Cookies and Cream Elegant Stacked Oreo Cake

Mr Sweet just had his Birthday and seeings as he likes Oreo's I came up with this kinda elegant Oreo stack cake instead of making an elaborately decorated cake he wouldn't enjoy.

 I have seen those pictures around where you just stack up a few boxes of Oreo cookies and I guess he would have been happy.

But I don't think it would have made me totally happy so this cake is the perfect balance of cake and cookies.

I did do a stack of Oreo's up on top as shown in the pictures but as it turned out Mr Sweet preferred the cake without the extra cookie stack, so I ended up taking them off.

I think it's because he wanted all those extra cookies to eat himself later ;)

I often get asked how the tall cakes slice up and this one cuts quite well. I served each of those tall slices up into 3 pieces (so 1 Oreo each) and there was no falling apart.

You could definitely make this cake into a double or triple tiered cake and it would make a fun and quirky wedding cake. The chocolate cake I have used in quite a sturdy cake, of course you would need to dowel it properly.

Cookies and Cream Elegant Stacked Oreo cake (serves 24 to 33 depending on how you cut the cake)
I find that the Oreo cookies become a little soft if you stick them on the cake too soon. You can make the chocolate cake 3 days before, fill and frost 2 days before serving and then stick the cookies on as soon before serving/displaying as possible.

Ingredients
2 X 15cm (6") chocolate cakes cut horizontally in half (recipe below)
1 batch cookies and cream Italian Meringue Butter cream (recipe below)
plus reserved 1/2 cup plain butter cream
5 boxes X 150g Oreo cookies approx 70 cookies (US 2 boxes) - use some of these to make cookies and cream butter cream.

Spoon around 3/4 cup butter cream onto the top of one chocolate cake layer and smooth with spatula. Pop a second layer on top of the smoothed butter cream making sure the cakes line up and then top with another 3/4 cup butter cream once again smoothing flat with a spatula.

Place cake in fridge to chill for around 10 minutes.

Remove cake from fridge add a third layer of cake and then another 3/4 cup butter cream and smooth flat with spatula.

Add the final layer of cake making sure the cakes are even and aligned and then give the cake a crumb coat of butter cream (a thin rough coat off butter cream).

Chill cake for another 10 to 30 minutes (depending on the weather) until cake is firm. Cover cake with remaining butter cream making sides and top as even as possible. Chill for 15 to 30 minutes until butter cream is firm and then use a tall cake scraper to make the edges an top of cake as even as possible.

When ready to serve use the reserved butter cream to stick the Oreos around the edge of the cake as per picture. I used 33 Oreos in total to surround the cake (11 rows with 3 in each row).

Stack remaining Oreos on top of cake as per picture. If you will be moving the cake you can stick them on with extra butter cream.

Cookies and Cream Italian Meringue Butter cream
Make sure your bowl and mixer are clean to whip egg whites. I use a stand mixer with a pouring shield to make this butter cream, the sugar syrup is very hot, make sure you take appropriate safety precautions when pouring the hot sugar syrup mixture. Not suitable for young children to make.

300g white sugar (12oz)
75g (2 3/4oz) water
5 egg whites
450g (1 pound - 4 sticks) unsalted butter cut into smallish cubes
1 tsp vanilla extract
Around 8 - 10 Oreo cookies (from the 5 boxes required above)

Place sugar and water into saucepan over high heat and bring to boil. Conintue to  heat until the sugar syrup mixture reaches 115 C (240F). Brush down the the sides of saucepan with a wet pastry brush as required to stop sugar crystals from forming.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of your mixer (make sure the bowl is quite large). When the sugar syrup reaches 110C (210F) start to whip the egg whites at high speed.

Once the sugar syrup reaches 115C (240 F) carefully pour the syrup into the whipped egg whites whilst the mixer is still beating on high.

Continue to beat until the egg and sugar mixture cooled to room temperature (or the bowl feels cool to touch) and then start to add a few cubes of butter at a time. Add the vanilla.

