to make the cake, you’ll need your frosting butter at room- temperature for straightforward whipping.
• Shortening – I take advantage of vegetable shortening, like Crisco.
• Powdered Sugar – Also referred to as confectioner’s sugar. Measure out the powdered sugar first, after which sift it.
• Heavy Cream – The creamiest buttercream frosting requires full-fat heavy whipping cream. You should utilize complete milk, however the texture gained’t be fairly as wealthy.
• Vanilla – Once more, go for the true variety and never synthetic vanilla. 
• Oreos – A portion of your frosting can be crammed with crushed Oreo cookies, so that you’ll want about ⅔ of a package deal. Alternatively, use any store-brand chocolate sandwich cookies, whichever you have got readily available.

Tips on how to Make a Cookies and Cream Layer Cake

Right here is an outline of the steps to make this fudgy cookies and cream cake. Scroll to the recipe card for printable directions. 

• Get your batter substances prepared. You’ll cream the butter and sugar with eggs and vanilla in a single bowl. Sift the dry substances right into a second bowl, and in a 3rd bowl, whisk collectively the buttermilk, bitter cream, and occasional.

• Mix. Subsequent, slowly combine the dry substances into the butter/sugar combination, alternating with the buttermilk combination, till the batter is easy. 

• Fill the pans. Switch the chocolate cake batter to 2 8” greased and lined baking pans.
• Bake. Bake the muffins in a 350ºF oven for 20-25 minutes, till they’re set within the middle. After, let the muffins cool within the pan for 10 minutes earlier than eradicating them to a wire rack. The muffins might want to cool utterly earlier than you possibly can frost them.

Make the Frosting

I like to make use of my stand mixer when making frosting, however you should use a handheld mixer, too. To make your vanilla buttercream, beat butter and shortening for a couple of minutes, then slowly add powdered sugar. Lastly, beat in heavy cream and a splash of vanilla. Improve the mixer pace till the frosting varieties whipped, stiff peaks.

Put aside about 2 cups of your ready buttercream for frosting the cake. Mix the remainder of the frosting with crushed Oreos to make the filling for the cake.

Assemble Your Cookies and Cream Cake

For those who’re new to creating layer muffins, you possibly can try my excellent chocolate layer cake for ideas. You’ll discover that if you may make a single-layer cake, including one other layer (or three) is less complicated than you assume! Let’s assemble this cookies and cream cake:

• Put together the layers. Use a serrated knife to halve every baked cake horizontally, in order that you find yourself with 4 skinny layers.
• Stack the cake. Unfold Oreo frosting generously over the primary chocolate cake layer, stack the second cake over prime, and repeat two extra occasions. End with the fourth and ultimate cake layer.
• Frost. Lastly, use the vanilla buttercream put aside earlier to frost the edges and prime of the cake. I used a piping bag to make a number of swirls, plus additional Oreos to brighten. Get as inventive as you’d like! For those who’re feeling fancy, drizzle the completed cake with a straightforward pourable chocolate ganache.

Ideas for Success

• Prep the pans effectively. I like to recommend greasing the cake pans with nonstick spray, however you should use butter (or shortening) as effectively, lining the bottoms with parchment paper, after which greasing and flouring the entire pan. It’s simply additional insurance coverage to keep away from a cake getting caught.
• Don’t overmix. This chocolate cake is dense and fudgy as it’s, so watch out to not overmix the cake batter. Combine simply till the dry substances and moist batter come collectively. Overworking the batter will result in deflated, overly dense layers.
• Crush the Oreos. You are able to do this in your meals processor, or you possibly can crush the cookies up utilizing a sturdy zip-top freezer bag and a rolling pin. I like to depart a number of bigger cookie chunks for texture.  
• Check for doneness. Muffins are completed baking when a toothpick caught into the middle comes out clear, or with a number of moist crumbs hooked up.
• Make a 2-layer cake. For those who’d desire to make a 2-layer cookies and cream cake as an alternative, skip the step the place you trim the muffins in half. You can too scale back the quantity of Oreo frosting because you’ll solely be filling in between the 2 layers.

Can I Make Cupcakes As a substitute?

Positive! This recipe makes sufficient batter for an 8” layer cake or roughly 15 cookies and cream cupcakes. Cupcakes require much less baking time than muffins, so I’d use a toothpick to check for doneness after about 17 minutes and go from there. I even have a straightforward chocolate cupcakes recipe you can consult with.

You’ll additionally have to scale up the frosting, whether or not you add Oreos or not. I like to recommend doubling the recipe simply to be secure. It’s all the time higher to have an excessive amount of frosting than too little!

Correct Storage

• To retailer. This cookies and cream layer cake may be saved in an hermetic container or cake service for as much as 3 days at room temperature. It’s additionally wonderful to maintain within the fridge, although I like to recommend bringing the cake again to room temperature for serving.
• Freeze. For those who’re planning to freeze the cake, one of the simplest ways to do it’s earlier than assembling and frosting. Wrap the baked and cooled cake layers tightly in a double layer of plastic wrap and freeze them for as much as 1 month. Defrost within the fridge earlier than assembling.

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