Mint Oreo Cake {A Scratch Recipe}

This delicious Mint Oreo Cake is SO good, with mint Oreo cake layers, rich ganache, and mint buttercream frosting.

The result is a super moist, flavorful cake which is sure to please, whether you need a great birthday cake, or just craving something delicious to share with family and friends. 

Why We Love It

• Chocolate and Mint are the perfect combination! Check out our Mint Chocolate Chip Cake, Peppermint Patty Cake and Peppermint Mocha Cake as well!
• Moist, tender cake thanks to the buttermilk in the recipe.
• Easy ganache glaze adds a bit of drama and makes it feel even more special!

How to Make a Mint Oreo Cake

*You can find the full, printable cake recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!

Preheat the oven 350 degrees F, grease and flour three 8×2 inch round pans. We like to also add a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of each pan.

Crush the Mint Oreos- I placed them in a ziplock bag and crushed with a rolling pin but you can use a food processor if you'd rather, for finer crumbs.

Next, in a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) for 30 seconds. Set aside

In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients: buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract.  Set aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Slowly add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for three to five minutes until lightened and fluffy. (If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment).

Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears. Add a bit of green coloring gel if you'd like!

Next, with the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Mix after the last addition, just until combined.

Next, fold in the crushed Mint Oreos.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and divide the cake batter between the three prepared cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. *If baking in 9 inch pans, bake 25-30 minutes. Let cool in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes and turn out.

Filling and Frosting for Mint Oreo Cake

The filling and frosting for our Mint Oreo Cake layers is a mint buttercream frosting and decadent ganache.

For the Ganache

I love to use ganache for adding dramatic drips to cakes, but especially for a boost of decadent chocolate flavor. 

To make this easy ganache, simply combine the chips and cream in a microwave safe bowl, heat until chips are almost completely melted, and then allow to sit and give it a stir. The mixture will combine to be silky smooth, and will thicken a bit as it cools. 

**We used equal parts of chocolate and cream by weight for our dark chocolate drizzle- If using semi-sweet chocolate, you may want to add slightly more chocolate than cream.

For the Mint Buttercream

This buttercream is so delicious- it works great as a filling or frosting, and can be whipped up in no time. It is based on our Classic Vanilla Buttercream, plus a little peppermint extract.

This is an American buttercream recipe, which means it's just a matter of combining softened butter, sifted confectioners sugar, milk, and extract(s).

Mix for 3-4 minutes on medium speed until fluffy and smooth, and then a minute or two more on low speed to reduce air bubbles.  

**If you'd like to incorporate even more chocolate flavor into the cake, you could also frost it with our Chocolate Buttercream Frosting! 

Assembling the Mint Oreo Cake

Place the first cake layer on the pedestal or cake plate. Spread with a layer of mint buttercream frosting, and then drizzle ganache on top of that, along with additional crushed mint Oreos. 

Top with the second layer of Mint Oreo Cake and repeat the above steps. Top with the third cake layer and frost with a thin coat of mint buttercream. This is often referred to as the crumb coat.

I always chill my cakes in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or longer in the refrigerator, after applying the first coat of frosting (the thinly applied  crumb coat).

Frosting the Cake

Apply the second coat of frosting, smooth with metal bench scraper and chill for 5-10 minutes more. Then, glide back over it with a spatula or bench scraper that has been heated under hot water. This technique is known as the Hot Knife Method of Smoothing.

The finish of your frosting doesn't have to be flawless, just smooth enough that the ganache drip will be able to easily flow down from the top edge of the cake.

Applying the Ganache Drip

Apply the ganache drip around the top edge of the cake, using a piping bag with the very tip snipped away.

You can do a trial run on the inside of a bowl to see if the ganache needs to be warmed or cooled to reach the desired consistency for dripping. (It should not be hot when applied to cake). See our Ganache Drip Tutorial for more details!

After applying the drip all the way around, spread additional ganache on top of the cake. I added a little spiral pattern on top using a spoon as I rotated the cake on a turntable. (We demonstrate ta version of this spiral look in our Ridged Buttercream Cake tutorial.)

I added half of a mint Oreo cookie to the center of the cake, and added a small bead border piped with a small round tip 3 around the bottom of the cake. (You can learn about bead borders in our Basics of Piping with Round Tips tutorial!)

You can find the full roundup of our FAVORITE chocolate cakes here: Best Chocolate Cake Recipes

Enjoy the Recipe

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