Peanut Butter Oreo Cake

Brian requested a Peanut Butter Oreo cake for his birthday in April. I didn't want it to be sweetness overkill(how could it not be?) so I searched long and hard for a recipe. I ended up combining multiple recipes to make this cake come to life.

I adapted the cake recipe from Dozen Flours:

Oreo Cake
adapted from Cake Mix Doctor

Cake
18 full-sized Oreos or one 8oz package of mini Oreos or 2 1/4 cups of chocolate cookie crumbs
1 package (18oz) of white cake mix WITH pudding in the mix
1 cup water (room temperature)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs, at room temperature

Cake
Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray two 9" cake pans with Pam for baking or grease with shortening and dust evenly with flour, tapping out the excess. Set the pans aside.

Grind the cookies in a food processor and process them until you have a fine crumb. If you don't

have a food processor, you can put the cookies in a zip-lock style bag, squeeze all the air out, and crush them using the bottom of pot or a rolling pin. You'll need 2 1/4 cups of crumbs total. If you have more than this, set them aside to use to decorate the cake (if desired). Set aside.

Place the cake mix, water, eggs, and oil in a large mixing bowl and mix on low speed for 1 minute and scrape the bowl and blade. Increase the speed to medium and mix for another 2 minutes and scrape the bowl and blade. The batter should look evenly colored. Add the cookie crumbs and mix on low for 15 seconds or so until all the crumbs look evenly distributed.

Pour the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops. Bake both pans in the oven, side by side, and bake about 25-30 minutes until a cake tester in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans and invert onto the rack. Then invert each cake again so they continue to cool right-side-up. Allow to cook completely 30 minutes more.

Peanut butter frosting(for between the layers) taken from RecipeZaar:

Ingredients
1 cup butter (softened to room temperature)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions
Cream butter and peanut butter together. Then, add half the powdered sugar and blend.
Blend in milk and vanilla. Add remaining powdered sugar. Stir until smooth and well blended.**

Assembly
Slice each cake horizontally (if desired) so you have 4 layers of cake. Place a little bit of frosting on the bottom of your cake plate (this will act like glue and hold the cake in place). Place one of the cake slices cut side up on the plate. Top with peanut butter frosting and smooth to about 1/2 from the edge. Repeat the process with the remaining 3 layers. Then I used whipped milk chocolate frosting(store bought, gasp!) to frost the top and side of the cake. I cut several Oreos in half and decorated the top with them...and several candles(31 to be exact)!

**I doubled this recipe for the filling...WAYYYYYYY to much frosting. I wouldn't have used all the frosting had I just done a single batch. My roommates dogs were very happy to eat it up, though.