This moist red velvet cake is baked on a delicious oreo crust then topped with the most decadent and smooth cream cheese frosting! This cake is perfect for any holiday, celebration, or late night eating. The flavor together are absolute PERFECTION!
Preheat oven to 325º F. Prepare three 8-inch round cake pans by spraying with nonstick spray and lining the bottom with parchment paper.
Place the Oreo cookies (do not remove the cream filling) in a food processor and pulverize until they’re fine crumbs. Transfer the crumbs to a medium sized bowl.
Add the sugar and melted butter to the Oreo crumbs, stir to combine.
Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared cake pans and press into the bottom of each pan. Bake for 3 minutes. Remove from the oven but leave the oven heated to 325º F to bake the cakes.
Red Velvet Cake
While the oreo crusts are baking, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment add the buttermilk, oil, vanilla, eggs, white vinegar and red gel food coloring. Beat until the mixture is well-combined and uniform.
Take off the whisk attachment and attach the paddle. With the mixer on low speed, carefully add the dry ingredients, a couple cups at a time until everything is combined and no dry streaks remain. Be careful not to over-mix!
Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans (adding it directly on top of the Oreo crust). Bake at 325°F for 35-45 minutes, until the centers of the cake are baked and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it. (Don’t open oven too soon or cakes will sink in the middle.) Remove cakes from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.
Cream Cheese Buttercream
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream cheese, and salt until it’s smooth and light in texture and color.
Add the powdered sugar, a couple cups at a time, mixing well before adding more. Add a tablespoon of heavy cream as needed to keep the frosting smooth and not too stiff. Repeat until all powdered sugar and cream are added. If the frosting is too soft when it’s cold, add more powdered sugar in 1/2 cup increments to thicken it.
If desired for decoration, take about a cup of buttercream and color it red using red gel food coloring. We also added about a teaspoon of cocoa powder to the colored frosting to deepen the color. The color will also deepen for a few hours as the frosting sits.
KEEP IN MIND, this is a very soft frosting, so keeping it cooler than room temperature and keeping your cakes cold will help assembling the cake go smoothly.
Assembly
Place a cake layer, crust side down, on a cake board or stand that has a small dollop of buttercream on it. This will help keep the cake from sliding around as you assemble it.
Spread a thin layer of cream cheese buttercream evenly over the top of the cake.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 with the second layer of cake, placing the second cake layer on top of the first layer.
Place the third cake layer on top and crumb coat the entire cake in a thin layer of cream cheese buttercream. Refrigerate or freeze for a few minutes, until the buttercream is cold and no longer soft.
Add the final layer of frosting around the entire cake. Decorate as desired. We piped a bead of red buttercream around the bottom of the cake and used an offset spatula to spread it diagonally upward. We also added the leftover red and white buttercream to a piping bag and used a Wilton 1M piping tip to pipe swirls around the top of the cake and then added Oreos between the swirls.
Notes
To tell if a cake is close to being done I tap on my oven door and watch the center of the cakes. If they move back and forth I know they’re still liquid and are not baked through yet. Once they don’t move when I tap on the oven door I open the oven and use a toothpick to ensure they’re fully baked.Store the cake covered in the fridge for 3-5 days (due to the cream cheese frosting).If making the cake ahead of time, let the cake layers cool completely and then wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 1-2 days. You can also freeze the cake layers. Wrap in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to 1 week. If you need to store the cake for longer than 1 week in the freezer, then wrap the plastic-wrapped cake layers in a layer of aluminum foil and store in the freezer for 2-3 months. Remove from the freezer and let thaw overnight in the fridge. To freeze a decorated cake, place the cake in the freezer until set (about 30 minutes). Wrap the entire cake in plastic wrap and store for up to 1 week. For longer than one week, store in the freezer with an additional layer of aluminum foil. Remove from the freezer and let thaw in the fridge overnight. Remove the cake the next morning and unwrap.Store the buttercream in an airtight container in the freezer for 2-3 days. Scoop the frosting into a stand mixer and beat until fluffy again before frosting the cake.