Oreo Cake – Quick & Easy Chocolate Layer Cake – #GetTogether | AD

 * This is a paid blog post in partnership with Portmeirion. *

Fancy an Oreo cake recipe that’s really easy to make and quick to put together? The layers are made of a simple chocolate sponge and the Oreo buttercream filling takes minutes to make. For an extra decadent touch, add Oreo crumbs over the frosting as well as whipped cream and Oreos on top. You will get at least 12 slices out of this Oreo cake and it’s perfect served with hot chocolate. 

This Oreo chocolate cake has been our staple birthday cake at home for the past few years so it was no surprise when Jumpy asked me to make it for her birthday a few weeks ago.

Jumpy’s 7th birthday party was a bit special this year. For a start, it wasn’t a Halloween-themed party. Ever since her first birthday, she’s always had a dressing up party with a spooky theme. She is a bit of a thrill-seeker who loves anything scary, so until now, every one of her birthdays has been all about cramming in as many little ghosts, witches and pumpkins as we could in our house. 

This year, she had a climbing party with her friends at Rock Up and on the day she turned 7, we celebrated at home with friends as well as a few family members who’d come from Devon to stay for the week.

I thought the little party would be perfect as one of our get-togethers with Portmeirion. We’ve been proud ambassadors for a few months now, and the #GetTogether campaign is all about enjoying time with friends and family, making memories by eating together, seeing friends more often and generally connecting with people we love and care about.

I picked the Sara Miller Penguin range. Jumpy’s only two requests were hot chocolate and Oreo cake. She’s my kind of girl!

Crevette had the day off school because his teachers had a training day so he took charge in the kitchen and baked the cake on his own as I was making a vegan curry to feed the crowd that was coming over. 

My little man really did an amazing job with the cake and he didn’t get any help at all. We might have a future baker or pastry chef in the making!

We all had such a lovely evening, catching up, chatting and eating. The cake went down a treat and the children were delighted to smash the piñata and discover some treats for the ‘cinema party‘ they had on the sofa after some of our guests had left.

It was a gift from Rex London and Jumpy was pretty pleased with this surprise as she loves smashing a piñata.

The hot chocolate we had with the cake was ridiculously moreish and decadent. We had whipped cream, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, meringues, flakes, mini fudge cubes…

All our hot chocolates were overflowing but gosh they tasted absolutely delicious! Probably the best hot choc I’ve ever had!

The celebrations didn’t stop there though! The next morning, we had slow cooker hot chocolate and pancakes for breakfast. What a treat!

Apparently, this little lady had the best birthday ever!

The tips below are all about making a basic but decadent Oreo cake that isn’t too sweet or sickly. All questions come from friends and family members over the past couple of years. If you don’t need any tips and just want the recipe, scroll down to the bottom!

Do you need several cake pans to make the Oreo cake?

If you were to make a humongous cake for 20+ people, then you’d have to double the recipe, use three full-sized cake pans and increase the cooking time, but that’s not how we do it. I find it too much of a faff to bake cakes separately, buy and store lots of bulky cake pans and in my experience, huge cake always result in a lot of waste. What we’ve been doing instead is quite simple. 

We use this brilliant set of mini cake pans* so we can always stick to any regular-sized cake recipe and turn it into a layer cake by dividing the cake mixture into three or four of the small pans. They all fit on the middle shelf of my ancient oven and cook really quickly then you can be as extravagant as you want to turn your little cake layers into a real showstopper. 

Can you make the Oreo cake a day ahead?

Absolutely! If you do, you have two options:

• Bake the cake layers, leave them to cool completely (at least an hour) and wrap them individually in wax wraps or cling film. You can do this a couple of days ahead. Just make sure the cake layers are tightly wrapped. 
• After baking the cake layers and leaving them to cool, baste each layer in sugar syrup (so the finished cake doesn’t get too dry when assembled) and put together, buttercream and all. Just leave the whipped cream and Oreo crumbs until the last minute. You can blitz the Oreo crumbs ahead, but make sure you keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. Any leftover buttercream to decorate the top of the cake can be kept in a piping bag, with extremities sealed with a clip or elastic band. 

Does it make a difference if you grease cake pans with butter or oil?

