This Oreo Cake is made with three layers of moist and rich chocolate cake, covered in an equally delicious Oreo buttercream frosting. An ultimate cake for chocolate and Oreo lovers!
Oreo cookies are such a nostalgic treat. Pair them with a glass of cold milk and you’ll get the perfect after school snack. But why stop there? This Oreo Cake will be perfect for every occasion, from Valentine’s Day to birthday to anniversary celebration. And leftovers make perfect after school snacks as well.
Ingredients for Oreo Cake
Here are all the ingredients you’ll need, including tips and substitutions, to create this masterpiece of an Oreo chocolate cake. The full ingredient list and quantities are also in the recipe card at the end of this post.
- Flour – you’ll need all-purpose flour for the cake.
- Cocoa powder – you can use either Dutch-processed or natural cocoa powder. But I prefer Dutch-processed cocoa for the darker color cake and a richer chocolate flavor.
- Sugar – two kinds of sugar is used in this recipe: granulated sugar for the cake and powdered sugar for the frosting. You could use brown sugar instead of granulated sugar but there is no substitution for powdered sugar.
- Salt – salt is used both in the cake and the frosting. I use kosher salt since that’s what we have in our pantry. If you’re using table salt, reduce the amount by half.
- Leavening agents – both baking soda and baking powder are used in the cake.
- Buttermilk – if you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can substitute half milk, half yogurt or sour cream, or milk and lemon juice. I have a separate post all about buttermilk and how to substitute.
- Eggs – for the cake, to bind everything together.
- Unsalted butter – used for both the cake and the frosting. Don’t use salted butter as it may turn out too salty.
- Oil – any flavorless oil like canola oil or vegetable oil will work in this recipe. Adding oil in addition to butter in your cake will make the cake more moist.
- Vanilla extract – used to enhance the flavor of the chocolate cake as well as the frosting. Make sure to use pure vanilla extract and not an artificial vanilla flavoring, it makes a big difference in the final taste.
- Cream – heavy whipping cream is used in the frosting to lighten up the buttercream and add volume.
- Oreo – crushed Oreo cookies are incorporated into the buttercream to make a delicious Oreo buttercream frosting.
How to Make Oreo Cake
There are two major elements to this cake: the chocolate cake and the cookies and cream frosting. Here are the step by step instructions on how to make it with process photos.
Make the chocolate cake
This simple chocolate cake batter can be made with just a hand whisk. You can use an electric hand mixer or a stand mixer, but it’s not necessary, and be sure not to over mix in step 3.
- Add buttermilk, melted butter, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl. Beat until combined and smooth.
- Sift together the dry ingredients and add the mixture to the liquid mixture.
- Whisk just until a smooth batter forms.
- Divide the batter evenly among three 8” cake pans.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached.
Make the Oreo frosting
This Oreo buttercream frosting is an American Style Buttercream Frosting. But unlike the sugar loaded frosting you might think of when you hear American buttercream, this one is rich but not too sweet.
- Finely ground the Oreos in a food processor or blender.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the stand mixer bowl and beat until the frosting is lighter in color and fluffy.
- Stir in the crushed Oreos.
If you’re not a fan of American buttercream, try Swiss meringue buttercream instead with the Oreo crumbs folded in, like in this Vanilla Oreo Cupcakes recipe. Double the frosting ingredients from the cupcake recipe to make enough frosting for this 3-layer Oreo cake.
Assemble your cookies and cream cake
The frosting recipe makes about 5 cups, so:
- I used 1 cup of frosting in between each layer of cake as well as on top of the third layer. This will be a total of 3 cups. Use an offset spatula to spread the frosting evenly.
- I used 1 cup of frosting for the side. This is enough to lightly cover the cake, the frosting layer will be slightly thicker than a naked cake.
- I used the remaining 1 cup of frosting for the swirls on top. I used a Magic Line French Star Tip size 8FT (equivalent Ateco 868) for the swirl decorations.
- If you don’t want the swirl decoration, you can use the remaining 1 cup of frosting on the side for a thicker layer of frosting.
- Decorate with extra Oreo cookies on top.
Baker’s Tips
- Use a kitchen scale to divide the cake batter if you want to be more precise, about 500 g of batter per pan for a 3-layer cake. This will also help the cake bake evenly.
- You can also make a 2-layer cake from this recipe but I thought the layers were too thick when I tried it so I decided to go with a 3-layer cake for the final recipe.
- If you want to make a smaller version of this Oreo cake, use this Mini Chocolate Cake recipe for the cake portion and reduce the peanut butter frosting recipe by half.
- You can also make cupcakes with this recipe, you’ll get about two dozen.
- I don’t usually trim the top of the cake layers to make them flatter as you can see from my photos. You could trim the layers a bit if you wish, or try using cake strips to get flatter layers. I have never used them but have seen other bloggers talk about them.
Can I add Oreo crumbs directly into the cake batter?
You can but you may need to decrease the amount of flour a little bit because the Oreo crumbs will be considered a dry ingredient and can dry out the cake if adjustment is not made.
I haven’t tried this myself so I don’t have an exact adjustment but I would suggest trying gram to gram replacement of Oreo crumbs and flour if you want to try adding the crumbs into the batter.
Storage
Refrigerating
This Oreo cake should be stored in the refrigerator since the frosting contains butter and cream. Be sure to take it out about half an hour before serving to let the buttercream soften up a bit.
