Best Ever Vegan Oreo Cake
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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:
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!
Best Ever Vegan Oreo Cake
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 35
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 16 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
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
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
- 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.
- 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).
- Whisk the dry ingredients: in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, arrowroot starch, and baking powder. Set aside.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Slice and enjoy!
Absolutely delicious – the best Oreo cake around! Thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
So happy you loved it!! Thanks so much for trying it out!
Question, if I’m going to make a cake flour, which is all purpose sifted together with cornstarch, do I still need the 1 tbsp arrowroot or cornstarch in the recipe? Or do you think it would be better if I just used all purpose and didn’t make cake flour?
Hi Chelsea! No you don’t need to add in the cornstarch if you’re already using cake flour! You can use either AP and cornstarch or just cake flour! Either works well 🙂
This cake is sooooo gorgeous! Thankfully mine was not nearly as pretty otherwise I wouldn’t have wanted to ruin it! But let’s be real, I wouldn’t have been able to resist 😂My whole family LOVED this cake. It’s like cookies n cream in cake form. Unbelievably scrumptious! 😊HIGHLY RECOMMEND
Aw this is so wonderful!! So glad to hear it turned out 🙂 Enjoy!
This looks mind blowingly delicious, I cannot wait to try this! For the vegan butter in both the cake and the icing, would I be able to replace this with coconut oil instead and still maintain a good texture? Where I’m living doesn’t offer vegan substitutes like butter/ dairy-free margarine so I’m trying to think of alternatives.
Hi Lauren! Aw I’m so happy to hear it! So for this recipe, you CAN use coconut oil, but it won’t yield quite the same texture (and will have a bit of a coconut flavor!). It will still taste delicious, but you’ll notice the coconut flavor definitely!
this cake looks yummy! could I use something else like potato starch or tapioca starch in place of corn starch or arrowroot starch?
Hi Reanna! Tapioca is a bit stronger than cornstarch and arrowroot starch- I would reduce it to a 1/3 of the amount of cornstarch needed if you use tapioca!
Can I substitute the butter for apple sauce in the cake?
Hi Amy! I haven’t tried this cake yet as an oil-free cake. Typically, you can sub in applesauce for vegan butter, but I can’t guarantee the results personally!
I’m excited to try this for my little girl’s birthday party tomorrow. I will be using bobs red mill 1to 1 baking flour. Can I make this the night before and the texture of the cake still turn out good the next day? If so, should I wait to put frosting on the morning of and should the cake be refrigerated or kept at room temp and covered with plastic wrap?
Aw wonderful!! Yes, you can definitely make it the night before! Just be sure to allow it to cool at room temperature before covering it. That way it won’t bee too moist. Then you can frost it in the morning (I would recommend chilling the cake in the fridge after frosting- if you’ve fully covered the cake in frosting, then you dont need to cover it, as the buttercream will act as an insulator). Enjoy!!
Should I store it in the fridge overnight or leave it out but covered?
You can leave the cake out but covered if unfrosted- if you’ve frosted it, you can store it in the fridge!
Hi!! I am so excited, I made the cake.. but wanted to also make cupcakes? Is this easily transferable to make? Thanks !
Aw wonderful! You can easily make this into a cupcake recipe! I would cut the recipe in half though, unless you need about 2 dozen cupcakes 🙂
Thank you so much!! I don’t have social media, but I jist have to say.. the cake is on point. I love it. Thank you 🙌
So happy to hear it!! Thank you for the review 🙂 Enjoy!!
This looks amazing! This would work as cake pops right?
Absolutely! Hope you enjoy 🙂
Hi! Sort of last minute, but I’m at the baking step and realized I don’t know how long to bake if I’m using two 9″ pans. Do you have a recommendation?
Thanks!
Michelle
Hi Michelle! Not a problem! The cakes should bake for about 20-22 minutes, but start checking on them by using the oven light around 18 minutes!
Does this recipe work for cupcakes??
Never mind!! Found the answer in a previous comment 💜
Another question! I am planning on using this recipe for my daughters birthday, but we have friends/family who are vegan, no gluten, diabetic. Is this cake gluten free and low carb??
Hi Kristin! This cake can be made gluten free but it is not low carb- I’m so sorry!
No worries! Thank you! Any suggestions on making it gluten free?
Yes! I use bob’s red mill gluten free 1:1 baking flour (in the blue bag)- it really works great here!
Hi!
Any suggestions as to what to substitute the applesauce with ?
Thanks in advance:)
Yes absolutely!! You can swap in dairy free yogurt in an equal amount 🙂
Hi! I can’t find vegan buttermilk where I live. Can you recommend a good substitute?
