Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Stuffed Cake

An absurdly decadent cookies and cream cheesecake sandwiched between two layers of soft, rich, fudgy chocolate cake, iced with a sweet, smooth cream cheese buttercream and topped with a rich chocolate ganache and cookie crumbs.

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, it should be fairly apparent to you that I’m a huge fan of decadent desserts and feature them regularly (this is a dessert blog, after all).  This dessert, though, may be my richest, most indulgent yet.

Today I present to you a tempting she-devil of a cake, one with deceptively pristine, smoothly applied cream cheese-buttercream frosting, seductively draped with a thick layer of form-fitting chocolate ganache, neatly pressed with a miniskirt of finely crushed cookie crumbs, all which serve to cloak (or, perhaps, allude to) her irresistibly debauched interior.  

And once you slice in, there’s no going back.

Usually, when photographing the inside of cakes, I want it to look as clean as possible.  I tidy them up and try to make sure there are no streaks or crumbs, and try to present them as prettily and neatly as I can.

But not with this cake.  A single slice and she reveals her true, carelessly hedonistic self.  The blade of the knife that cuts her muddies the cheesecake with streaks of ganache and smudges every flawless feature with rich chocolate cake crumbs, the cake platter is left with messy, fudgy remnants of chocolate and careless scatterings of cookie crumbs, and it only makes her more desirable.

As soon as I sliced in, I flooded my sister with text messages and my mother with phone calls begging them to please get this cake out of my house as soon as possible, otherwise I would surely find myself with an empty cake platter, a heavy fork, an overfull stomach and more than a twinge of regret.

Zach insisted that some of this cake stay at our house, though, and, (not as reluctantly as I should have) I agreed, storing a hefty quarter of this incredibly heavy vixen of a cake in our fridge, where I keep returning to steal copious forkful after forkful.

I was pretty pleased with how the decorating for this cake turned out (as I don’t consider myself to be very artistic or particularly very good at decorating cakes) so I’m going to leave you with a few tips that helped me:

Placing the cakes in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes before icing makes the frosting go on much smoother.  I usually do this and then also do a crumb coating, where I apply a thin layer of icing over the whole cake without any regard to the crumbs  (they will get mixed up in the icing and it will look incredibly messy, but that doesn’t matter) and then I pop the poorly-iced cake back in the freezer for another 15 minutes and then remove and apply a thicker layer of icing over the cake again.  This time it should easily go on smoothly and pick up no crumbs (because they’re semi-frozen in the first layer of icing).

For the smooth appearance of the icing I use the long straight edge of a (clean!) plastic ruler and lightly press it against the icing and run it around the outside of the cake.  An icing spatula would also work for this (or, of course, an icing smoother), but mine is too short so I use a ruler.

For the ganache, do not immediately pour it over the cake.  Allow it to cool enough that you can touch it (I let mine sit about 5 minutes) and then gently ladle it over the center of the cake, using the back-end of a spoon to gently nudge it outwards and over the edges in some places.

Hope this helps, but please feel free to comment with any questions you may have!

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cake

5 from 5 votes

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Ingredients

Cheesecake

• 24 ounces cream cheese softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
• 12 Oreo cookies broken into small pieces (I place them in a Ziploc bag and then hammer with a rolling pin until broken into small enough pieces (do not crumble completely, you want some significant pieces of cookiethe cheesecake).

Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar packed
• 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup milk

Frosting

• 1 cup butter softened to room temperature
• 8 oz cream cheese softened to room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 7 cups powdered sugar
• 12 Oreos crushed (to fine crumbs), divided

Ganache

• 1 1/3 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3 Oreos finely crushed (optional)

Instructions

Cheesecake

• Prepare cheesecake at least 4-6 hours before you wish to assemble the cheesecake!
• Preheat oven to 350F
• Line 9" springform pan with parchment paper (remove the bottom, cover with a square of parchment paper and return rim (parchment paper will be sticking out the sides). This helps to make the cheesecake more easily transferable to the center of the other cake.
• In mixer, beat together softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, scraping down the sides with a spatula occasionally to ensure it is mixed well. (beat on medium-speed about 1-2 minutes, scraping down side occasionally, it should be creamy and well-mixed)
• Add sour cream, mix well, stopping once to scrape down the sides before mixing again.
• Add eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating until just mixed after each addition (and scraping down the sides after each addition)
• Pour cheesecake batter into prepared springform pan.
• Bake on 350F for 40 minutes.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before transferring to fridge to cool for at least 4 hours.

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350F and generously grease and flour two 9”-round cake pans.
• In medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• In large bowl (or KitchenAid mixer) beat together canola oil and sugars until well-combined.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.
• Stir in vanilla.
• Gradually (mixer on low-speed) stir in flour mix and milk alternating (adding about 1/5 of each mixture at a time and waiting until combined before adding the next addition).
• Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.
• Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean (a few dry crumbs are acceptable).
• Allow cakes to cool completely before assembling.

Frosting & Assembly

• In KitchenAid or with hand mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese. Stir in vanilla.
• Gradually, carefully, stir in powdered sugar until completely combined (be sure to scrape down sides of bowl to ensure ingredients are well-combined).
• Set aside 1 cup of frosting and combine with 1/3 cup of the crushed Oreo crumbs. You will use this for the icing in the center, the outside icing will be all white.
• Once cake and cheesecake have both cooled completely, carefully transfer one 9" chocolate cake round to cake stand/serving platter and layer the top with the Oreo-frosting.
• Run a knife around the inside edge of the springform pan to loosen the cheesecake and remove the sides of the pan. Carefully place on top of first chocolate cake layer and spread the remaining Oreo-frosting over top of cheesecake..
• Place second chocolate cake layer on top of cheesecake layer
• Spread a thin layer of white frosting evenly over the cake and transfer to freezer for 10-15 minutes.
• Remove cake from fridge and generously apply the remaining frosting, running a straight-edge around the outside of the cake for smooth appearance, if desired.
• Press remaining cookie crumbs ¼ of the way up the side of the bottom of the cake.
• Prepare Ganache.

Ganache

• Combine chocolate chips and heavy cream in medium saucepan and set to medium-low heat.
• Stir constantly until chocolate is completely melted and well-combined with the cream.
• Remove from heat and allow to set for about 5 minutes (mixture should be cool enough to touch).
• Carefully ladle ganache over the top of the prepared cake, using the back of the spoon to spread and gently nudge over the edges of cake as desired.
• Sprinkle ganache with finely crushed Oreo crumbs and serve once ganache has set (about 15 minutes).

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