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A rich, moist chocolate sheet cake with a layer of creamy, no-bake Oreo cheesecake in the middle, topped with a luscious milk chocolate ganache, crushed Oreo cookies and some Mighty Machines.
My grandson turned two last week and he wanted a digger cake for his birthday. He’s sort of obsessed with the Mighty Machines show and loves to go outside and watch the backhoes working on the construction site near his new home.
There are quite a few steps to making this cake, but none of them are difficult. We needed a large cake to feed a crowd so I baked two 9×13 sheet cakes and used them as layers. If you want you could divide the recipe in half and just make one 9″ round cake. I bought a new metal 9×13 cake pan that had perfectly square sides.
The Kraft Chocolate-Covered OREO Cookie Cake was our inspiration, but we used the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake Recipe that I adapted for high altitude, which is one of my daughter’s favorite cakes. We also changed up the filling to use heavy cream instead of Cool Whip, and topped it with chocolate ganache instead of frosting.
You’ll need to put the cake in the fridge to chill and firm up while you’re make the chocolate ganache. It will take several hours for the ganache to thicken up and come to the right consistency. Once it’s thickened, spread it on top of the cake, pushing it up to the edge in some places so it drips down the sides of the cake. If you wanted, you could cover the entire cake with the ganache, but I thought it was more fun to see the filling.
After you spread the ganache, use crushed Oreo cookies to create the construction zone on top of the cake. My daughter bought the little backhoes at Zurchers. They were filled with candy, but we just emptied it out. She also bought the Birthday Zone decorations at Zurchers. She made the little construction signs in Photoshop.
My grandson had a hard time waiting to play with the diggers on the cake, so you might want to buy an extra for the birthday boy to play with right away.
He was a very happy little boy when it was finally time to eat his digger cake. Of course a digger makes a great spoon too.
Chocolate Cake with a No-Baked Oreo Cheesecake Filling
Ingredients
- 2 9 x13 chocolate sheet cakes
No-Baked Oreo Cheesecake Filling:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 ½ packages 12 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
- ¾ cup sugar
- 18 Oreo Cookies Coarsely crushed
Chocolate Ganache
- 24 oz. milk chocolate finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
Topping
- 8 Oreo Cookies filling removed and finely crushed
Instructions
- No-Baked Oreo Cheesecake Filling
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream until it forms soft peaks.
- In another large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until blended and smooth.
- Gently stir in whipped cream and crushed cookies.
- Chocolate Ganache
- Place half of the chocolate in a mixing bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high heat until it comes to a boil.
- Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add remain chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted.
- Cool until ganache is thickened but still thin enough to drip down the sides of the cake. (I cooled mine in the fridge for over an hour.)
- Assembling cake
- When the cake layers are cool, evenly spread filling on bottom layer, carefully stack the second layer on top of filling. Refrigerate while you make the ganache.
- Spoon chocolate ganache on top of the cake, spreading to edges and letting the ganache drip down the sides. Decorate top with additional crushed Oreos, diggers and signs if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
To achieve the super straight sides on this cake, I used this pan:
More cake recipes you might like:
(Eggless) Smash Cake for a First Birthday, Barbara Bakes
Chocolate Cheesecake Cake, Barbara Bakes
Monkey Cake, Smitten Kitchen
Checkerboard Spider Cake, Munchkin Munchies
Vanilla Layer Cake with Easy Fudge Frosting, Completely Delicious
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Aww mum that is so clever! He looks so happy with his cake too 😀 I also like the way that you decorated the table too! xxx
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious
This is just too cute!
Angie@Angie's Recipes
Such a cute birthday cake!
Betty
What a cute and clever cake- my grandson would love it too. The great thing is that it sounds delicious as well. 🙂
Claire @ Claire K Creations
That is absolutely adorable Barbara! What a great grandma you are. I can’t wait to start making kids Birthday cakes!!
Sandy
Hi Barbara, This cake is just too cute! And I love the no-bake cheesecake filling.
Smart move taking the par-tay into the kitchen!
roberta breuer
Hi,
I assume that the cheesecake filling goes between the layers??? I do not see instructions in your recipe.
Please advise.
Thanks,
Roberta
Barbara Schieving
Hi Roberta – yes, the filling goes between the layers. I’ll update the directions. Thanks!
roberta breuer
Thank you :-).
Melissa B
Oh my goodness! Your cake looks so cute — and delicious!
Emily
AWESOME!
Coleens Recipes
You are such a good gramma!! What little guy wouldn’t be thrilled with this cake.
Stephanie @ PlainChicken
SO cute!
Amanda
This is such a fun cake! I love it 🙂
Lana @ Never Enough Thyme
What a perfect cake for your precious grandson! I’m sure he enjoyed it!
passtheknife
I’ve been making construction vehicle cakes for three years now. Love your take!
Rocky Mountain Woman
I might just steal this one for my next little grandson birthday party…
kelley {mountain mama cooks}
Adoarble! My little ones loves any kind of construction truck as well. He’d love this cake! So much fun!!!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
This is so freaking cute!! Love this!
momofnine
Wow! What a treat for the birthday boy. Thank you for a great recipe. I usually put a couple of tablespoons of butter in my ganache with chocolate chips but I am going to try your method the next time I make it.
Rosa Mayland
A great cake! It looks amazing.
Cheers,
Rosa
Rachel @ Baked by Rachel
oh my gosh!! that cake is ridiculously cute.