This vegan Oreo cake is the epitome of decadence: a delicious vegan cake filled with crushed cookies n’ cream, and coated in an easy yet amazing dairy free Oreo buttercream frosting! This will be your favorite Oreo cake, vegan or not!

BEST Vegan Oreo Cake (Gluten Free Option!)

Why you’ll love this vegan Oreo cake:

A few weeks ago, we had a debate on my Instagram as to whether cookie dough or cookies and cream was the better flavor. Since I already have a brownie cookie dough cake, I thought how cool would it be to make an Oreo cake too (and satisfy all of my cookies n’ cream loving readers!).

If you love cookies n’ cream flavors or Oreos in general (you must try my Oreo brownies stat!), then this vegan Oreo cake is about to become your new favorite!

It’s based off of my vegan vanilla cake recipe (that’s a favorite vegan cake recipe for everyone, vegan or not!), filled with crushed chocolate creme filled cookies, and layered with a decadent Oreo buttercream frosting that you could eat by itself.

This vegan Oreo cake is the epitome of chocolatey decadence, and will have both kids and adults in aw and going back for seconds…and thirds!

Plus, this Oreo cake is so freaking easy and fun to make! It’s perfect for birthdays, graduations, baby showers, weddings, and more.

slice of vegan Oreo cake

Are Oreos vegan?

You might not know this, but Oreos are technically considered vegan! According to Oreo’s website, Oreos don’t contain any animal-derived ingredients:

SUGAR, UNBLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), PALM AND/OR CANOLA OIL, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA AND/OR CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), SALT, SOY LECITHIN, CHOCOLATE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.
CONTAINS: WHEAT, SOY.

That being said, they are produced in a factory that has the risk of cross-contamination with dairy. However, PETA did make a statement that they say not to worry too much, if it isn’t an allergy. That being said, if you have a dairy allergy, then it’s safest to use another plant-based vegan chocolate creme cookie. And if you’re gluten free, there are gluten free Oreos available.

For this cake, I actually didn’t use Oreo- I used Back To Nature Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches. I picked these up at Whole Foods, but I know they’re also sold at Stop n’ Shop, Giant, and others. I also have a vegan Oreo cookie recipe on the blog, but to save some time, I just purchased the cookies.

sliced oreo cake

Overview: How to make a vegan Oreo cake?

Now let’s go over how to make this Oreo cake! It’s super easy and straight forward, and you actually have two different options: using a stand mixer or mixing by hand!

The full instructions, as well as ingredient measurements, are found down below in the recipe card at the bottom of this post. But as always, I want to go over a few tips and tricks.

Prep: I’ve given both gram measurements and cup measurements below in the recipe card. If you use the gram measurements, you will yield the most accurate results. However, I baked for years just using cups, and this is how I got consistent results: spoon and level your flour. It is SO easy to over scoop the flour if you’re using cups. In fact, my biggest tip is DO NOT scoop the cup into the flour.

Use a spoon to spoon the flour and then level it off with a butter knife. This will yield about 125~ grams of flour per cup.

cookies n cream cake batter
vegan cookies n cream cake batter
unbaked vegan oreo cake

The next tip is to blitz the Oreo cookies in a food processor. This is the easiest way to make the Oreos into almost a flour for the cake. Now there’s a difference between the crushed Oreos we use for the cake and the crushed Oreos for the frosting. For the cake, it’s fine to have a few bigger pieces of cookie. This will make the cake taste amazing!

For the buttercream frosting, which we’ll get to below, it’s best to have a near cookie “flour” so that you can easily frost the cake. You’ll do this be removing the inner cream of the Oreos (which you can then cream into the frosting before you add in the crumbs), then blitz the Oreos into a fine crumb.

When folding the Oreos into the cake batter: I recommend not mixing the flour completely into the wet ingredients before folding in the Oreo crumb. This will help prevent over mixing the batter, which would then reduce how high these cakes rise.

Another important note: please please please make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature, especially the applesauce and vegan buttermilk! This will help your cake be so tender and moist, and prevent any gumminess in texture. Make sure to give yourself a few hours for the ingredients to come to room temperature.

For this cake, I used three 8″ cake pans, but you can also use three 6″ cake pans or even two 9″ cake pans. The 9″ cakes will definitely be thinner but still delicious.

sliced cookies n cream cake on cake stand

Vegan cookies and cream frosting

This is one of my all time favorite vegan frostings that I’ve made. I have a vegan vanilla buttercream frosting and a vegan chocolate frosting that I use for most of my cakes. But I really wanted to make this vegan Oreo cake all out!

