Cookies and Cream Drip Cake

This particular cake challenge has a funny history. So my husband wanted me to do this cake for his birthday: https://www.tastemade.com/videos/giant-funfetti-cookie-dough-cake

It was a total bitch of a cake, and I never even got to the drip part because the cake lost structural integrity and fell over. At like 11pm on a Monday night… There were tears.

Anyway, 8 months later, I have decided to finally do the drip cake- not that fucking cookie cake cake that required 6 layers of 4 different kinds of cookie and cake. No. Never. Again. I did, however, decide to do a cookies and cream drip cake- a little nod to the travesty that was the original plan.

So this cake was for my friends Nina (my photographer extraordinaire), and John’s birthdays. It has like 4 parts to it, but all the parts were pretty easy.

I used this recipe for most of it: http://www.confessionsofacookbookqueen.com/fudgy-cookies-and-cream-cake/#_a5y_p=1139949

For the cake:

2 c granulated sugar

1 ¾ c all-purpose flour

1 c cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 c milk

½ c vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water *I’m lazy and just put water in my coffee pot and ran it through.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and flour two 8 or 9 inch pans *First of all, I used my goop recipe like I always do to prepare my cake pans. Also, it’s gonna tell you later to cut the cakes so you have four layers. I just put the batter into three 8-inch pans and had three layers instead of four.  

2. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla to the dry mixture. Beat on medium speed for two minutes.

4. Add the boiling water and stir on LOW *it’s hot, so be careful. Then once it was incorporated, I scraped the bottom and put it on medium high speed for about 2 minutes.

5. Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 30 minutes. *the batter will be pretty thin, so don’t worry if that happens to you. ** Like I said, I did three pans instead of two, but it still took about 30 minutes for my cakes.

6. Once cooked, allow to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cakes are room temperature, wrap and chill (preferably overnight). *Ain’t nobody got time for that. I just let it come to room temp and then started assembly. It was fine, although the cakes are delicate, so gentle touches if you’re rebelling like me. Suuuuuper gentle touches if you have to cut your cakes; or you know, maybe you should chill yours. 

For Oreo whipped cream filling:

2 c heavy whipping cream, COLD

½ c powdered sugar

15 Oreos, crushed *I just put it in a food processor and pulsed it up

1 tsp vanilla

1. Place a metal mixing bowl in the freezer along with the whisk attachment for about five minutes. *I did this- I feel like maybe it’s not super necessary, but it does help to keep everything very cold.
2. Remove from freezer and add heavy cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Beat on high until you have stiff peaks.3. Gently fold in crushed Oreos.
4. Put in the fridge until assembly time.

For fudge frosting:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

½ c cocoa powder

3 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp hot water *again, I just did the coffee pot water

1. Beat butter and vanilla on medium speed until smooth.

2. Add in cocoa powder and powdered sugar a bit at a time.

3. Add hot water and mix on high for about two minutes. *I had never made a chocolate frosting like this, so it was weird to me, but the frosting is delicious, so just try it.

For the chocolate ganache:

I “used” this recipe as a decorating inspiration and the ganache: https://www.sugarhero.com/cookies-and-cream-cake/

I say that I “used” it because the amounts to me were totally off, so I only kind of used it.

The recipe calls for 4 oz dark chocolate and 6 – 8 oz of heavy cream. No way man.

What I probably actually did:

6 oz heavy cream

6- 8 oz dark chocolate

1. Put both heavy cream and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Put in the microwave at 30 second intervals.

2. Whisk until it all comes together. If it’s too thick, add more cream. If it’s too thin, add more chocolate. *You want it thin enough to run, but thick enough to stop dripping! As you can see in my video, it’s making ribbons on top of itself- the chocolate doesn’t just run right back into itself when you pull up the whisk. 

Assembly:

1. Level off cake layers if need be. *also if you did two cakes, you’ll need to cut each cake into two layers so you have four total- I didn’t do this, so I didn’t have to cut cake. #winning.

2. Put a dollop of the frosting or filling on cake stand to hold the cake on the plate. Put down first layer of cake.

3. Add the oreo whipped cream on top of the cake layer *note that this is only filling, so you’re not going to put this on the outside. Also, I did one layer and then stuck it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm up before adding the next layer. *I had extra, so I put it in a piping bag for decoration later.

4. Repeat with second layer of cake and filling. Finish with third layer of cake. *Or keep going if you did the four layers.

5. Put back in the freezer and make the fudge frosting while you let that cool off.

6. Put a crumb coat of the fudge frosting all around the cake and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before continuing to frost. *A crumb coat is just a thin layer of frosting to catch all the crumbs. I don’t always do a crumb coat, but this cake is very delicate and crumbly, so I’d suggest.

7. Once it’s sturdy, go ahead and finish frosting the cake. So, you're going to add another layer of the fudge frosting to your crumb coat. *I smoothed it by running my offset spatula under hot water and smoothing out the frosting.

8. Prepare the ganache. The recipe calls for putting it into a squirt bottle to help with dripping easily. *Did I read this beforehand? No.

9. If you don’t have a squirt bottle like I didn’t, spoon some ganache onto the top of the cake and gently push to the side of the cake. At intervals, push some ganache off the side to let it drip down.

10. Place back in fridge to harden.

11. Decorate how you like- I just took that Oreo whipped cream that I put in a piping bag with a star tip and made 8 star blobs (technical term) on top of the cake and put half of an Oreo on each one. * A smarter person may have bought mini Oreo cookies for decorating too. That would be a good idea.

12. Enjoy! Like there’s no other option. This shit’s delicious.

Rating (Scale 1 - 5):
Difficulty: 2
Amount of Time: 3
Awesomeness: 5