Learning 2 Bake from Scratch – XXXI

Oreo Cake – prequel

The Laird wanted a cake and I tripped over this one on Adam Ragusea’s YouTube channel:

I needed a place to put the recipe so I didn’t lose it, so here it is. The baking will come later. I’m thinking Tuesday evening for the chocolate cakes, Wednesday at lunch for the vanilla cake, then Wednesday evening to frost it. Then it will be ready on Thursday. Leaving aside that I don’t trust this oven to bake three cakes at once, I only have two cake pans unpacked.

Oreo Cake
From: Adriana Horton

For the two chocolate cake layers
183g all-purpose flour
300g brown sugar
60g dutch cocoa
3g baking soda
125g (1 stick) softened salted butter
2g instant coffee
185g warm water
2 eggs
60g veg oil
1 tsp vanilla
130g buttermilk

For the white cake layer:
185g all-purpose flour
1 1/2 eggs
83g milk
56g milk
40g veg oil
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
115g softened salted butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
185g sugar
1/4 tsp salt

For the frosting:
227g (two sticks) softened salted butter
125g shortening
1 lb (454g) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 Oreo cookies
9 additional Oreos for garnish

For the ganache
1/2 cup (120 ml) cream
8 oz (227g) semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the chocolate layers, combine the flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder and baking soda. Dissolve the instant coffee in the warm water. Beat the eggs and oil into the coffee, then mix that into the dry ingredients, followed by the butter. Mix the batter for a minute until it goes a little lighter in color. Mix in the buttermilk.

For the white layer, use a scale and math to get yourself and egg and half, lightly beaten. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Combine the smaller quantity of milk with the oil, and combine the larger quantity with the eggs and vanilla. Gradually beat the butter into the dry ingredients, one 1 tablespoon at a time, until it looks like breadcrumbs. Gradually mix in both wet mixtures.

Prepare three 8-inch cake pans with a lot of any nonstick spray containing flour. Split the chocolate batter into two pans, and put all of the white batter into one pan. Bake at 350 F (180 C) until a skewer to the middle comes out clean, about 20 minutes. The different flavors might be done at different times. Cook the cakes thoroughly, then level their tops.

For the frosting, beat the butter and shortening together for 15 minutes until light and fluffy. Pulverize the three Oreos into a fine powder. Beat the powdered sugar and vanilla into the fats. Divide the frosting to two equal portions, then mix the powdered Oreos into one of them.

Assemble and frost the cake layers, with the white layer in-between the chocolate layers. Use a scraper to get the outer frosting layer as thin and smooth as possible. Chill the cake until the outer frosting layer is firm.

For the ganache, heat the cream in a double boiler, then gradually melt in the chocolate chips. When full incorporated and hot, scoop ganache on top of the chilled cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Smooth the top, and chill the cake again until the ganache is firm to the touch.

Load the white frosting into a piping bag with a tip of your choice (Adriana uses 1M). Pipe eight frosting dollops along the outer ring of the top of the cake, and one in the center. Lay an Oreo against each dollop.

Off to buy the things I do not have (chocolate chips, cream, Oreos, butter [that much], butter milk, and eggs [brunch used the last of them]).