Is it Enough?

Wow, It feels like I made this cake a million years ago…and It was just 4 months ago for my birthday. Normally, I would have made something weird and more complicated because it was MY birthday and I could make any cake I wanted even if my family didn’t like it…but since I was serving it to my friends I decided to go really simple and use the one flavor everyone likes…

No, is not chocolate!

It’s Oreos! seriously, I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like Oreos. They’re a little like crack I think.

Did you know that 5 Oreos and 1 cup of Low-fat milk equals 370 calories? Oh well, you will need more than 5 Oreos for this…

I made a Chocolate Oreo Cake with Cream Cheese Filling. This isn’t the actual cake, I couldn’t take pictures of that cause it was taken away as soon as it was ready. But I had some leftover batter and decided to make a mini heart-shaped cake. It is very simple to make, the only annoying process would be separating the cookie wafers from the cream, but I have no life so I actually enjoyed the task. I took a regular chocolate cake recipe and added the crushed cookie wafers and then melted the cream filling in a bit of hot milk and then mixed it with cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla. I poured half the chocolate batter in the pan, then poured the cream cheese filling on top and finally covered it with the rest of the batter.

The actual birthday cake was covered with bittersweet chocolate ganache. I know is not my friend’s favorite but is mine. They had to give in a little ;). The cake looked like a giant Oreo, which was exactly what I was looking for, and I was impressed with how good this turned out…For some reason the outside shell of the cake was a little crunchy, but the interior was sooo moist and chocolaty…and you could definitely taste the cookies in it! Literally, it was devoured in 15 minutes, I kid you not. Actually, I let them have the whole cake since I had already eaten this little heart baby all by myself. Cream cheese and chocolate is such a perfect combination and for me, it runs at Number 2, just topped by peanut butter and chocolate.

If you make this, you will notice that the best part, is when you take it out to a crowd and everyone’s jaw fall to the floor. And then when they ask what it is and you humbly answer “Oh, just an Oreo Cake”, their eyes seem to sparkle. Yes, is that simple, and simple is perfectly enough.

Oreo Cake with Cream Cheese Filling and Chocolate Ganche.

(Guilty pleasure = long titles and names like this cake’s)

Double Chocolate Cake (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
3 ounces fine-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 1/4 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

24 Oreo cookies, wafer separated from cream filling.

Preheat oven to 300°F and grease pans. Line bottoms of two 10- by 2-inch round cake pans (I used a bundt pan and had leftover batter) with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Now crumble your Oreo wafers (you can do this by hand like me) and stir into your batter.

Pour half your batter in your pan and then, on top of that, pour the cream cheese (Recipe to follow) filling mixture and finally, cover it with remaining batter. Bake until a tester inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. 45 minutes to one hour.

Cool completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool completely.

Cream Cheese Filling

Recipe by me

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature

Cream from your Oreo cookies

1/3 cup of milk

3/4 cups of sugar (add slowly and taste, you don’t want it to be too sweet)

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Place the cream filling in a glass bowl and pour your milk over it. Place in the microwave for about 45 seconds, you want it to be just a bit hotter than warm. Take it out and stir. If the cream is not melted, pop it in the microwave again and go with 15 or so seconds intervals until is melted. Let it cool, you don’t want it to melt your cream cheese.

Now beat the cream cheese with the sugar until very well blended. Beat in your milk mixture,sugar, egg and vanilla until everything is incorporated.

Bittersweet Chocolate Ganche

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped.

1/2 cup heavy cream

Heat the cream to a simmer and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for about 2 minutes and then stir to blend everything together until smooth. Let is cool a bit and then pour over the cake. I like to let it drip down the sides.