The mixture will probably become quite liquid, but continue to beat until it thickens and all the butter is evenly distributed. May take around 10 minutes.

Place the Oreos in a plastic or ziplock bag and crush using a rolling pin or mallet until the Oreos are broken down into crumbs. I like mine a bit chunky in bits.

Reserve 1/2 cup of butter cream for cake assembly.

Using a spatula gently fold the broken Oreo cookies through the remaining butter cream. Use immediately.

Chocolate Cake

220g (7 3/4oz) unsalted butter
220g (7 3/4oz) dark chocolate
2 Tbsp (US 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp) instant coffee granules
135g (4 3/4oz) hot water
125 g (4 3/8 oz) plain flour (all purpose flour)
125 g (4 3/8 oz)self raising flour
50 g (1 3/4 oz) cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
480 g (1 lb 7/8 oz) caster sugar (superfine sugar)
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
115g (4oz) light olive oil
100 g (3 1/2oz) plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani)

Grease and flour 2 x 6 inch (15cm) baking tins and line the bottom with parchment (baking) paper.

Preheat oven to 160 C (320 F)

In a large bowl sift together both flours, cocoa, baking powder and sugar.

Place chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat at medium heat (50%) for 2 minutes. Stir and then heat for a further 2 minutes at medium heat. All the chocolate should be melted, if not continue to heat in microwave.

Combine hot water and granulated coffee and mix until dissolved.

Add the eggs, chocolate mixture, vanilla, oil, coffee mixture and yogurt to the dry ingredients and using a whisk mix until just combined.

Divide mixture evenly between the 2 tins and bake for around 1 hour 10 minutes checking with a skewer after 1 hour.

Cool for 10 minutes and then turn out of tin to cool on rack.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores.

Affiliate links may earn me money and contribute to supporting this blog.

Original Ideas, photography and recipes by Linda Vandermeer do not reuse without permission. 

Trash Pack Cake Robert's 5th Birthday party

The Destroyer had his 5th birthday party last weekend.

Yup that is the cake sitting in the box that the toy came in

If I have learnt nothing else in my time here, it is to realise one's limitations and not try to make someone else something they are not.

There was no cute dessert buffet with matching candy, I did not buy him a new designer outfit, we did not invite everyone we knew and we did not have it at our home.

Note I used Americolor Electric colours mixed with Wilton regular gel colours.

The silver is Edible Silver Spray over grey fondant.

We went to the the local play center where I picked the minimum basic party package and I made an interactive Trash Pack Scum Drum Garbage Game cake with mini fondant Trashies that he flicked at the cake using launch platforms (which were not edible) from the real game he had been given.

CLICK on the picture above to check out Robert 

playing with his interactive cake on a short you tube video. 

It's just like a home video on my phone :)

It was so different from my eldest girls 5th birthday party with scores of perfectly pretty princess fairies at a pink tea party.

Yes the little trash packs are hand made from fondant

But it was the best party ever for my little Destroyer, it suited him perfectly and I couldn't love him any more.

I haven't done up an actual tutorial at this stage for the cake just some vague pictures of the process. I made the cake in one morning instead of spread over a couple of days as I had initially anticipated due to a number of incidents including The Destroyer staying home unexpectedly on his birthday because a python was loose in his kindi. So sorry I didn't get a chance for as many pictures as normal.

Don't worry y'all I lined the box with silver cake paper before I popped the cake inside.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:

Link to Amazon:

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! 

Or at Fishpond (free shipping Australia)

 

This post was not sponsored

Red Robot Birthday Party with a nod towards steampunk ( on a budget )

My cute as can be nephew has just turned one and when his mother asked if I could help out by making a cake I took the opportunity to put together this fun little inexpensive birthday party.

DJ's mum sent me a picture of a red robot that a friend had created for his birth as inspiration and the cookies, cake and cake pops are all based on that design.

Instead of a regular bright primary background I decided to theme the cake and cookies with a nod towards steampunk. The cake is a shimmery battered looking copper with steel and copper cog accents made from fondant.

