30 Before 30 ~ Cakes

I’m on a roll with the cakes. Since deciding that fairy cakes are definitely the way to go, I’ve been searching out lots of yummy recipes. Last weekend I made Oreo cakes, and they were delicious.

I found the recipe on Helen Hearts when I was trawling the web for recipes. I much prefer using recipes with British measures, simply because I don’t have any American-style cups to use. Actually, that’s not true, because at the weekend Anna gave me a set that she had; they are missing the actual 1 cup measure, but as I have the 1/2 cup and 1/3 cup that’s not a problem. Anyway, using American recipes was hard because I was always worrying that the conversions I had worked out weren’t quite right. So the fact that the Oreo recipe had British measurements was great, as well as the fact that it was a recipe for cakes with an actual Oreo baked inside. Amazing.

As a sidenote, every time I said the word Oreo at the weekend, I got told off by my friend Jen, because she kept getting I Can’t Fight This Feeling in her head. I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, until she explained that Oreo Speedwagon sang it. At least that’s what I thought she was saying, right up until two minutes ago when I tried googling ‘Oreo Speedwagon’, and found that what she was actually saying was REO Speedwagon. A band I have never heard of, although I do know the song. So, although Jen will never, ever read this, I would like to say the following: 1) As I said at the weekend, I cannot be held responsible for the name of a very well known biscuit brand getting a song in someone’s head, and 2) I wonder if she always thought it was Oreo Speedwagon, or if she knew it was REO. Because at no point did she mention it.

Anyway, so I am never sure about repeating the recipe in my post, or linking back to where I found it. Obviously there are copyright issues, and I don’t want to step on any toes, but as Helen found this recipe on StumbleUpon, and it doesn’t appear to be her own personal concoction, I feel OK about repeating it here. I hope that’s OK!

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 100g self-raising flour
• 14g cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 pack of Oreos

For the icing:

• 45g unsalted butter
• 75g icing sugar
• 2tbsp milk
• Any remaining Oreos

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees or Gas Mark 4.

Place 12 paper cases in a cupcake baking tray and add half an Oreo to the each case (it should be the part with cream in).

Put the remaining halves of the Oreos in a bowl to one side as you’ll use them for the icing later.

Cream together the butter and caster sugar, until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs a little at a time, beating after each.

Fold in the flour and cocoa powder.

Fill the paper cases evenly with cake mixture.

(A photo of me, baking! That’s because I was doing it at Anna’s house)

Bake for around 15 minutes, or until a knife inserted in centre comes out clean.

For the icing, first crush your remaining Oreos into crumbs and place them in a bowl. The easiest way to do this is with a rolling pin and a sandwich bag, but I’d recommend double-bagging them so you don’t split the bag!
Add the remaining butter and icing sugar, along with 2 tablespoons of milk and whisk all together for about 5-10 minutes.

When your cakes have cooled down, spread the Oreo buttercream onto the top of each cake. You can add an Oreo to the top for decoration if you want. As Anna had some mini Oreos left over from when she made an Oreo cheesecake (also yummy), I used some of them.

Not only do these beauties taste yummy, the bottom looks like this.

It’s not a great photo, but I love the fact that the word Oreo is imprinted onto the bottom of the case!

If you like Oreos, I would definitely recommend these cakes. Not only do they have an Oreo baked into them (I can’t stress enough how awesome that is), the icing is lovely too. I suppose if you didn’t want to make chocolate sponges, you could make vanilla cakes and still use the Oreos.

10 new cakes – seven down – three to go!