and on the snow day, we bake

 The latest dumping of snow left me with yet another a day off from school and I felt compelled to crank up the oven, toast my house and lick some batter off of a spoon (one of these days my Mommy Dearest will be proven right and I will get salmonella but I am willing to risk it). Inspired by the ever trendy shade of "winter sludge grey" that was piling up outside my windows from the plows, I decided to work on a dark chocolate cake with bright white frosting while trying to replicate that Oreo® taste.

Basically, the filling of an Oreo® is sweet without a defining flavor, not even much vanilla, and the cookie is very dark with little else than cocoa powder and sugar. I knew it would take a rich cocoa powder and plenty of it to replicate the color. After much trial and error, this is the most similarly tasty version without sacrificing moisture, a problem that chocolate cakes often present.

Oreo Cake

Yield: 24 cupcakes, 1 two or three layered cake

INGREDIENTS
cake
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
2 C all-purpose flour
1 C cocoa powder love my Hershey's® Special Dark, it really created the Oreo® taste
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
2 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 C butter milk any fat content, I made my own with skim milk
3/4 C butter, melted and cooled
1 C boiling water

frosting
3 C confectioners' sugar
3/4 C shortening (not butter)
1/2 T vanilla
2 T milk
crushed Oreos® optional
DIRECTIONS
cake
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Fill two standard sized 12-space cupcake tins with liners. If making cake, you can either grease two 9-inch cake pans or three 8-inch cake pans.
1. Combine dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Whisk (do not use an electric mixer) in all wet ingredients except boiling water until just combined.
3. Stir in boiling water, batter will be thin.
4. Pour batter into tins or pans. For cupcakes, bake for 20-25 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. For cake, bake for 30-35 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before removing to frost.

frosting
1. Beat shortening, with electric mixer.
2. Slowly add confectioners' sugar until combined.
3. Beat in vanilla and milk.
4. Spread frosting over cooled cake and sprinkle with crushed cookies if you desire.

Nutrition (per 1 cupcake or 1/24): 283 cal, 12g fat, 106mg sod, 41g carb, 31g sugar, 1g fiber, 2g protein