Tomorrow my mom-in-law is celebrating her birthday. She is probably the very best mil in the world and I am so lucky to have her! I needed to make a very special cake for the occasion, one that would be elegant but fun, because that's just what she's like, a real lady who is full of fun, especially when it comes to her grandchildren! In deciding what to make I also had to consider the fact that it would need to feed the army of a family that we have, plus be appealing to the adults as much as it will appeal to the kiddies... Phew what a task! Then, it came to me....*light bulb*...while scrolling through Friday's Instgram pics, soooo many of the people I follow had posted these Birthday Oreo pics. South Africa is ALWAYS behind, and we don't get half the cool stuff you find everywhere else *sigh* so I guess you learn to deal with what you have...and I had normal, everyday Oeros! YEY! SOOOOOOoooooo I made an Double Chocolate Oreo cake. Ooooh!
I made a double mixture of this chocolate cake by Amanda from I am Baker as my "cake canvas", so it could stretch and make a 3 layer cake and cupcakes.
To this I added (of course I cant just do something normal) bits of hand crushed Oreos and chunks of milk chocolate (between the cupcakes (which I will post during the week) and the cakes I used 400g milk chocolate!!!!)
Excuse the missing top on this - I *had* to taste it :) This cake mixture makes the most divine cake! Its moist because of the buttermilk and almost black in colour because of the baking soda that reacts with the cocoa, a heavenly combo - for the eyes and taste buds!
I made a vanilla icing for this using my all time favourite recipe - 1kg icing sugar, 500g butter, a dash of milk where needed and a dash of vanilla essence. I added some more chunks of milk chocolate to this and added some Oreo crumbs (which I made by pulsing some Oreos in my processor).
Like I said earlier, I meant this to be a 3 layer cake, but in my Sunday-afternoon-state, instead of lining the tins (like I should have) I just sprayed them with Spray and Cook *wrong move* and because of the chocolate chips, one of the cakes stuck SO badly - so I crumbled it up and made some cake balls (will post some time!)
Icing this cake was nice and easy - thanks to its dense consistency! I did a thin crumb coat (essential *i think* when putting light icing on a dark cake) and then iced the rest of the cake with a thicker icing.
I had stacks of left over Oreos so I made more fine crumbs in my processor and covered the top of the cake in Oreo "dust".
I proceeded to finish it off with piping little star flowers in with my favourite nozzle, and added little black flowers. The contrast of the dark and light looked so elegant, but inside its packed with the "funness" of the Oreos. I think that sums up my mil! She is just like that!
I will post the cake balls (when they are finished - they are resting in the fridge as we speak - waiting for a good coating) and the cupcakes soon!
For the cake recipe, go check out I am Bakers Best Chocolate Cake
To this I added - 12 Oreos crushed by hand to make big chunks
About 150g *I think* of milk chocolate chopped up
For the basic icing
1kg icing sugar
500g butter
dash of milk
dash of vanilla essence
Combine the icing sugar and butter and beat until smooth and fluffy, adding milk when needed (teaspoon at a time!)
Add the vanilla essence to taste ( I love vanilla essence - I think i use about 15ml, but i am not sure!)
For the filling
I kept aside some of the icing and added about 100g chocolate chunks and some fine Oreo crumbs.
Enjoy!