Hi Kaleigh! You can easily make buttermilk with dairy free milk and a tbsp of vinegar 🙂 Check out my post here on it! https://thebananadiaries.com/vegan-buttermilk-recipe/
Can’t wait to try this cake! Making it for my husbands birthday this weekend. Can I make this a couple days before eating? Or should it be just one day before? Thanks!
Hi Brittany! Aw that’s wonderful!! I would recommend making it a day before for optimal freshness 🙂
You didn’t list apple cider vinegar in the ingredients list. So I don’t know how much to use!!!! Help!
1 tbsp works! It’s a part of my vegan buttermilk recipe!
Hello! Maybe a dumb question, but when I’m crushing the Oreo cookies, do I keep the icing on the cookie, or do I remove it?
Thanks I’m advance!
Not a dumb question at all!! I keep it on 🙂
Hello! This looks delicious! I’m planning on making this recipe for my son’s birthday party. Do you suppose it could be converted into a 9×13 pyrex dish? if so, what changes should I make?
Thank you!
Oh absolutely! You can certainly bake it in that, but know that glass will bake a bit differently. I would keep an eye on the cake around 30 minutes into baking!
hello! do i use all purpose flour for this recipe? i dont know what baking flour is in greece its a bit different!
Hi Sofia! Yes, you can use all purpose flour. That works!
What a delicious recipe! My entire family enjoyed this cake. I can’t wait to try more of your recipes. Thank you!
I want to make this recipe in two 4inch pans, 2 inch deep each pan. How long should I cook it for?
TIA!
Hi there! Are you going to reduce the recipe at all? You’ll have quite a bit of cake if you don’t (and way more than what 4 inch cake pans can hold if that’s okay!)! If you’re reducing the recipe to do two 4″ cake pans, it will probably bake for 18-20 minutes- but I would turn the oven light on around the 15 minute mark to see where it is!
Thank you for the advice on 4″ cake pan. one other question – should the cake batter be smooth? mine is a bit lumpy 🙁 . It’s not watery or too thick – just lumpy
It’s okay if the cake batter is a bit lumpy- as long as those lumps aren’t FULL of flour, it should still bake fine!
Hi!! Please help! My butter & sugar mixture is not creaming together with the applesauce & vanilla extract, it’s looking very separated. Is that because my butter was still too cold or is that a normal consistency? TIA!!
Hi Andrea! So sorry for this! It’s totally fine though, this sometimes happens with applesauce- it should still bake really well and still be delicious! Please let me know how it came out!
Wow! This is the first time I’ve seen a vegan baking recipe and thought “I recognize those ingredients and I can make that!” Thank you for making an “easy” recipe for recent converts (I mean something without aquafaba, flax eggs, almond flour, or other “advanced” ingredients). I’m all about “cheating” with crushed oreos as a beginner-friendly recipe!
I’m so happy to hear this!! That’s exactly why I do what I do! I want people to not feel intimidated by these recipes, because really vegan baking is easy (and even easier than regular baking in my opinion!). So glad you’re here 🙂
Can’t wait to make this! Is it possible to skip the vanilla extract or substitute something to make the cake chocolate instead?
Hi Allison! You can actually use my vegan chocolate cake recipe here, and fold in the crushed Oreos amount to that batter instead! 🙂
Excited to make this for my birthday! The “see note” next to the granulated sugar in the cake recipe, am I missing it? Also, 3-8 inch pans are mentioned in post but 2 in recipe. I can use 3? Whole cookies (crushed) go in the cake but scrape icing out and blitz cookie wafers only for icing? Just making sure! Thank you!
Hi Erica!! Oh wonderful!! I’m so sorry about the confusion on that- for whatever reason, the coding glitched and isn’t showing the notes section! Will have that updated shortly! But for the sugar, the note is just that if you want it to be refined sugar free using coconut sugar, the cake will be more caramel in color and flavor- still delicious but it won’t look like the photos!
For the pans, yes you can use 3 pans! The baking time will be slightly less for 3 8″ pans vs 2 8″ pans 🙂 And yes, you’ll crush the cookies first, then integrate them into the batter. For the frosting, I find the frosting is more spreadable with just the cookie wafers, but for ease of the recipe, if you want to leave the cookies whole, you can! It will still spread, just is a bit easier without the extra frosting in the cookies 🙂
If you were to make cupcakes out of this recipe (the standard size?), how long would you bake it for? Cupcakes seems easier to transport and eat than leaving half a cake in the fridge. Thank you!
Absolutely, and so understandable- I agree 😉 They’ll bake for about 18-22 minutes, but use a toothpick to check!
Hi, this looks amazing and planning to make it tomorrow for a birthday. Could I just double check the grams for the 1/2 cup salted butter in the cake is 113g as the gram measurement is not mentioned and I saw gram measurements in your other cake recipes which showed 113g. Also 2 cups of butter in the buttercream would then be 452grams? Im not too sure how many grams the powdered sugar is however, do you have the grams for this? Thank you so much
Hi Deb! Oh wonderful!! Yes, 1/2 cup of vegan butter is 113 g, and correct, 2 cups would then be 452 g 🙂 Enjoy!
