My grandmother's 81st birthday was this weekend, and my mom wanted it to be potluck style. I was assigned to bring the birthday cake, which is awesome, because if I'm bringing anything to a potluck type party I want to bring desserts or an appetizer, I'm not usually too stoked on bringing a main course if I don't have to. Grandma requested a chocolate cake, and the rest was left to my imagination. I used a Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake box mix, but instead of using oil, I used butter, and instead of water, I used milk, and added a packet of chocolate instant pudding mix. These substitutions help the box cakes taste more homemade. I wanted to do something different with the frosting than chocolate or vanilla, and I remembered the MOST AMAZING cupcake I had in Los Angeles, at a cupcakery called Crumbs, a few years back and it had a cookies and cream frosting. I wanted to see if I could do something similar, so off to Google my fingers ran, until I found the recipe that I was able to slightly modify to make the best frosting I've had in my whole life. The original can be found here.
This is the recipe I used (nearly identical to the link)
- 1 cup softened butter
- 3.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 cup finely crushed/packed Oreo pieces (I ground them up in the food processor, about a sleeve and a half of the regular Oreos )
·
Cream the butter for a few minutes until it is
light (I had to stop the mixer a couple of times to clear the whisk beater)
·
Sift in the powdered sugar (I just dumped it in,
couldn’t find the sifter, didn’t seem to make a difference)
·
Beat until entirely combined with the butter
·
Add vanilla and milk, beat for 3 minutes
·
Add crushed Oreos and mix well to combine
**add more milk to gain a thinner consistency, more sugar
and/or Oreos to thicken
It was a complete hit... however, if I were to make it again I'd want to double the recipe. This was just enough to cover the cake, and I didn't have enough ingredients to make more to pipe on decorations to have a more finished look.
