My friend Shenny and her sister-in-law, Ritu, have been talking about Oreo cakes for a few months now so Ritu’s 30th birthday was the perfect opportunity for one. I was really excited to try this out and Oreos seem like a perfect match for a birthday cake.
I wanted the cake to echo the look and taste of an Oreo so chose chocolate layers, sandwiched with white vanilla buttercream. Ideally the cake would have had two layers but for the right ratio of buttercream to cake, and also to make it look more of a celebration cake I decided to do three. I think it still works.
On the top is chocolate buttercream and originally I thought it should be a darker chocolate colour. I didn’t want to add extra cocoa so tested adding a bit of black food colouring to the icing. It made no difference at all so I left it as it was! And I think the contrast actually makes the Oreos stand out better.
I used a combination of normal and mini Oreos to decorate the top of the cake. I tried various ways of cutting the large ones in half and the most effective way was using a small serrated knife and gently sawing them. You will have a few that break but they don’t seem to hang around for long or go to waste!
The mini Oreos are perfect for writing your message on as the white icing really stands out against the almost black biscuit. I tried to carry through the circular theme when placing the “Happy Birthday Ritu”. I made a 9″ cake and just managed to fit “Birthday” across the top without completely losing the border.
I made some royal icing using royal icing sugar. You can also make royal icing from regular icing sugar and egg white, or you could use ready-made piping icing:
And then if you have some floristry wires, Oreos are perfectly designed to make a cake topper. You will need a thicker wire for the larger biscuits as they are quite heavy. I chose white wires for the large biscuits and black wires for the minis. And a few twirly bits for good measure.
For a three layer 9″ Oreo Birthday cake you will need:
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
450g butter or margarine
450g caster sugar
8 eggs
150g cocoa powder
300g SR flour
Method
Set the oven to 180ºC and grease three 9″ cake tins. Line the bases with greaseproof paper.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
Add the eggs two at a time and make sure they are properly mixed in but do not overbeat.
Sieve the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and fold in carefully.
Divide the mixture equally between the three cake tins and gently level.
Bake for around 20 minutes or until well risen and springy to the touch.
Leave in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
500g icing sugar, sifted
160g butter
50ml milk or water
A few drops of vanilla extract
Method
Beat the icing sugar and butter together until it comes together and is well mixed.
Slowly add the milk or water and vanilla extract and beat for about five minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients
300g icing sugar, sifted
40g cocoa powder, sifted
100g butter
40 ml milk or water
Method
Beat the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter together until it comes together and is well mixed.Slowly add the milk or water and beat for about five minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Decoration
Approximately one 154g pack of original Oreos
Approximately 125g mini Oreos
Royal Icing
Ingredients
100g royal icing sugar (icing sugar containing dried egg white)
Approx 12 ml water
Method
Beat the icing sugar and water together using an electric mixer for about 5 minutes. The icing should stand in stiff peaks. If the icing is too runny add more icing sugar and if too stiff add more water, a little at a time.
You will have more icing than necessary but it will keep for a while: smaller amounts are quite tricky to make.
For the topper
Thread your floristry wire carefully through the middle of your Oreos and tape the bases together with floristry tape. Twirly shapes can be made by winding the wires around a pen. Insert into the posy pick and push gently into position on the cake. The topper can be removed for storage and transport if necessary.
Happy 30th Birthday Ritu, and thank you very much for letting me make your cake!
Categories: Baking, Birthday cakes, Biscuits and Cookies, Cakes, Chocolate, Recipes
I’ve made this before, it is always a crowd pleaser!
Difficult not to eat all the decorations though!
Spectacular looking!
Thank you!
This looks wonderful! I love the decorations.
Thank you very much.
That is amazing!!
Thank you!
I love your cakes, the twirly cake toppers are so cute!
Thank you!
What a wonderful cake! How great!
Thank you!
Happy new year Rachel hope it’s a good one for you. I am going to make this for Robbie’s birthday at the end of the month. He loves Oreos. X
Happy New Year to you all and happy birthday to Robbie for then! Hope you enjoy making the cake – there should be plenty of spares to test!
how long does it take to make altogether?
You would need to allow at least two or three hours as the cake needs to cool before you can assemble and decorate it.