Oreo Drip Cake!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
A 3-layer chocolate cake, with Oreo buttercream, a chocolate drip, and even more Oreos make a delectable & showstopping Oreo drip cake!
Oreo favourites
One of my dad’s colleagues recently had their last day at work, and because she has been one of my most enthusiastic taste testers (and just the loveliest person ever), I wanted to bake something properly special. Naturally… that meant a drip cake. You know I can never resist making a big showstopper, especially for an occasion.
And even though I didn’t actually get a slice of the finished cake (tragic, I know), I did “accidentally” taste-test several spoonfuls of the buttercream during decorating. Purely for quality control, obviously. The reviews from the office were glowing… apparently it disappeared within minutes!
I’ve been itching to make another Oreo bake for a while, and turning it into a full drip cake felt perfect. The Oreo buttercream alone is enough to convert anyone.
The sponge
I used the same idea for the cake from my Salted Caramel Drip Cake and my Biscoff Drip Cake, just using less self-raising flour, and adding in some cocoa powder to make it chocolatey and rich. The layers bake up soft, moist and sturdy enough to build a tall cake without collapsing, exactly what you want for a drip cake.
- Butter – unsalted butter or baking spread at room temperature is the best way to go for the perfect fluffy sponge
- Sugar – for most of my sponge recipes I use light brown sugar but you can use caster, golden caster or dark brown sugar
- Eggs – 8x medium eggs roughly translate as 400g of egg weight, most of my recipes run on medium eggs unless specially stated otherwise
- Flour – self-raising flour will provide the rise needed for three beautiful tiers of delicious sponge
- Cocoa powder – I replace 75g of flour with cocoa powder to give that rich delicious chocolate flavour throughout the sponge as well as the buttercream frosting
- Baking powder – an optional extra to provide a lighter texture to the sponge, many have said they don’t like adding the extra as it is already in the flour, I will leave that choice to you.
- Milk – If you’re mixture is slightly thicker than desired you can use whole milk to gradually loosen the mixture, use one tbsp at a time!
I know three-layer cakes often look a bit intimidating, but they truly aren’t any more difficult than two layers. They just LOOK ten times more impressive, the wow factor alone makes all the effort worth it and the taste matches the presentation perfectly.
Oreo buttercream
For the frosting, I stuck with the same Oreo buttercream recipe I use for my Oreo cupcakes because it’s simply perfect, fluffy, sweet, creamy, and packed with Oreo biscuit flavour. I used 300g of butter and 650g of icing sugar, then blitzed an entire pack of Oreos into a fine crumb and mixed them in. It makes enough to fill the layers, coat the outside, pipe on top, and still have a little leftover to sneak spoonfuls of.
The texture is dreamy. There’s something about adding the crushed biscuits that makes it so easy to smooth around the cake, I honestly don’t know why, but I’m not questioning it. This will boost the presentation of your cake from standard to spectacular, a smooth coating of Oreo buttercream really will look like an expensive showstopper by the time you’re finished.
The drip
I tried a new method of doing the drip on this cake, by using oil. I’ve seen people having a few problems making the ganache drip as ganache can be quite temperamental, so after reading up on the oil method I had to try it.
You only use between 1-2tbsp of oil for this amount of chocolatey, and you can’t detect it once its added. It just makes the chocolate runnier, and easier to use, whilst keep its shine. You can just use melted chocolate, but often this can be harder to use as its thicker, and it well set very solid. I’m surprised I didn’t eat some of it myself, but I resisted to make sure it look better.
If you wanted to use a ganache however you can, simply use 150g of dark chocolate and 150g of double cream! (Read about the ganache drip here… Caramac Cake)
Decoration
Once the drip had set slightly, I piped little swirls of Oreo buttercream around the top and added whole Oreos for decoration. A sprinkle of crushed Oreos finishes it off, because when you think you’ve added enough Oreos… always add a few more.
This cake is bold, chocolatey, and cookies-and-cream heaven. It’s fun to make, fun to decorate, and an absolute delight to present. I adored every minute of making this one, and the finished result brought so many smiles. I hope you love it as much as my dad’s colleagues did!
Two tier versions
I get asked all the time on my blog and social media if this cake can be made smaller, perfect for a more intimate family celebration or birthday. The good news? Absolutely! With a few simple tweaks, you can create a slightly smaller Oreo cake that’s just as delicious and impressive.
For a smaller version, I recommend using two 8″cake tins. You can adjust the ingredients as follows:
- 300g butter
- 300g sugar
- 245g flour
- 55g cocoa powder
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 6 medium eggs
- 3 tbsp milk
Baking time may increase slightly, around 5–10 minutes longer, depending on your oven and tin. For the decoration, you can use roughly two-thirds of the original buttercream and toppings, which still makes for a gorgeous, indulgent cake.
