Peanut Butter Oreo Cake – chocolate cake layers, with an Oreo cream filling and peanut butter Oreo buttercream.
Peanut Butter and Oreos
It became a well-know treat thanks to the 1998 version of the Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan, but dipping Oreos in peanut butter has been a thing in my house long before that. Because for me, peanut butter goes with everything and I’d like to think I’ve succeed at trying it with just about everything!
Peanut butter and Oreos are about as good of a duo as peanut butter and jelly, if you ask me! They were made for each other.
Peanut Butter Oreo Cake
Putting the two in a cake together was a no-brainer and something I should have done a long time ago! We can all thank my friend, Rosanna, for not letting up on this request and getting me to finally whip it up.
Layers
The elements of this cake actually aren’t new, it’s the combination that is. For the cake layers and filling, we’re using my Cookies and Cream Cake. The one change I made to the filling recipe is that we’re using Peanut Butter Oreos instead of regular. The Peanut Butter Buttercream is also a favorite of mine and is one I use on many of my cakes.
You’ll also notice that this cake is HUGE! I wanted to make sure I got the cake, cream filling, and buttercream in every bite, so I made this a six layer cake with a double batch of cake batter.
Options
However, you don’t have to make a double batch of cake if you don’t want to. You can stick with a single batch of cake and follow my Cookies and Cream Cake recipe. If you do a single batch of cake, you have two options:
- Option 1: Split the three cake layers in half to get six layers, but they’ll be thinner layers (about half the size of the ones pictured).
- Option 2: Don’t split your layers and just use the Oreo cream filling between the two layers and the buttercream on the outside. If you do this, use a single batch of buttercream from the Peanut Butter Dream Cake instead of the one provided (which is a 1.5x batch of my peanut butter buttercream).
Tip
If you’re using a stand mixer and the bowl is smaller than a 6 qt, I’d recommend splitting the recipe in half and making it in two batches. When you try to double batches of batter in a smaller bowl, like a 5 qt., you won’t have enough room in the bowl to mix the ingredients evenly. This can result in uneven cake layers as they bake and sunken centers.
Video Tutorial
Peanut Butter Oreo Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE (this is a double batch of my normal chocolate cake)
- 4 cups (480 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 1/2 cups (700 g) granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (177 g) good quality dark cocoa powder I like THIS cocoa
- 4 tsp (16 g) baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp (6 g) baking powder
- 2 tsp (11 g) salt
- 2 cups (480 g) buttermilk at room temperature
- 1 cup (218 g) vegetable oil
- 6 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (354 g) hot water
- 2 tsp (8.4 g) vanilla extract
FOR THE OREO CREAM FILLING
- 1 cup (231 g) heavy whipping cream cold
- 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar measured and then sifted
- 10 Peanut Butter Oreos broken into chunks
- *This can be made ahead of time (without the Oreos added) and stored in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to use. Add the Oreo pieces when you're ready to assemble.
FOR THE PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM
- 2 1/4 cups (508 g) unsalted butter slightly cold
- 1 1/2 cups (360 g) smooth peanut butter I use Skippy
- 7 1/2 cups (937 g) powdered sugar measured and then sifted
- 1 1/2 tbsp (20 g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (114 g) heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 g) salt
- 12 Peanut Butter Oreos
FOR THE DRIP
- 1 cup (175 g) dark chocolate chips
- 3/4-1 cup (173 – 231 g) heavy whipping cream
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray the bottom and sides of three 8-inch cake pans with cooking spray and line bottoms with parchment. Spray again. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.
- In a different, medium sized bowl, combine the eggs, buttermilk, water, oil and vanilla. Whisk to combine.
- With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for another 10 to 20 seconds. Divide batter equally among the three cake pans (about 30 ounces of batter in each 8-inch pan).
- Bake the layers for about 45 to 50 minutes (time may vary depending on your oven) or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs on it. Let the cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes, and then turn onto a rack to cool completely. When completely cooled, you can cut the cakes in half. See video above.
- Wrap the layers in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour in the freezer. Cakes can be made a week ahead of time and wrapped in plastic wrap. If you'd like to store the cake layers longer than a week, wrap in tin foil, as well, and then place in a zip lock bag.
FOR THE OREO CREAM FILLING
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the heavy whipping cream on high for about 3 to 5 minutes, until the cream forms stiff peaks. Transfer the cream to another bowl and set aside.
- In the now empty bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese for a couple minutes until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Beat for a couple minutes until smooth.
- Fold in the whipped cream until no streaks of whipping cream remain. *If you are making this ahead of time, don't add the Oreos yet. Instead cover and store the filling (without the Oreos) in the fridge until you're ready to stack the cake.
- When you're ready to stack the cake, fold in the Oreos.
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- In a food processor or blender, pulverize the Oreos to a find crumb. You do not need to remove the cream filling. Set aside.
- In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and peanut butter. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar to the bowl and mix in, slowly at first until incorporated, then increasing the mixer speed to high once all of the powdered sugar has been added. Blend in the vanilla extract, salt and heavy whipping cream, and continue to whip on high speed until very fluffy, about 4-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Stir by hand with a wooden spoon to push out air pockets.
- Remove and reserve two cups of the buttercream for the cake layers. Add the crushed Oreos to the remaining buttercream and stir well.
FOR THE DRIP
- Heat 3/4 cup cream in a microwave safe bowl. Pour the cream over the chocolate chips and let sit for 5 minutes. Once the chips are heated from the cream, stir until the cream and the chips make a smooth and silky consistency.
- If the drip feels too thick at this point, heat another 1/4 cup heavy cream and add it to the mixture.
ASSEMBLY
- Place the first cake layer top side up, in the center of the cake board. (I find that using a cake lifter helps move the thinner cake layers around. See above video).
