Cookies and Cream Cake

Ben’s birthday was this past weekend (happy birthday, sweetie!) so of course, I could not pass up the opportunity to make him a birthday cake.  I had approximately one million ideas about what type of cake to make and I was so overwhelmed by all the options, I could not make a decision!  I asked Ben for some guidance and his only request was that it incorporate Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Frosting.  Wise choice, the stuff is fabulous.  I brainstormed and finally came up with this cookies and cream cake.  The result was fantastic!!!  It really had that classic “cookies and cream” flavor that I was going for.  I have made the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake before in the form of cupcakes and didn’t think they were that spectacular, but this time I loved it.  It was incredibly moist and chocolatey.  I must warn you though – you will want to eat (many, many) spoonfuls of the filling, so either have your willpower ready or maybe make a little extra 🙂

Cookies and Cream Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups sugar

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 ½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

 

For the filling:

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

1/8 cup confectioners’ sugar

¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

10 chocolate sandwich cookies,  chopped

 

For the frosting:

½ cup unsalted butter

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

Directions:

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350°.  Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

 

Stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).  Pour batter into prepared pans.

 

Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks.  Cool completely.

 

To make the filling, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla.  Beat on low speed until all sugar is incorporated; increase speed to high and whisk until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold in chopped cookie pieces with a rubber spatula.

 

To make the frosting, melt the butter in a medium bowl.  Stir in the cocoa.  Alternately add confectioners’ sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.  Add small amount additional milk, if needed.  Stir in vanilla.

 

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a cardboard cake circle.  Pipe a ring of the chocolate frosting around the outside edge of the cake.  Fill the area inside the ring of frosting with a thick layer of the cookies and cream mixture.  Place the second cake layer on top.  Frost the sides of the cake layers with chocolate frosting.  Pipe a decorative border of the chocolate frosting on top of the cake.  Fill the area inside this border with a thick layer of the cookies and cream mixture.  Garnish with extra chocolate sandwich cookies and whipped cream if desired.

Source: cake and frosting adapted from Hershey’s, filling adapted from Thyme for Food