This scaled-down version is perfect for smaller gatherings and still delivers all the Oreo, chocolate, and cookies-and-cream goodness of the full-sized drip cake. It’s a flexible recipe that adapts beautifully for any celebration
Tips & tricks
- You obviously don’t have to make straight edged buttercream if you don’t want to, but I just like the look of it. You can slather it on, and it’ll still taste damn delicious.
- However, if you do want to make it like this, I seriously recommend using a metal scraper for the decoration of the buttercream, and the disposable piping bags.. I wouldn’t be anywhere without them.
- All of the decorations are completely optional , but I love this style of cake.
- This cake will last in an airtight container for 3 days.
Oreo Drip Cake!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 400 g unsalted butter/baking spread
- 400 g light brown sugar
- 400 g eggs (roughly 8 medium)
- 325 g self raising flour
- 75 g cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp whole milk
Oreo Buttercream Frosting
- 300 g unsalted butter (room temp - not baking spread)
- 650 g icing sugar
- 154 g Oreos (1 pack)
- 2-5 tbsps whole milk
Decoration
- 175 g dark chocolate
- 1-2 tbsps vegetable/sunflower oil
- Oreos
- crushed Oreos
Instructions
For the Cake!
- Heat the oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line three 20cm/8inch cake tins with baking parchment – leave to the side.
- In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and light brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the flour, cocoa powder, beaten eggs, baking powder and beat again briefly till combined – try not to over beat the mixture! If its really thick, mix in the whole milk to loosen.
- Divide the mixture between the three tins and smooth it over – bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when poked, and when the cake springs back.
- Once baked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove and leave to cool fully on a wire rack. If the cake has domed slightly, leave the cake to cool upside down to flatten it slightly.
For the Decoration!
- In a stand mixer, beat the room temperature butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth and loose and then beat in the icing sugar 1/3 at a time until its fully combined. Keep beating the buttercream for a few minutes so it starts to get fluffier and lighter.
- In a food processor, blitz the packet of Oreo’s to a fine crumb, and add into the buttercream. Beat the buttercream again till smooth, and use the Milk to loosen it to a smooth consistency.
- Once the cakes are cooled, put the first layer on the serving plate spread some of the buttercream onto the top of the first layer, add the second cake on top, and then top again with some of buttercream and then add the final sponge layer. Only use about 2 tbsps of buttercream per layer so that you have enough to decorate with!
- With the leftover buttercream, as you can see, I covered the sides (and top) too! Do a first layer of around the edge and top using a large metal scraper and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Repeat again with a slightly thicker layer of buttercream.
- I slather it on all over using an off -set spatula, and then run the metal scraper round until its smooth. If the Oreo’s were blitzed to a really fine crumb like you need, the buttercream can still be smooth around the edges even though there is biscuit in the mix!
- Once finished, melt the dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl until melted. Add in 1tbsp of oil and beat till smooth, continue to add oil till you get to a drippy consistency. I used 1+1/2 tbsps total. Using disposable piping bags, pipe it round the edge of the cake, edging over slight bits to create the drip.
- You don’t need to use too much per drip as it’ll drop quite far down by itself! Fill in the top in with the rest of the chocolate so the top is also covered. Refrigerate the cake for about 15 minutes.
- Using some left over buttercream, pipe little rosettes of buttercream onto the top and add a whole oreo – sprinkle on some crushed oreos and huzzah! You’re done! Enjoy!
Notes
- You obviously don’t have to make straight edged buttercream if you don’t want to, but I just like the look of it! You can slather it on, and it’ll still taste damn delicious.
- However, if you do want to make it like this, I seriously recommend using a metal scraper for the decoration of the buttercream, and the disposable piping bags.. I wouldn’t be anywhere without them!
- All of the decorations are completely optional – but I love this style of cake! To make a smaller version of the cake, use:
- Two 8″cake tins
- 300g butter
- 300g sugar
- 245g flour
- 55g cocoa powder
- 1.5tsps baking powder
- 6 medium eggs
- 3 tbsps of milk
- And it might take an extra 5-10 minutes to bake and use 2/3 of the decoration recipes!
- This cake will last in an airtight container for 3 days!
Hi Jane,
Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
I want to ask, can I substitute the butter for vegetable oil?
If so, can I use about 300g oil? And also, the method is to beat the butter and sugar together, if I am to use vegetable oil in place of butter, do I beat the oil and sugar together or…?
Thank you once again.
Hi Jane,
Can I use chocolate instead of cocoa powder? If so how much? I will be using 9.5 inch tins so will be timing the recipe by 1.3 anyways so how much chocolate would you recommend for the sponge?
And would you recommend dark? Thanks so much xx
I’m not 100% sure – but I would say you should at least double the weight for melted chocolate – but it may be best to go by my triple chocolate cake recipe (just dark chocolate though!) and then increase the for the bigger size! x
Hi Jane thanks so much for your reply. Could I use milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate or would you recommend Dark?
