Oreo Chocolate Cake

For my Grandpa's birthday, I planned to make a cannoli cake. I've never made a cannoli cake before and being Italian, we sure are fans of the delicious pastry. I found a recipe that seemed easy and simple enough. In fact, I was a bit skeptical as to how easy it seemed. The cake only called for eggs, butter, sugar, and flour. No baking soda or baking powder, no salt. Nothing else except those four things. "Oh joy!", I thought. "This should be a piece of cake!" (pun intended). I should've known it was too good to be true. What I ended up with was what can only be described as a total cake fail. It came out of the oven as a one inch thick, tough, golden brown atrocity. And the recipe wanted me to cut it into four layers...

As I stared down at this pathetic frisbee of a cake, I seriously considered just baking more layers and building it up like a stack of pancakes. I didn't have enough eggs and the perfectionist in me just couldn't let that cake see the light of day. Normally I would be super disappointed and distraught, but I think in the back of my head, I knew it wasn't going to work all along. Determined not to be defeated by the deflated disc cake, I got on my laptop and looked through my bookmarks for cake recipes. I decided that I'd make a chocolate cake since I rarely do. But how would I add in some extra flavor? Peanut butter is an obvious choice and I considered it, but then I saw recipes for Oreo cakes and remembered those leftover Oreos from the cookies I made for Valentine's Day. And then this Oreo Chocolate Cake was born!

[Note: My Grandpa is actually 76. My Grandma just bought a 7 candle instead of a 6 by accident... lol]

The chocolate cake is a basic recipe I got from Hershey's. I mean...they must know their chocolate, right? The frosting is whipping cream-based. I usually use buttercream and I love it, but the whipping cream adds a different touch to a cake. It's much lighter, airy, and easier to work with. The recipe called for 6 tbsp. of Oreo crumbs, but I felt like that wasn't enough at all. I ended up using 1 1/4 cups of finely chopped Oreos. And when I say finely chopped, I mean that I cut up an Oreo as best I can with a knife on a paper towel, then fold the paper towel over on top of the Oreos and start pounding them with my fist. That's how the pros do it, right?

[It was quickly devoured.]

Oreo Chocolate Cake
Sources: Hershey's, Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

For the Oreo Crumb Whipped Cream Frosting:

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp whipping cream
3 tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups Oreo cookie crumbs
6-7 Oreo cookies, halved (for decoration)

Directions:

For the Cake:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

For the Frosting:

In a medium bowl, combine the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until the whipped cream holds stiff peaks. Gently fold in the cookie crumbs with a spatula.

Frost your cake and gently press the Oreo halves around the edge of the top layer. Enjoy! :)