Cookies and Cream Cake

This cookies and cream cake has three thick layers of cake packed full of Oreo cookies, and is filled with a creamy vegan Oreo buttercream and finished with a drip of chocolate ganache. Whether you’re vegan, dairy-free, or you simply need a cake recipe with limited ingredients, this recipe is so easy to make and tastes amazing!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 25

Chilling Time 4

Total Time 4 55

Servings servings

Calories 727kcal

Author Sally

Ingredients

For the cake

2 cups almond milk
2 tablespoon white vinegar
3 cups plain flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup canola oil
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 x 133 gram pack Oreo cookies

For the buttercream frosting

1 cup (250 grams) dairy-free butter*
6 cups icing sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons vanilla almond milk
1 x 133 gram pack Oreo cookies crushed

For the chocolate ganache drip

½ cup (100 grams) chocolate, chopped
Approx. ½ cup coconut cream heated (more or less as needed)

Instructions

Make the cake. Add vinegar to almond milk and set aside. It will split the milk, but that is ok.
Using a mortar and pestle or food processor, crush up the oreo biscuits until they are mostly a fine crumb leaving some larger pieces. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease three 8 inch cake pans with cooking spray, and line the base with baking paper.
In a large bowl, add sugar, oil and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet, alternating with the milk mixture, making sure it is completely mixed through before adding more. Once batter has come together and smooth, mix through crushed oreos.
Split the batter evenly between three 8 inch cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Turn the cakes out and let cool on a wire rack completely before frosting.
Make the Buttercream. Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment fitted, lightly beat the dairy-free butter and vanilla so it’s smooth. Add in 3 cups of icing sugar. Beat until creamy. Add in another 2 cups of icing sugar and beat on medium. While the mixer is running, add in milk, one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Add the salt and beat until combined. If the mixture is still too thin, add more icing sugar ½ cup at a time until the frosting is smooth but thick enough to hold its shape. Finally add in the crushed Oreos and mix through.
Assemble the cake. Level the cakes with a bread knife if required. Smooth a little buttercream on a cake stand or serving board and place the first layer down. Top with buttercream to cover the cake, then add the next layer. Again add more buttercream, then add a cake layer upside down so that it’s sandwiched together, followed by more buttercream and the final cake layer upside down so that the top is nice and flat. Top with more buttercream and smooth out with a cake knife. For the best frosting results, crumb coat the cake by adding a thin layer of frosting around the sides of the cake and scraping away any excess. You should be able to see the cake through the frosting yet still have smooth, straight sides. For this step you should use about half of the total buttercream amount. Let the cake chill in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
Remove cake from the fridge and finish frosting with a thick layer around the sides and the top. Set aside in the fridge to chill again while you make the ganache drip.
Make the ganache. Chop up the chocolate into small pieces (think the size of chocolate chips) and place it in a small bowl. Heat up the coconut milk in the microwave or on the stove until warm (not too hot!). Add ¼ cup to the bowl with the chocolate pieces and let sit for a couple of minutes. The heat from the milk will melt the chocolate. Mix together using a spoon or whisk until glossy and all the chocolate has melted. If your chocolate isn’t melting, sit the bowl in another bowl of warm water. Continue to add more warm coconut milk a tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency for your drip.
Decorate the cake. Put the warm chocolate ganache in a squeeze bottle while still warm and slowly use this to drip it down the sides of the cake, starting from the top edge. Once you’ve gone around the edge, cover the top in a thin layer of the ganache. Set aside again in the fridge to set.
Once the ganache has hardened, put any remaining buttercream in a piping bag with your favourite tip attachment and pipe swirls around the top.

Notes

I keep the cake chilled when I am assembling it because it makes it easier to work with, however this cake can be served at room temperature.

Tip! If you don’t have three cake pans, you can bake the cakes in batches. Leave the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wash the pan in warm soapy water and rinse with cold. Spray with non-stick spray, line the bottom with baking paper and you are ready to use it again. The remaining cake batter will be fine on the bench in between bakes, just do not leave it out longer than 3 hours.

Tip! While you are not using the buttercream, make sure to keep well covered in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap. If you need to keep it overnight, just pop it in the fridge, but let it come back to room temperature before using and you may need to give it another beating if it looks like it has lost some of its creaminess. The other option is to halve the buttercream and make half when you are assembling the cake, and the other half when you are decorating the cake.

I use Nuttelex to replace butter in most of my recipes as it is vegan and gives a 'buttery' flavour without being greasy. As this is an Australian product, the closest US alternative I believe is Earth Balance. Otherwise any dairy-free spread will work.

Nutrition