This vegan Oreo cake looks like a giant Oreo cookie! Oreo cookies are baked into the chocolate cake layers and it has a vanilla center and chocolate frosting.
So this vegan Oreo cake actually looks like a giant Oreo cookie.
Not only is it made with loads of actual Oreo cookies baked into the layers but the cake itself looks like a big Oreo, with white vanilla frosting sitting between two layers of chocolate cake.
It’s loads of fun to make and definitely one you’ll enjoy making for the Oreo lovers in your life.
You’ll also love our vegan Oreo cupcakes, vegan cookies and cream ice cream, vegan Oreo truffles and vegan Oreo milkshake.
How To Make Vegan Oreo Cake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
It’s easier than you can imagine. It’s a simple chocolate cake recipe adapted from our easy vegan chocolate cake and our best vegan chocolate cake recipes, with oreos baked into the layers.
To bake the Oreos into the layers, you just line the bottoms of your 9-inch cake pans with Oreo cookies.
Pour in your chocolate cake batter.
Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. See how the Oreos have baked perfectly into those cake layers!
Then you make a simple vegan vanilla frosting for the center and a delicious vegan chocolate buttercream to frost the tops and sides.
When the cakes are cooled, add all the vanilla frosting to the middle.
It will be starting to look just like a giant Oreo.
And then frost the top and sides with the chocolate buttercream.
And of course, you decorate the cake with crushed Oreos.
The Frosting
The vegan chocolate buttercream makes quite a lot, it’s enough to pipe on some extras if you want to do that and frost the top and sides quite liberally.
As you can see in the photos, I added some little piping detail at the base of the cake. So there is enough to do that if you want to.
The vanilla frosting makes enough for a lovely thick layer of creamy white frosting in the center which looks super cute.
If you want to make this vegan Oreo cake even easier and aren’t a massive fan of frosting, you could omit the vanilla frosting center and just use the chocolate buttercream for the whole cake, it would just be a thinner layer of it.
Are Oreos Vegan?
Yes they are. Their ingredient list is vegan. However, they are made in a factory that also processes non-vegan (dairy) items so if you have a serious dairy allergy, probably not for you as the possibility of cross contamination exists.
But this is similar to the possibility of cross contamination if you eat a vegan meal at a non-vegan restaurant. The possibility of cross contamination does not mean that the ingredient is IN the food, it means that if you have a serious life threatening allergy you should probably avoid it.
Read the ingredients list though as they might not be the same in every country.
If you are not an Oreo fan you can use a different kind of vegan sandwich cookie to make this cake.
Storing and Freezing
Keep your leftover cake covered and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days. Usually cakes would last a bit longer in the fridge, but this has to do with the oreo cookies – they’re at their best when consumed within 3 days of making the cake or they can start to get a little soggy. You want that lovely crisp cookie texture contrasting with the moist fluffiness of the chocolate cake.
The frosted cake can be frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and bring to room temperature on the countertop before serving.
Reasons To Love This Vegan Oreo Cake
- It’s like a giant Oreo cookie. It really is. It tastes like it and looks like it too!
- Mega-chocolatey. It’s two layers of decadently delicious chocolate cake with chocolate Oreos baked into it and a frosting of chocolate buttercream. It’s a chocolate lovers dream.
- Perfectly contrasted textures between cake, cookies and frosting. Seriously! You have this wonderfully moist, light, fluffy cake, crisp baked Oreo cookies, creamy vanilla frosting and silky smooth, creamy chocolate buttercream.
- It’s super easy! No really, it is. No fancy ingredients in this, it’s stuff you’ve likely already got in your pantry.
- It’s decadent as all heck! Seriously, you don’t even want to know the nutritional info for this cake. When doing the calculations here I suddenly understood why so many baking bloggers omit this info! But you know it’s going to be just soooo good.
More Vegan Chocolate Cakes
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Vegan German Chocolate Cake
- The Most Amazing Vegan Chocolate Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Oreo Cake
Ingredients
For the Oreo Cookie Layers:
- 42 Oreo Cookies
For the Vegan Chocolate Cake:
- 2 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour (281g)
- ¾ cup Cocoa Powder (63g) Unsweetened
- 1 ½ cups White Granulated Sugar (300g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ Flax Eggs 1 ½ Tablespoons Ground Flaxseed mixed with 4 ½ Tablespoons Hot Water
- 1 ½ cups Soy Milk (360ml) or other non-dairy milk
- 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Canola Oil (120ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 ½ Tablespoons Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
For the Vanilla Frosting Center:
- ¼ cup Vegan Butter (56g)
- 2 ½ cups Powdered Sugar (300g)
- 2 Tablespoons Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
For the Vegan Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- ¾ cup Vegan Butter (170g)
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
- ½ cup Cocoa Powder (42g) Unsweetened
- ¼ cup Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
For Decorating:
- 6 Oreo Cookies Crushed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Spray two 9-inch cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.
- Then place Oreo cookies along the bottom of the pans. I used 21 cookies in each pan. Set aside.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and then add the sugar, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing 1 ½ Tablespoons ground flaxseed meal with 4 ½ Tablespoons hot water from the kettle and leave it for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add in the soy milk, vanilla, oil, vinegar and flax eggs to the mixing bowl and mix in. Use a hand whisk briefly just to remove any lumps.
- Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans, pouring it over the Oreo cookies at the base of the cake pans and quickly smoothing it down so that it properly covers the Oreo cookies. The layer of batter is quite thin so you want to smooth it out to the edges of the pan so that the Oreos are all covered.
- Bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes and then remove them from the cake pans and place onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your vanilla frosting center by adding the vegan butter, powdered sugar, soy milk and vanilla extract to the bowl of a stand mixer and starting off at slow speed, gradually increase speed until thick and smooth. See my notes below about the soy milk, you might not need all of it, though I used it all. Set aside.
- Prepare your vegan chocolate buttercream frosting. Add the vegan butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, soy milk and vanilla to the bowl of the stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until thick and smooth. See the note about soy milk for the frosting in the notes below, it's possible you may not need to use all the soy milk, though I used the full amount.
- Place one of the cake layers, Oreo cookie side up, on a cake stand. Add all the vanilla frosting and smooth it evenly over the cake into a thick layer.
- Then place the second cake layer, Oreo cookie side down, on top of it. Frost the tops and sides of the cake with the chocolate buttercream. You can put it on thickly and there will still be a little left over for some piping detail if you want to add that.
- Crush up the 6 Oreos and decorate the cake with the cookie crumbles.
Notes
- When adding the soy milk to the frosting recipes, go slow. Some brands of vegan butter have a higher water content than others, it’s possible you may not need to use all the soy milk recommended. This is how much I used but different brands of vegan butter can have differences in their water content.
- Keep your leftover cake covered and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- It can be frozen for up to 2 months, but it’s best when fresh.
- This recipe has been updated, my original recipe did not use parchment paper along the bottoms of the pans, but we re-tested it and found it works great with parchment paper along the bottoms and lets the cakes come out really easily, with no impact on the crispiness of the cookies baked into the cake bases.
R says
Love it!
Alison Andrews says
Yay! Thanks so much for the awesome review. 🙂
Esther Duerinck says
I made this for my friend’s birthday and everyone loved it só much. It’s brilliant, Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
So glad you liked it! Thanks for the awesome review! 🙂
Elaine says
The recipe says use olive oil in the ingredient listing, is that correct? Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Yes I used olive oil but as stated in the notes you can switch for a different oil if you like. 🙂
Rita Vasconcellos says
Hello, I’ve tried your Classic vegan chocolate cake an it’s amazing, but I’m having some problems with the frosting, it doesn’t get as thick as shown on your pictures. I’ve added more icing sugar but it seems not to work. Do you have any tips? I´m going to try to make this cake tomorrow. Thank you.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Rita, add the non-dairy milk slowly, you can likely use less of it. I would guess that your vegan butter has a higher water content, so you will need less non-dairy milk and this way will be able to have the right consistency. 🙂
Rita Vasconcellos says
Thank you! I’ll try this cake tomorrow and let you know how it turned out. Thank you Rita
Erin Goforth says
Can you make this the day before and keep it in the fridge?
erin
Alison Andrews says
Sure! 🙂
Gwenn Sanfilippo says
Love all your cake recipes. We have been using them for years now since we became a vegan household! Trying this one for the first time tomorrow and I know it will be delish.
My question is, do you know how it will freeze? Not looking to freeze long term. Its an outdoor park party with no refrigerator. So looking to freeze the frosted cake overnight just so it can be cold enough when its taken to the outdoor venue.
Any thoughts? Thanks so much!!!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Gwenn! So happy you’ve been enjoying the cake recipes! I think it would be fine to freeze it. All the best! 🙂
Britt Petré says
Hey I was wondering if you have any tips on how to make this recipe glutenfree? Tried making the funfetti cake glutenfree according to the tips you gave in the comments and it was perfect!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Britt! The issue is the oreos themselves that are not gluten-free. If you have a gluten-free sandwich cookie that you can use instead then just use a gluten-free all purpose baking blend instead of the regular flour and increase the oil by 1/4 cup. I think that would likely be sufficient for this recipe. Let us know how it goes if you try it. 🙂
Rutuja says
This recipe seems to be awesome. I will definitely try it.
Can the baked cake be stored in refrigerator for a day before frosting is to be done?
Alison Andrews says
Sure! Just make sure it’s covered so it doesn’t dry out. 🙂
Rachael says
I have just made this cake for the first time. Wow!!!! It’s absolutely gorgeous. ??
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear you liked it, thanks for the great review! 🙂
Michelle says
WOW!! This cake is soooo yummy
Alessia says
Hi! Can’t wait to try this recipe. But I was wondering, is there any other alternative to flaxseed? Thank you very much.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Alessia, sure you can replace the flax eggs with 5 Tbsp applesauce. Hope that helps! xo
Sara says
I made this cake for my daughter’s birthday. It’s so good!!!! I did have a bit of trouble getting the cakes to release from the pans. I ended up having to slam them upside down on the counter to get them out. Some of the oreos stuck, but I was able to scrape them out and get everything pieced back together! I will definitely make this cake again but will use parchment paper next time since the oil didn’t do the job.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Sara! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! And thanks for sharing, parchment paper may be the way forward for this recipe, I will re-test it as well. Thanks so much for the awesome review! 🙂
Isabella says
I can’t find vegan butter in Namibia. Could I use margarine instead or can I use the butter that you make, will that be ok for this? Thanks a mill! Love your recipes!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Isabella, margarine is totally fine. You can use the homemade vegan butter but I don’t love it for frostings as it is based on coconut oil so it gets very soft at room temperature and very solid in the fridge, which is less ideal for frostings. All the best! 🙂
Isabella says
Awesome, thanks a mill!
Ali says
I’m going to make this for my daughter’s birthday. It looks amazing! How is it cutting into the cake? I’m wondering if mini Oreo cookies would make the cake cutting easier?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Ali, as long as your knife is sharp it isn’t too difficult to cut the cake. You can use mini oreos if you prefer, but I don’t know if it would make a difference with cutting the cake. All the best and hope everything goes well! 🙂
Ali says
Thanks for the quick response, Alison. I just finished making this decadent cake and used regular-sized Oreo cookies. Have to wait several more hours before we can eat it, though! It looks so delicious!!
Alison Andrews says
Wonderful! 🙂
Anna Andrews says
Awesome, chocolatey, moist and oh so decadent!
Alison Andrews says
Thanks Anna! 🙂