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Crazy Custom Cakes

Posted 01/23/2011 by Marina Miller

You can have your cake and eat it too.

Photo by Marina Miller

Custom cakes are becoming more and more popular due to the dawn of many new shows such as Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes but most of the cakes concocted on those shows are not easily created in the average home kitchen.

While some settle for an ordinary birthday cake, there are many simple, fun ways to make a cake more meaningful to the person and the occasion.  My nephew had his third birthday recently and I was put in charge of the cake.  If there is one food I know for sure that this picky eater likes, it’s Oreos.  It only seemed natural that I would customize the cake with this cream-filled American cookie delight.  I decided to make an Oreo flavored cake and make it look like an Oreo.

The simple recipe is as follows:
One boxed White Cake mix
1 ½ cups of crushed Oreo cookies.
Follow the recipe on the box to make the cake batter.  Then mix in one cup of the crushed cookies and bake according to directions in two round cake pans. Cool completely before frosting

The decorating is the hardest part of this cake-making process.  After the cakes have completely cooled outside of the pan, set them side by side.  Frost one side of the cake with vanilla icing. Then place the unfrosted cake on top of the vanilla frosted cake.  Frost the whole “cookie,” sides included, with chocolate frosting.  Using either a frosting bag and tip or a dull, flat knife, make a line of vanilla frosting go all the way around the cakes in the middle so that it looks like a big Oreo cookie.  I used the other ½ cup of crushed Oreos around the top and the base of the cake and put halved Oreos around the cake for decoration.  If desired, write “Happy Birthday” or other sentiments in frosting on top.

This cake was the highlight of the three-year-old’s entire party.  He didn’t even want to eat dinner all he could say was, “Great big Oreo cake!” with a huge grin.  That in itself was worth the time and effort.