- Pipe a rim of Oreo buttercream around the edge of the cake and then fill the center with about 1 cup of the Oreo cream filling.
- Place the second cake layer on top of the filling and evenly spread one cup of the buttercream over the cake layer.
- Repeat these steps with the remaining layers. The fillings should be: Oreo cream, peanut butter, Oreo cream, peanut buttercream and Oreo cream.
- Place the final cake layer, top side down, on the final layer of Oreo cream filling.
- Cover the cake in a thin layer of the Oreo buttercream. This will be your crumb coat. If you find that your cake is not stable, add a few plastic straws down the center of the cake to act as support dowels. Once your crumb coat is complete, freeze the cake for about 15 minutes.
- Once the crumb coat is set, continue to frost the cake and use your drip and any extra buttercream for piping.
I made this for my son’s 12th birthday in late September & I was a huge hit. I made a 3-layer version, since there were only 6 of us, and it was amazing. I did the Oreo cream between layers & the pb frosting for the outside. My husband’s birthday is in December & I’m already thinking about what kind of special cake I’m going to make for him. 🙂
I love it!
How did you modify the recipe for a three later version?
How did you modify the recipe for a three layer version?
You would just split the recipe in half.
I made this cake for my Husband’s Birthday and it was so delicious!! The whole family loved it. I ended up buying the cocoa powder you suggested and it was a total game changer. Thank you so much for the recipe!!
I’m so glad!
This cake was delicious!! My only problem was that my oreo cream filling was not at all like a whipped cream layer and was more like a soft pudding. What could I have done wrong? I tried making the recipe twice and had the same result.
It sounds liked you made it just right!
The cake was so good! I recommend it!
Thank you so much!
This is by far the best chocolate cake I have ever had. My go to recipe from now on. Moist, intense chocolate flavor. I used hot coffee instead of hot water and used a bit of black cocoa for some of the cocoa powder. I can’t recommend this recipe highly enough. SO GOOD!!!!
Yum!
Making this for the upcoming weekend and am so excited! Are there three ‘creams’ that need to be made (the Oreo filling, peanut butter buttercream, and peanut butter Oreo buttercream)? Or is the peanut butter Oreo buttercream used both between layers and on the outside of the cake? I’ve watched the video a few times and the coloring looks different.
Thank you!
there is just pb Oreo buttercream and the Oreo filling.
This looks fabulous! If one would prefer a filling with no cream cheese, could you omit, or do you have a recommendation for a substitution?
You could just 1.5 the buttercream recipe and add some in the middle as your filling.
Hi Courtney!!
I want to surprise my fiancé with this cake. Sounds so amazing!! He is not too big on chocolate cake though, but he absolutely loves peanut butter and Oreos. Do you have any recommendations of another cake flavor that would go well with this flavor combo? Regardless, I would like to try the chocolate cake in the future. I know you said that we should use a good quality dark cocoa powder. Which would you recommend?
You could do peanut butter cake layers or even vanilla. And my favorite brand of cocoa is Extra Brute Cacao Barry Cocoa Powder.
I have been looking for a chocolate cake recipe that I could use as my go to chocolate cake recipe. Well I found it here!!! Every single person that has tried it LOVES IT! Even people who aren’t cake fans! The only difference I do from your exact recipe is that I use heavy cream with lime juice in place of the buttermilk! It’s so good!!! I have made it multiple times. Once into a layer cake w/ PB cups in the cream filling instead of Oreo’s (w/ a PB Oreo buttercream), and a few times into cupcakes. Once w/ white chocolate chips in the cream filling and a peppermint buttercream. Once with a raspberry compote filling with Oreo buttercream, and I’m in the process of doing a little parfait cup w/ raspberry compote mixed into the cream filling and using a white chocolate buttercream. All these combinations have had my people absolutely RAVING!!! Thank you for such a fabulous cake recipe!!!
I do have a question though, why isn’t the water doubled from the other recipes that use this recipe halved? Does it just make it way too runny?
The yummiest cake. Just have a question my peanut butter Oreo cream frosting was so thick it was very hard to spread. I just did my best but what went wrong.
Did you beat the butter in the beginning for long enough? Also make sure you’re beating it for 5 mins at the end.
Hi There!
If I was looking to use your tips, and use the oreo cake recipe and the pb dream recipe for the buttercream, how many pb oreos would you add to the buttercream so that it mimics the buttercream for this recipe?
The same amount as called for in the Oreo buttercream
This cake is absolutely fantastic! I’ve never had a miss when using Courtney’s recipes but this one was particularly delicious. I made the 3-layer version and it was the perfect size. Only slight change I made was adding a little extra salt to the frosting based on personal taste. Oh and if you do halve the recipe, make sure you also halve the Oreo filling because I have a ton leftover (but honestly, that’s not a real problem ?). Thanks for such a great recipe!
I plan on making this for a birthday party, and I’m worried the cake itself won’t feed everyone so I am also going to make cupcakes. How many cupcakes would you say this recipe yields?
It’s a double batch of my chocolate cake, so you’ll get 48 cupcakes from the cake batter.
What do you do with the 2 cups of reserved buttercream in the assembly?
Hey, I want to try this for my son’s 3rd birthday party. It is construction themed so I want to make the peanut butter oreo buttercream icing a darker chocolate color. Is this possible? Could I just put gel food coloring in the batter while mixing?
Yes you can!
Could you make the buttercream icing a day or so beforehand as well? If so, how do you recommend doing that?
What consisteny be on any drips like heavy cream or thicker
Hi, I made this recipe into a cupcake recipe. Instead of doing cake filling, I piped the filling into to cupcakes and then frosted with PB frosting. Do you think that the filling would be ok in the freezer for a few days?
Yeah absolutely!