It really does. Butter tastes nicer. Always butter if you have any and line the base of your cake tin with a round of baking paper (just get the perfect size by drawing around the base straight onto the baking paper and curling it). 

If you really want to use oil, go for neutral oil like sunflower or rapeseed so you son’t alter the flavours of the cake. 

it’s important to prep your cake pans so you don’t end up with half of your cake sticking to the tin.

How do you know the cake layers are  cooked properly?

Great question! Obviously, you don’t want raw cake layers, but you don’t want to overcook your cake layers either or you’d end up with a very dry cake. Ideally, each layer will be fudge and ever-so-slightly undercooked. There are a couple of ways to check the cakes are perfectly cooked. Avoid the temptation to open the oven door whilst the cakes are still baking, but when you reach the end of the baking time, you can do this. 

1- Slightly press a finger to the middle of the cake. 

• If the sponge bounces back, it is cooked through (might be overcooked though). 
• If if makes a small dent but doesn’t sink through, take it out as it will finish cooking in the cake tin even when it’s out of the oven. 
• If it just sinks and when you move the pan, the middle wobbles, it isn’t ready and should be given a few more minutes in the oven. 

2- My favourite way to check and the most accurate one in my opinion is to dip a knife in the centre of the cake. If it comes out dry or ever-so-slightly coated in cake batter, it is ready. Always remember that the cake layers will continue to cook a bit in the tins, even after they’ve been taken out of the oven, so don’t wait until they’re overcooked or they’ll be way too dry.

How long do you have to wait until you can assemble the cake?

When the layers are cooked, take them out of the oven, onto a cooling rack. Ten minutes later, turn them over to take them out of the tins and leave them to cool completely on the wire rack. You can assemble once they’ve cooled completely (approximately an hour to be on the safe side) or the buttercream will not hold together. 

5 from 7 votes

Print

Oreo Cake

A simple yet delicious Oreo chocolate cake with Oreo buttercream. No obscure ingredients, no specific baking skills required

Course cake

Cuisine American, British

Keyword cake, easy cake, layer cake, Oreo

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Assembling and decorating 20 minutes

Servings 12 slices

Ingredients

Ingredients for the cake

• 225 g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 225 g caster sugar
• 4 medium free range eggs
• 200 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 30 g cacao powder or high quality unsweetened cocoa powder
• Pinch salt
• A splash of milk

For the buttercream

• 200 g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 200 g cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons caster sugar
• 12 Oreos crushed or blended

Extra, to decorate (optional)

• Whipped cream
• 6 Oreos
• 12 Oreos crushed or blended
• White Lindor chocolates
• Raffaello chocolates

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to gas mark 5 (190ºC / 375ºF) and grease your cake tins, then line the bottoms with baking paper.
2. Mix the soft butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and creamy.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cacao powder and mix well.
4. Add one of the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture and mix until incorporated. The cake dough will probably look like it is curdling but do not worry. Simply add a tablespoon of the flour mixture and keep mixing. Repeat until all four eggs have been incorporated.
5. Fold in the rest of the flour, baking powder , salt and cacao powder mixture. If it looks too thick, simply fold in a splash of milk.
6. Divide the mixture equally in your small tins and level with a spatula.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until springy to the touch.
8. Take the tins out of the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
9. After 10 minutes, invert onto the wire rack and leave to cool.
10. In the meantime, make the buttercream. Start by blending all 24 Oreo biscuits in a food processor or place them in a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin. It doesn’t matter if you don’t end up with fine powder as slightly bigger crumbs will add texture. Decant the Oreo powder evenly into two bowls (one half for the buttercream, the other half to decorate).
11. Using a handheld electric whisk with a large bowl or a stand mixer with the paddle on a medium speed, beat the butter until creamy. Add in the cream cheese, the vanilla extract as well as the sugar and mix until incorporated. Fold in the blended Oreos.
12. When the cake layers are completely cool, use buttercream to sandwich the cake layers together and frost the cake, then decorate with slightly sweetened whipped cream, Oreos, Oreo crumbs and chocolates.

Save me on Pinterest for later:

Disclosure: This is a paid blog post in partnership with Portmeirion but all photos and opinions are my own. *This blog post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance!