Oreo Cookies and Cream Cake

This Oreo Cookies and Cream Cake is so soft, moist and fluffy with rich chocolate flavor and an extra creamy Oreo cream cheese frosting. It is SO GOOD! The cake itself bakes up nice and tall and it is a spin on my go-to basic chocolate fudge cake. If you love cookies & cream ice cream, then I know you will love this recipe because the frosting tastes just like ice cream, and it's made without butter! It's so light and creamy and not too sweet.

WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS RECIPE

• Easy chocolate cake recipe - this chocolate cake can be made in one bowl with a whisk. You don't need a mixer.
• Fluffy and moist chocolate cake - the cake is SO super moist and it bakes up nice and tall! It has the softest texture and stays moist for days without drying out.
• Cream cheese frosting - this frosting is INCREDIBLE! It is so rich and creamy - I swear it tastes just like Cookies 'N Cream ice cream. Every time I make it, I just want to eat it up with a spoon. It's unique in that it has no butter. This frosting is made with cream cheese and whipped cream.
• Oreo cookies and cream frosting - the frosting has Oreo cookies crumbs and broken pieces of Oreo cookies in it. The crumbs are key to making it taste like ice cream.

INGREDIENTS

• All purpose flour - I use regular unbleached all-purpose flour to make this wonderful chocolate cake. If you'd like to use cake flour, then make sure it is also unbleached since bleached or chlorinated cake flour has completely different properties. This batter is meant to be quite runny so refrain from adding more flour to make it thicker.
• Cocoa powder - the quality of your cocoa powder will determine the taste of this cake. You can use natural or Dutch process for this recipe. I love to use this Dutch Process cocoa powder. It will add most of the chocolate flavor to this cake.
• Black cocoa powder - black cocoa is what makes Oreos taste the way they do and it obviously gives them their dark color. What is black cocoa? It is cocoa powder that is Dutch processed to a very high degree to give it a very high pH (very alkalized) and dark color. It has a smokey, almost soapy taste and I do not prefer it on it's own in cakes, but just a little bit helps to give the cake the dark color and signature taste. You can certainly leave it out and replace it with more regular cocoa.
• Pure vanilla extract - vanilla enhances the flavor of the chocolate, so use your favorite kind but do not leave it out.

• Egg - eggs set the structure of this cake to make a soft and fluffy crumb.
• Sour cream - full fat sour cream adds richness and dairy notes to this cake in the absence of butter. It really makes this cake delicious, and if you can't get sour cream where you live then you can substitute with fill fat Greek yogurt. There is also sour cream in the frosting.
• Oil - this is an oil-based cake. Although I LOVE BUTTER, oil makes cakes ultra moist since it is liquid at room temperature. Plus, with this intense chocolate flavor and the sour cream, you won't miss the butter.
• Cream cheese - make sure the cream cheese is very soft to make the frosting nice and smooth. I usually take it out of the fridge 2 hours before I plan to make the frosting.
• Whipping cream - this frosting recipe has not butter! Instead I use cream which whips up to a light and fluffy consistency stabilized by the cream cheese. Make sure your cream is cold to get a thick voluminous texture.
• Oreo cookies - you'll need Oreo cookie crumbs crushed from just the wafer part and also broken pieces of whole Oreos to add to the frosting.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

This recipe is SO EASY and you can make it all with a bowl and a whisk -- no mixer required if you don't have one!

• STEP 1). Combine dry ingredients. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Add sugar and salt and whisk to blend well.
• STEP 2). Combine wet ingredients. Combine egg, oil, sour cream and vanilla in a medium bowl and whisk to blend well.
• STEP 3). Mix wet and dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk or an electric hand mixer on medium-low until blended. It will be thick and somewhat dry.
• STEP 4). Mix in hot coffee. Add the hot coffee gradually in two stages to minimize clumps forming and beat until evenly combined and the batter smooth.
• STEP 5). Bake. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake until the cake springs back when pressed gently and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes before inverting onto the rack to cool completely.
• STEP 6). Make the frosting. Beat cream cheese until very smooth. Add 2 tablespoon cream and beat until very smooth. Continue adding cold cream very gradually while beating so it blends in evenly. Once it is smooth, beat until it forms firm peaks, then beat in sugar one tablespoon at a time. Mix in vanilla, then fold in cookie crumbs. Lastly, fold in crushed Oreos.

EXPERT BAKING TIPS FOR THE OREO COOKIES AND CREAM CAKE

• Use a neutral tasting oil like pure sunflower oil for the cleanest flavor to let the chocolate taste stand out.
• Do not reduce the sugar - the right amount of sugar will make this cake moist because it binds water so that it stays tightly in the batter and doesn't evaporate excessively during baking.
• Keep an eye on the baking time. Set a timer for the first time stated in the recipe and check with a skewer - it should come out clean.
• Have your cream cheese at room temperature so it is soft. If you use cold cream cheese straight from the fridge, then it will not blend smoothly with the whipping cream and you will be more likely to have lumps in the frosting.
• Use cold whipping cream. Although you need soft cream cheese, you should have cold cream. The cold cream will whip more readily as the fat molecules in the cream will coalesce and trap air more easily when they are cold.
• Add the cream very slowly. Gradual additions of cream will ensure that it blends smoothly with the cream cheese so that you don't end up with lumps.

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