Garden Party Cake (dirt cake) is three layers of moist chocolate cake, accented with melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Cremeux, frosted with Whipped Oreo Frosting, and garnished with bright, elegant fresh flowers, piped cream, and crushed Oreo cookies.
Garden Party Cake is an elevated version of the childhood dessert classic, dirt cake. As a little girl, my mouth watered just watching the flowerpot of crushed Oreos, chocolate pudding, and whipped topping head my way! With any luck, it was served with a little shovel instead of a spoon. The garnishes were gummy worms or frogs pretending to squirm out of the Oreo soil. And I couldn’t get enough of the whole experience!
Adults and children alike find that Garden Party Cake stirs anticipation with its chocolate decadence and floral sophistication. But for any little person with an underappreciation of the elegant floral garnish, I recommend adding gummy worms on a slice-by-slice basis.
Flower Varieties to Garnish Your Garden Party Cake (dirt cake)
All of the bright, fresh blooms in the yard are tempting to snip for garnish. But be careful! Only a select few varieties are safe for eating. And if they’re not safe for eating, they shouldn’t come into contact with your cake!
Some great-for-garnish varieties include:
- Pansy
- English Daisy (chamomile)
- Hibisicus
- Dandilion
- Lilac
- Rose petal
- Marigold
- Chive blossom
- Dill blossom
- Lavender
Why Pansies are Perfect
Also, remember that no matter the variety of bloom you choose, they should be clean and free of pesticides. Blooms on plants just purchased from the garden store or on cut flowers from the florist may have been sprayed and should be avoided for food use (unless stated to be organic). The pansies pictured had been growing at my house for months pesticide free.
Pansies are also the perfect garnish because even their leaves and stems are tender and edible. I’m comfortable with any part of the leaves, stem, or bloom nestled into my cake, salad, etc. This is not the case with, for instance, roses that have woody and thorny stems that bakers want to avoid. That being said, I don’t actually intend to eat floral garnishes.
Also, the pansies pressed into the cake stay fresh for a couple of days without transferring flavor into the cake. Pansies are a very mild-flavored flower. They have the faintest of floral notes that won’t impact the flavor of the cake. A flower such as a dandelion or a dill blossom should only be added at serving time to get all of the beauty without unwanted flavor mingling.
Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Garden Party (dirt cake)
- Bake the chocolate cake, prepare the chocolate cremeaux, and crush the cookies the day before. Then, cake components will be chilled and ready for a smooth assembly!
- Make sure to prep those cake pans before pouring in the batter! This ensures each layer releases beautifully from the pan.
- For the most uniform layers and even baking, use a food scale to measure the weight of batter in each cake pan before baking.
- Crush the Oreos into small pieces so the frosting goes on smoothly. However, make sure the Oreos are still in small pieces, rather than ground too fine. Grinding the cookies too fine can cause the frosting to look grey instead of speckled with dark cookie bits.
- Use a kitchen thermometer to ensure the proper temperature of the chocolate cremeaux custard. If you don’t have a thermometer, make sure the mixture is steaming and coats the back of a spoon well.
- While mixing the Whipped Oreo Frosting, scrape down the sides of the bowl often with a spatula to ensure a smooth frosting without residual bits of unblended cream cheese.
Garden Party Cake (dirt cake)
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- ¾ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup coffee, hot or warm
Chocolate Cremeux
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup milk
- ¾ cup cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1⅓ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Oreo Whipped Frosting
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 2½ cups cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 40 Oreos, crushed
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or just a large bowl if you're using a hand mixer), combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low until fully blended
- In a separate bowl, combine eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla.
- With mixer on, pour liquid into dry ingredients and mix gently until smooth. Slowly pour in hot/warm coffee while mixer continues.
- Pour an even amount of batter into three prepared cake pans (wax/parchment and shortening or other method as preferred). Bake at 300°F for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool cakes for about 5 minutes after removing from the oven. Run a plastic knife quickly around the edges of each cake pan to help release the cake.
- Turn the first cake layer onto a parchment paper covered plate. (Trim any dome off of the cake so layers will stack without cracking.) Do this with the second cake layer and stack parchment/cake on top of first layer. Do the same with the third layer and cover cake with cake carrier lid until cool. Then refrigerate until ready to assemble Garden Party Cake.
- To assemble, spread 1/2 of chilled Chocolate Cremeux over the first layer of cake. Top with a thin layer of Oreo Whipped Frosting. Repeat.
- Frost the top and outsides of the cake with Oreo Whipped Frosting. Garnish with remaining frosting, remaining Oreos, and edible flowers as desired.
Chocolate Cremeux
- Pour chocolate chips in a medium, heat-resistant bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and salt until smooth.
- Heat mixture over medium-low while slowly whisking in milk, cream, and vanilla.
- Continue whisking until the mixture reaches 165°F-170°F.
- Pour hot custard over chocolate chips and set for 1-2 minutes to allow the chocolate chips to soften. Stir mixture until smooth. Then, use an immersion blender to emulsify until the mixture lightens in color.
- Cover and cool mixture and then refrigerate until ready to use.
Oreo Whipped Frosting
- In an electric mixer with whisk attachment, fully incorporate sugar and cream cheese.
- Add vanilla to cream. While beating at a medium speed, pour the vanilla cream mixture in a slow stream, stopping often to scrape down the sides.
- Whip until light, fluffy, and spreadable. Remove any frosting you may want to pipe for garnish at this time and place in a piping bag. Then stir 3 cups of chopped Oreos into the frosting (reserve the remainder of the Oreo crumbs for garnish, if desired, or stir those into the frosting as well).