Thank you for this recipe! If I am making this for someone who has an apple allergy, is there another ingredient I can use in place of the applesauce?
Hi Cara! Yes absolutely! You can use dairy free yogurt- cashew based, almond based, soy or coconut based all work great! Enjoy!!
Would real butter and buttermilk work? I try to stay away from eggs but am not super apposed to dairy.
I made this for my daughter’s birthday and everyone LOVED IT. I made a cake and made them into cupcakes as well and a lot of her friends asked for extra cupcakes! My only suggestion to anyone else making this is – make extra ! They freeze really well too. Just perfect recipe. My favorite part was the amount of Oreo cookies in the batter I’ve tried other recipes and they’re mostly like a vanilla cake with Oreo frosting. This had a distinct Oreo flavor. Needless to say I will be making this multiple times
So excited to test his recipe. Just wondering what the metric measurement is for the butter as it is only listed in cups!
Oh so sorry for the confusion, I’m not sure why it’s not showing up, but I’m manually entering it in and overriding the conversion! 113 g 🙂
Hi! I made this cake a few months and am going to make it again, everyone loved it and it has been requested for a friends birthday. My one problem/question- how do I get my icing to not be so stiff?? I have had this problem on other recipes. Not sure if living in Denver has anything to do with it, but its stiff! and impossible to pipe; more butter and less sugar?? Thanks in advance!
That’s so wonderful, I’m so glad to hear everyone loved it!! For the icing, I’m not sure why it got so thick- I’ve never baked at an elevation so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but if it happens again, you can safely add in 1 tbsp of dairy free milk at a time until you reach the desired consistency 🙂 You can also omit 1/2-1 cup of powdered sugar if you’d like to make it slightly less sweet! Hope that helps!
Hi!!
I’m the mom with a 2 yro who is anaphylactic and has 9 allergies. I’ve commented on a few recipes.
Your website is my go to when I have to organize a party or bake.
I’m making this tomorrow for his older brother’s birthday so he can enjoy the cake too. I am blindly confident that I will be awesome!!!
Oh my goodness you’re so kind!! So sorry to hear about the allergies- I know it can be so difficult and stressful, but I’m so glad these recipes have been able to help. Cannot wait to hear how the cake turns out, definitely let me know, and enjoy!
Hi!
What an amazing recipe! And what a gorgeous cake! 🥰
I want to make it but I was thinking about making a 18 x 26 cm. two-layer cake.
I’m going to double the ingredients and I’ll keep an eye on the oven while the pans are inside. Any suggestion?
Thanks in advance.
Regards from the Canary Islands, Spain. 😘
Great recipe!! I made my cousins birthday cake using this recipe! The cake was great- the only issue was that I overmixed the batter which made the cake a bit denser than ideal cake. But besides that, the flavor was awesome!! And it turned out really pretty! The other issue was that I baked it before a long distance drive camping and the frosting melted a teeny tiny bit.
The photo doesn’t do it justice because we took all the pictures outside at midnight but you can kind of see the cake. Lol. Everyone enjoyed it!
Omgsh it’s beautiful!! So so happy you all loved, and honestly it looks amazing (that’s so sweet you made her a birthday cake AND drove it long distance!! It looks amazing!). Thank you so much for the review 🙂 Enjoy!!
Hi Britt! I’m so excited to bake this cake for my birthday, but I’ve looked everywhere and unsweetened apple sauce is impossible to find in my city. Should I reduce the sugar content a wee bit to make up for that?
Oh it’s okay!! Can you use dairy free yogurt by chance? That would be the next best option! Otherwise, depending on the applesauce brand, you can reduce the sugar content to 1 cup instead of 1 1/4 cup!
Ah yes I do have access to plain dairy free yogurt! Thanks! 🙂
Fantastic!! Can’t wait to hear how it comes 🙂 Enjoy!!
the cake turned out amazing, and all of my non-vegan friends absolutely loved it!💗
Omgsh how beautiful!! I love the frosting!! Happy happy birthday 🙂 and thank you for the review!! Enjoy!!
I’ve only been able to taste some scraps left over from leveling the layers (i made it for my oreo-loving boyfriends birthday tomorrow) but it was easy to make and fun to decorate and i know it’s gonna be good! i’ve made many of your recipes and they never disappoint! 🙂
Oh my gosh!! This is so beautiful, I’m so so happy you all loved it (and so sweet you made this for your boyfriend’s birthday!!). What a treat!! Thank you so much for the kind review 🙂 And enjoy!!