Oreo Garden Cake

This Cake wasn’t easy to create: it took me two days, a ton of ingredients, and lots and lots of patience. But boy, was it worth it! The Oreo Garden Cake is easily my new favorite recipe! 🙂

Surprisingly, this cake is just as tasty without Oreos. The reason I even made an Oreo cake in the first place is that we had a lot of Oreos in our home and we didn’t know what to do with them all. That was when inspiration struck! 🙂 I took all those cookies and started experimenting until I turned them into a delicious cake! 🙂

My favorite thing about this cake is that it’s loaded with chocolate, but it took a bit of experimenting to get the flavor just right. I’ve tried soaking all three layers in chocolate ganache, but it gave me the biggest headache! The mixture was also too thick the first time, and after sitting in the fridge for 24 hours, the cake didn’t have quite the texture I wanted. It wasn’t bad, but it had more of a chewy consistency as opposed to the moist texture I was going for. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with gooey desserts if that’s what you like; just put more chocolate in your hot whipping cream and you’ll get that perfect gooey texture. 😉

Anyway, the second time was the charm! The creamy sour filling is very refreshing and pairs well with the rich chocolate flavor. I recommend adding sour cherries to the recipe (canned cherries are best because they already contain juice). Simply add the cherries and the juice to the first layer, top them with filling, and add the second layer. The perfect combination of sweet and tart!

After the chocolate ganache, the second challenge I faced while making this cake was a lack of kitchen space and proper tools. Turns out I left everything I needed in Florida, so I had to improvise a lot! 🙂

I couldn’t make any perfect sharp edges without my spatula, cake turntable, and cake leveler, so an “Oreo garden” was the only design that worked. The good news is that you don’t have to worry about needing these professional tools to create a beautiful cake. No more excuses! 😀

Trust me, if you love Oreos (because who doesn’t, right?), you won’t regret trying this cake!

The pictures above feature a three-layer cake, but the recipe below is for a two-layer cake. If you don’t want your family indulging in too much sugar, two layers are more than enough. 😉

○ RECIPE ○

<Ingredients>

Crust (x2):

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup water mixed with 2 teaspoons Nescafé
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 tablespoons dark cocoa powder*
• 6 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

*I had to use regular cocoa powder because I couldn’t find dark cocoa powder, which is why the cake in the pictures looks brownish. Use dark cocoa powder if you can; it’s much tastier!

Chocolate ganache (for soaking the crusts):

• 400ml heavy whipping cream
• 180g chocolate

<Filling>

• 300ml heavy whipping cream
• 180g sour cream
• 100g chopped Oreo cookies

○ PROCEDURE ○

• Preheat the oven to 360°F and prepare two 10-inch square pans.
• In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the Nescafé, cocoa powder, and vanilla. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Mix the egg and the sour cream.
• In a slow stream, pour the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture.
• In a medium bowl, sift the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
• Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the wet mixture. Whisk until combined.
• Bake for about 20 minutes, then check with a toothpick. If a lot of wet crumbs come out, it’s done. (It may seem like the cake isn’t baked yet, but it will continue to bake in the hot pan after you take it out of the oven.)
• Move the cake to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Repeat this procedure for the second crust.

<Filling>

• Beat the heavy whipping cream until firm.*
• Divide the cream into two parts and slowly add the sour cream to the first part (the second part will be for covering the cake).
• Add chopped Oreo cookies to the cream.

*If your heavy whipping cream isn’t sweetened, add 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar.

For extra flavor, you can also add any fresh fruit of your choice to the cake (my favorite is sour cherries). This is entirely optional, but I promise the cake will be much tastier! 🙂

And that’s my recipe for Oreo Garden Cake! If you have a very sweet tooth (and a lot of Oreos lying around), I know you’ll love it! 😉