Anyhoo you might have noticed that the table is a bit low key and that's because I put it together on a budget. 'Cause it's lots of fun to have a big party with all the trimmings, but sometimes fast and inexpensive is the way to go.

Of course as I made all the treats myself I have a little head start on everyone, but I think you could make this party look just as good with a buttercream frosted cake with a couple of plastic robots on top (plus you can play with them afterwards), your favorite store bought cookies or biscuits and just  regular round cake pops.

Red Robot Party Suppliers and Sources 

The table cloth is actually a roll of red polka dot wrapping paper from the local discount/ dollar store.

The candy jars are MOGDEN Jar from Ikea - they are $6.99 (AUD) from the bathroom section. One of the things I like about them (apart from the price) is that they are not overly large so you don't need to go overboard on the sweets. I only needed to use 1 regular bag per jar, normally I need to open around 3 bags to fill a candy jar.

The red and white 'stands' are once again from Ikea - they are candle holders and I just placed the jar on top. You could adhere the jar securely to the stand, however I find for the younger kids it's a good idea to be able to take them off and put the jar at the front of the table so they can easily reach in.

I picked up the robot stickers that are decorating the stands and pail from the local discount/ dollar store for $2 a packet. You could also pop the stickers onto loot bags to tie in your theme if you like.

The red pail the pops are in is from the local discount/ dollar store for a couple of dollars - this one was actually recycled from my daughter's Wizard of Oz party.

For the background decoration you can find similar hanging paper fans from The Little Big Company I had mine sitting around from another party that I recycled. These fans are good for recycling as they fold down flat easily for storage.

Or if your crafty check out this tutorial on how to make your own paper rosette backdrop.

 

The blue round mini  'plates' are actually some coasters.....once again from Ikea.

and the little stand up robot's are very inexpensive DIY ones that come in box of 20 from a toy shop.

and remember my book sweets on a stick has lots of fun inexpensive and easy to make ideas for birthday parties for boys and girls. You can pick it up online here:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Ben Ten cake pops with mini M &M's

I'm having a bit of bloggers block at the moment.

Yup I have been a bad blogger, nothing inspiring cooked around here the last week of so. Well I did make some of my triple chocolate cookies but y'all have seen those done so I didn't take any pictures.

oh and I did make a cake for my nephew but it was a last minute thing the night before and I used a Harry Potter cake box mix that someone had given me.

So I went back through my archives to try and rustle up some photo's to share with you and found these.

OK the reason I never posted these before is not because they were not totally awesome, it's because I took pretty awful photo's which often happens when I am making something for someone else.

These are some Ben Ten Pop's I made last year for the owner and designer of Australian Made kids fashion line Little Miss J and Mister TJ, well for her son really.

I made the pops with chocolate cake and mini M & M's, which I think is perfect for little boys. Just make up your chocolate cake, add enough frosting so it will be moist and holds it's shape remember not sloppy and the add a handful of mini m&m,s.

OK you need to be a little restrained on the M & M's too many and you will have difficulty popping you lollipop stick into the pop.

Here is a picture of the pop's, I shaped them using a small round fondant cutter and pressing the cake pop mixture in and flattening the top. Then I chilled the mixture and went through and popped the lollipop stick into each one to make a hole, this is pretty important with the M & M pops because if you poke into one of the candies there is no getting through you just need to start in another spot. Some times it's easier to scrap the whole pop and reshape it.

(If you look closely you can see where I had to make a second hole as I could not push through the candy)

Chill the pops again and in the meantime melt your chocolate/ candy melts. Take the pops out of the fridge and insert the lollipop sticks by dipping them into the melted chocolate and pushing them into the pre-made holes. Chill them in the fridge again.

One the lollipop sticks are set you can dip the whole pop in the melted chocolate and set standing up in styrofoam.

With these Ben Ten pops I had pre-made rounds of fondant using the same round fondant cutter and cutting the triangle shapes using a pizza cutter wheel, after the chocolate on the pops were dry I attached the fondant rounds with a little melted chocolate and held them a couple of seconds until secure.