Homemade Chocolate Dirt Cake
This Homemade Chocolate Dirt Cake is fantastic! Super moist and fudgy chocolate cake with a rich chocolate frosting, Oreo "dirt" crumbles and gummy worms for a spooky and easy Halloween treat!
Servings: 15
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 cups granulated white sugar
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup HOT strong black coffee
For Fudge Frosting & Topping:
- 3/4 cup butter (1½ sticks) softened
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 25 Oreo cookies coarsely crushed
- Gummy worms for decoration
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° degrees F. Liberally grease a 9x13 light metal rectangular baking pan with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until just combined. Add in the vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla and buttermilk and mix on low until combined. Lastly, very carefully and slowly stream in the hot coffee with the mixer on low until fully incorporated into the batter. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with moist but not wet crumbs. Cool completely.
- For the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, cocoa powder and vanilla extract until soft and fluffy, about 1 minute. Gradually add in the confectioners' sugar, about one cup at a time, alternating with little bits of the heavy cream. Frosting should be light and fluffy.
- Spread the frosting evenly over the cake. Top with the Oreo cookie crumbs in an even layer. Arrange gummy worms over the top of the cake.
Notes
I used mini gummy worms by Albanese brand.
For best results, I like to use a cocoa powder with at least 1g of fat per serving. A higher fat content lends to a more moist and richer cake. Ghirardelli unsweetened 100% cocoa powder is what I used.