Leftover cake should also be kept refrigerated and will last for up to a week.
When refrigerating the whole cake, frosted, you don’t need to cover it since the frosting will keep the layers of cake underneath moist. If the cake has been cut open, cover the cut sides with plastic wrap to prevent the cake from drying out.
Freezing
This cake will last in the freezer for up to 3 months. To freeze this cake, I would first refrigerate it to let the frosting harden completely, then cut it into individual slices, wrap each slice in plastic and store in a freezer bag.
You can thaw frozen cake at room temperature about 2 hours before serving.
Making ahead
Both the chocolate cake and the Oreo buttercream frosting freeze well, which makes it very convenient to make ahead of time.
If you have a freezer that can handle a large cake, you can assemble and freeze the cake whole. Otherwise, I suggest making the cake layers and the frosting and freeze them separately. You can thaw and assemble the cake the day you are planning to serve it.
For the frosting, let it thaw at room temperature and re-whip it until light and fluffy before using. Or you can just make the frosting the day of, it is very simple and quick.
More amazing cakes
- Mocha Cake
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
- Olive Oil Chocolate Cake
- Mini Strawberry Cake
- Mini Red Velvet Cake
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📖 Recipe card
Oreo Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 cup all-purpose flour (260 g)
- 1 cup cocoa powder (dutch-processed preferred, 91 g)
- 2 cup granulated sugar (400 g)
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups buttermilk (room temperature, 470 g)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 4 oz unsalted butter (melted and cooled, 113 g)
- ½ cup oil (102 g)
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Oreo Buttercream Frosting (yields ~5 cup)
- 20 oz unsalted butter (5 sticks, 567g, room temperature)
- 2 ½ cup powdered sugar (250 g, sifted)
- 10 tablespoon heavy whipping cream (equivalent ½ cup + 2 tablespoons, 142 g)
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 big pinches of salt
- 16 Oreos (finely crushed)
Instructions
Make the chocolate cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Brush three 8” cake pans with melted butter. Line the bottom of each cake pan with a piece of round parchment paper and brush the parchment paper with butter as well. Set aside.
- Add buttermilk, melted butter, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract to a large bowl. Beat with a whisk until combined.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder into a medium mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt to the flour mixture, and mix thoroughly with a whisk. Add the flour mixture to the liquid mixture, and whisk until a smooth batter forms.
- Divide batter evenly among the three prepared cake pans, and bake for 25 – 26 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean with just a few crumbs attached.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 20 – 30 minutes. When you can comfortably touch the cake pans, use a butter knife to loosen the sides, flip the pan over to remove the cake from the pan. Peel off the parchment paper, and allow the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack before adding frosting.
Make the buttercream
- Add butter, cream, and vanilla extract to the stand mixer bowl.
- Sift powdered sugar into the bowl.
- Stir to incorporate all of the ingredients, then increase the mixer speed gradually to high and beat until the frosting is lighter in color and fluffy, about 5 – 15 minutes
- Ground the Oreos finely in a food processor or blender, stir into the buttercream until evenly mixed.
Assemble the cake
- Line a cake stand or plate with a few strips of parchment paper around the edges and place 1 layer of cake on top.
- Add 1 cup of frosting on top of the first layer and spread it out evenly with a spatula. Repeat this step with the second and third cake layer. So there will be 1 cup of frosting in between each cake layer and also on the top.
- Use the remaining frosting to cover the side of the cake or use 1 cup of frosting for the side and reserve 1 cup of frosting for the swirl on top.
- If adding swirl decoration on top, add the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a large open star tip and pipe swirls around the edge. Add Oreo cookies on top between the swirls for additional decoration if you wish.
- Use a warm paring knife to separate the bottom of the cake from the parchment paper, wiping as you go, carefully pull out the parchment paper lining the plate or cake stand from the bottom of the cake.
- Refrigerate the cake for 2 hours before serving.
Notes
- Use a kitchen scale to divide the cake batter if you want to be more precise, about 500 g of batter per pan. This will also help the cake bake evenly.
- Use just two 8” cake pans for a 2-layer cake. Note that the cake layers will be much thicker, you’ll want to increase baking time to 30-35 minutes in this case.
- If you want to make a smaller cake, use this Mini Chocolate Cake recipe.
- You can also make cupcakes with this recipe, you’ll get about two dozen.
Nutrition
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Made this cake for my daughters birthday and it was a bit, everyone enjoyed. My only my question is how to get the butter cream light coloured like your pic, mine was very grey and I put slightly less Oreo in
Hi Gem, glad to hear everyone enjoyed the cake. Did you stir in the crushed Oreos or did you beat it? A gentle stir to distribute the Oreos should give you a lighter color frosting with Oreos specks like in the photo. Other than that, I can’t think of any other reason why your frosting would be too dark, unless it is the lighting in the photo. I did take these pictures by a very large window in my living room so it is bright and that could make the frosting look lighter than it is…
Move over death by chocolate! Meet Death by Oreo and chocolate!! I could make a meal of the frosting!! Whole family and friends love this and have requested for a birthday cake!!
I’m so happy to hear Sherry!! Thank you for trying the recipe and leaving a comment 🙂
This is one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever made or eaten, with or wothout the cream! And the buttercream, oh boy, I could have it in a bowl with a spoon…every day of the week 🙂
Thank you Marlen! So glad to hear you love this cake, cuz we do too!