The base of this Oreo buttercream is essentially a standard dairy free buttercream. You’ll need vegan butter and powdered sugar (make sure that your powdered sugar is also considered vegan).

oreo frosting

Then the trick to this frosting is crushing the cookie sandwiches to be nearly a flour. Unlike the cake, where we can have a few pieces of bigger cookie, we really want these cookies to be nearly a flour, as this will be much easier to frost the cake then.

I use a small food processor to achieve a cookie “flour” but a high speed blender works as well.

Cake decorating tips

If you’ve made a Banana Diaries cake before, then you know that my favorite part of the process is decorating! You can decorated this vegan cookies n’ cream cake however you’d like. I wanted to top mine with my vegan ganache and reserved a bit of buttercream before I added in the crushed Oreo for piping decoration.

For the piping, I used a Wilton 4B Tip. Then, of course, we need more Oreo cookies for our vegan Oreo cake! Add a few on top and you’re good to go!

You can also lightly pressed some crushed Oreo cookies onto the side of the cake, or even add sprinkles.

My favorite tools of decorating layer cakes are:

  • cake turntable
  • offset spatula
  • bench scraper
  • piping bag and tip

Make sure that as you’re decorating your cake, don’t be afraid to put it back into the fridge to chill and set. This will make sure that your cake doesn’t soften too much and slip onto the floor.

slices of Oreo cake on plates

I hope you love this vegan Oreo cake as much as I do! If you make this cake, be sure to leave a comment down below, as well as a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others may find it!

As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!

Happy Oreo cake baking!

More vegan cake recipes:

Vegan Black Forest Gateau

Best Vegan Chocolate Cake

Easy Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake

My Favorite Vegan Coconut Cake

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

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slice of vegan Oreo cake

Best Ever Vegan Oreo Cake

★★★★★ 5 from 5 reviews
  • Author: thebananadiaries
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 35
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 16 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan
Print Recipe

Description

This vegan Oreo cake is the epitome of decadence: a delicious vegan cake filled with crushed cookies n’ cream, and coated in an easy yet amazing dairy free Oreo buttercream frosting! This will be your favorite Oreo cake, vegan or not!

Ingredients

Units Scale

Oreo Cake:

  • 1 1/2 cup (329 grams or mL) vegan buttermilk, room temperature
  • 3 1/2 cups (425 grams) flour or gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour, sifted
  • 1 tbsp arrowroot starch or cornstarch
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 1/4 cup (250 grams) granulated sugar or coconut sugar (see Note)
  • 1/2 cup salted vegan butter, room temperature
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup (190) unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups (155 grams or 12 cookie sandwiches) plant based chocolate creme sandwiches, ground into almost a flour

Vegan Oreo Buttercream:

  • 2 cups vegan butter, room temperature
  • 6–8 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups (155 grams or 12 cookie sandwiches) plant based chocolate creme sandwiches, ground into almost a flour
  • Toppings: more cookie sandwiches, vegan ganache

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease two 8″ or three 6″ cake pans cooking oil or vegan butter and line with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Gather and measure your ingredients: Make sure that everything is weighed and measured out before beginning. Prepare the vegan buttermilk by combining the dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl. Let the mixture sit for 5-6 minutes (you can begin with the dry mixture while this sits).
  3. Whisk the dry ingredients: in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, arrowroot starch, and baking powder. Set aside.
  4. Make the batter: in a large bowl with hand mixer or using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together on high speed the vegan butter and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add in the applesauce and vanilla extract and cream together again until mixed on medium speed. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl as well to ensure the vegan butter mixture is incorporated. Add in half the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, along with half of the vegan buttermilk,  and beat together on medium speed until the dry is almost incorporated. Add in the remaining flour and buttermilk, and mix until incorporated. Then add in the crumbled cookie sandwiches and use a rubber spatula to fold into the batter.
  5. Bake the cake: divide the batter amongst the cake pans evenly, and bake. For two 8″ cakes, it will take about 32-35 minutes; for three 6″ cakes, it will take about 27-30 minutes.
  6. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then carefully transfer the cakes to a cooling rack to fully cool before frosting.
  7. Make the vegan Oreo buttercream frosting: once ready to frost, you can add the vegan butter to a stand mixer with whisk attachment or large bowl with a hand mixer. Cream the vegan butter until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Then sift in 2 cups of powdered sugar, and mix again until incorporated. Keep adding in the powdered sugar 1-2 cups at a time, and mixing until incorporated. Then add in the crushed cookie sandwiches and cream together until incorporated. 
  8. Assemble the cake: Frost about 1/2-3/4 cup frosting onto the first layer of the cake and place the second layer on top. Use the remaining frosting to frost the outside of the cake. Decorate with vegan ganache if desired and more cookie sandwiches. 
  9. Slice and enjoy!

Keywords: vegan Oreo cake, vegan cookies n’ cream cake, cookies and cream cake