Black Magic Chocolate Cake adapted from Hershey’s Kitchen
(1.5x of usual quantity)
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
2.6 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/8 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
1.5 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar
1.5 cups strong black coffee
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
3 teaspoons baking soda

Oreo Cream Cheese Frosting

250g Philadelphia cream cheese
175g softened/room temp, good quality unsalted butter
270g icing sugar (sifted)
2.3 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups milk powder (skim or full fat)
1 pack of oreos, crushed

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

7 large (210 grams) egg whites
2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
340 grams unsalted butter, softened*
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Additional Decorating Ingredients

Sprinkles
Food coloring
Extra crushed oreos

To make Black Magic chocolate cake

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 3 7-inch round baking pans, 1 5 or 6-inch baking pan, 1 4-inch baking pan and prepare 1 cupcake liner in a cupcake pan. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (Batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.

Bake 30-40 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen cake from side of pan and remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

To make Oreo cream cheese frosting

Place cream cheese into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment mix it on low to begin with to help break the cheese up a little. Once it looks like its starting to smooth out, stop mixing, and scrape down the bowl with a spatula. (It’s important to scrape down your bowl each time you add another ingredient.) Add your softened butter and mix on high speed until it’s completely smooth.

Next add your sifted icing sugar, milk powder and vanilla extract and mix on low to begin with, then once it’s mixed in put it up on high speed again until it gets fluffy and turns a pale white colour. Mix in the oreos.

To make Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

In a large saucepan, place mixing bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. Add egg whites and cups sugar and whisk together until frothy. Whisk constantly until mixture reaches 160˚F (takes about 3 min). Sugar should be fully dissolved (no granules when rubbing mixture between finger tips). Mixture will feel hot to the touch (or like the temperature of warm milk).

Once bowl is at room temperature, switch to paddle attachment, and whip together until soft peaks form. Add butter 1 Tbsp at a time. Once all butter is in, scrape down the bowl and continue beating until it reaches a thick whipped consistency. It may look lumpy – it’s a good sign, keep beating until it changes consistency to become smooth, thick and whipped. Add vanilla extract and salt and mix on med-high until incorporated and silky.

*For swiss meringue buttercream: avoid softening the butter too much – it should still feel cool to touch and hold the shape of finger indentation well.

To Assemble and Decorate:

Trim off dome of the 3 7-inch cake layers. Place the 7-inch layer on cake board, use buttercream to fill the edges, and sandwich each cake layer with a generous amount of oreo filling and oreo crunch. Use the 5 or 6-inch cake layer as the 4th layer. Trim cake to shape into a dinosaur shape. Cake from the 4-inch cake layer is used for the tail. Attach tail with toothpicks. Crumb coat, place in freezer to set, and then frost the cake again in swiss meringue buttercream. Pipe on decorations on the cake. Reference video here.