I don’t know about yours, but my husband is a choc-o-holic for sure. He absolutely loves chocolate cake so for a recent party we had I decided to make an extra fun and chocolate-y cookies & cream one for him and everyone else to enjoy!
This cake may look difficult or fancy at first but I PROMISE it is easy enough for everyone! There is just something about a layered drip cake that just feels…fancy!
What to do:
I like to use my 6″ cake pans for the cake because they are easy to stack and because honestly, I have no need to make a bigger cake than that! When you account for all of the layers of cake and frosting, a thin slice of a layered cake is similar to a much larger piece of a sheet cake.
For the cake, you can use whatever your favorite chocolate cake recipe is. If you are short on time (or ingredients) this is a mix I always keep in stock in my pantry. Make sure to let all of the cakes cool completely before cutting them in half (to make more layers) and covering them with frosting.
For the Cookies & Cream frosting:
I used the same recipe as this cake to start- 1/2 lb butter whipped until white peaks show then add in 1/2 lb +1/4 cup powdered sugar + 1 tsp Vanilla.
Then, I put 1/2 of a package of Oreos in a blender to get a fine crumble and then mixed that into the buttercream.
When the cake was cool, I spread a thick layer of buttercream between each layer of cake and finished by covering the top and outside with frosting as well to make sure it was smooth and no cake was peeking through. I then put the cake back into the fridge for an hour to get very cold before topping it with ganache for the “Drip” effect.
For the ganache, I heated up chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time and added heavy cream until I got the consistency I liked. (Most recipes call for about a 1-to-1 ratio of chocolate to cream but I like to use a little bit less cream.) I used a small spoon to carefully “drip” down the edges of the cake, slowly pushing a little more chocolate down the edge of the cake. When I felt I had enough drips, I covered the top of the cake with the rest of the ganache.
For a little extra decoration, I cut some oreos in half and used the ganache to help them stick to the cake. When you cut the oreos, one side almost always cracks but thats ok as long as you have the un-cracked side to face outward. I then put the cake immediately back in the fridge to let everything set.
Because I did have extra cake batter (& frosting) left over, I decided to make some mini cupcakes to go with the cake for those who just wanted “a bite.” I used some extra crumbled oreos on top to dress them up a bit and add a little extra crunch!
The cake was a hit with everyone and certainly looked a lot harder than it really was! The best part about the cookies & cream frosting is that you don’t have to worry about a perfectly smooth buttercream without lines because the cookies add that natural texture. Its the perfect way to hide any imperfections that are more easily seen in a simple buttercream!
What do you think? Would you try your hand at making this cake now?! I hope so!
Xx
Kali