Thanks
Hey – do you mean for the drip? Generally I find dark chocolate the best, but you can use milk with less cream or oil (Depending on how you are making the drip) x
hi 1 i’m planning on making this cake and instead of the oreo biscuits could it work will maltesers 2 if not would any biscuits work 3 the reason i’m not doing the malteser cake on your page as i can’t get milk powder
please can you help me Jane
Hiya – you can still do the Malteser cake, but in place of the malt powder (horlicks/ovaltine) just replace more flour in the sponge, and more icing sugar in the buttercream. Most biscuits should work!
hi-just wondering where about should the cake be kept
I keep the cake at room temp in a cake box x
My 13 year old daughter just made this cake for her brother’s 16th birthday….it tastes incredible! That OREO buttercream…WOW!!! This is definitely one of our favorites now and having discovered your website I can’t wait to find more on here!
Hi Jane!
Loving this recipe. Quick question I wanted to add Oreos into the actual batter and do just a vanilla type cake and add Oreos similar to your cookies abs cream cake. Could I use the same quantity but substitute the brown sugar for caster sugar and not add any cocoa powder, baking powder or milk? Let me know if this would work? Ideally I wanted to use cookies and cream recipe but make it bigger for a party
Hello! Yes but you would need to add more flour to add to the loss of the cocoa powder xx
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. The instructions are perfect. I made the cake for a special birthday and received so many compliments; everyone thought I had bought it! 3 layers were going to be too big for my cake box, so followed the recipe but only cooked 2 layers, and used the rest of the batter to make cupcakes.
Hi Jane, I love this recipe! Would this work using your vegan chocolate cake recipe and dairy free butter for the buttercream? Will the cake support the icing or will the cake be too soft?
Thanks 🙂
Hey! Personally I would say the buttercream could be too soft (as vegan butter is much softer – but as long as you keep it cool and add NO extra liquid it should be okay! x
Hi,
I’m baking this cake on Sunday, after I’ve baked the cake how long should I leave it before decorating it?
You just need it to be completely cooled! x
Hi Jane, I’m looking to make this sponge today for a birthday but was wondering if I would be able to bake it in one 8” deep tin? X
Hey! You can – but that’s a lot of mix. I would reduce the temp to 140C for a fan oven, and bake for probably near 2 hours!
Hey jane
I love the idea of this cake but I wanted to make it 4 layers so what would the new recipe be for the buttercream??
Hey! I would add on maybe 1/3 more! x
Hi Jane, if i want to make a vanilla sponge can I just take put the cocoa powder? Thanks
Hey – you’d need to add in the same weight of flour to cover the loss of the cocoa! x
Hi Jane
I’d like to make a smaller version of this as a two layer 6 inch cake. My 6 inch cake tins are 4in high so I don’t mind a tall cake (as long as the two layers bake properly).
Would you recommend using the reduced recipe in the notes for this or will that version need to be reduced further? And if so, by what scale? Additionally, will the baking temp / time need to be adjusted?
Hey! Usually for a straight 8″ to 6″ you would use 2/3 of the recipe. so you could maybe do slightly less if you wanted just two layers of a 6″! X
Hi Jane
I want to make a smaller version of this cake for my husbands birthday, if I follow the notes can I use 2 *20” sandwich tins instead ?
The sandwich tins might be a little shallow still – it may be best to reduce it further to 250g rather than 300g!
Hi Jane I’m struggling to get hold of brown sugar. Would demerara be a good substitute or is there anything else I could try instead
If not. Thanks 🙂 x
I personally would use caster sugar or golden caster sugar in place! x
Hi Jane,
I am making this cake for my daughters Birthday. I have looked everywhere for a food processor and mixer but alot of places are out of stock. Could I use a sandwich bag and make the oreo icing that way?
Many thanks
Amy
Maybe a bit late, but you could put the oreos in a sandwhich bag and crush using a rolling pin?
As long as they can get really really fine, it works!
Hi, I would like to make this cake but I’ve realised I only have 8 inch shallow sandwich tins. I’ve measured the depth and they are 1.25 inches deep. I don’t have time to buy new ones as the birthday is this week! Could I do 4 thinner layers to get a similar height to your cake? Would I keep the quantities the same? Would time in the oven need reducing? Thanks!
Hey! Yes, I would do four layers instead of three – so as not to overflow! And the timing would probably reduce by about 5-10 minutes! x
Hi! I’ve noticed the buttercream doesn’t require heavy cream. I thought this was needed? Thanks for this recipe, definitely going to try it out! 🙂
No, it’s not needed!
Hey, love your cakes. Just wondering how I should downsize? I still want to use 8” cakes but I want two layer rather than 3. Thanks