Chocolate Oreo Cake

Chocolate cake layers filled with chocolate pudding, covered in an oreo swiss meringue buttercream and topped with chocolate ganache.

Grease and line 2 8-inch round baking pans with circles of parchment paper on the bottoms.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, both cocoa powders, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients bowl. Whisk by hand or with beaters for 2 minutes.
Stir in the piping hot coffee until fully combined. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely before carefully tipping the cake layers out of the tins.

Combine the milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat.
Combine the granulated sugar and egg yolks in a medium bowl. Whisk by hand or with beaters until light yellow and fluffy.
Add flour, cornstarch and cocoa powder, and whisk until thoroughly combined. The mixture will be thick.
Slowly stream in the warmed vanilla milk with a ladle while whisking vigorously to prevent cooking the eggs. Continue slowly adding in the milk mixture until it is all combined.
Return the entire mixture to the medium saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Whisk constantly until thickened. This can take 5+ minutes. Remove from the heat promptly and add the room temperature butter. Whisk until fully incorporated.
Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Cover with plastic and press down to touch the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at least 1 hour or place over a bowl of ice to chill it faster.

Prepare the cake layers by cutting off any domed parts with a serrated knife that may have developed when baking.
On a cake turntable with a cake board or serving tray, put down a small dollop of the frosting (this will help the cake stick and not slide around). Place the first layer of cake on top.
Pipe a thick ring of frosting on top near the edge of the cake. Spoon some of the pudding in the middle. There will be a decent amount leftover.
Place the second layer of cake on top. Cover the entire cake with a thin layer of the buttercream to create a crumb coat to seal in any crumbs. Freeze for 10 minutes to seal this coating.
When the crumb coat is set, pipe or dollop more frosting around the outside and on top. Spread evenly with an offset spatula before scraping down the outside with a bench scraper. You may need to do this several times to get a smooth look. If you need a visual on how to frost a cake, check out this video. I left a jagged rim on top of my cake to hold in the ganache (see recipe image). At this point you can freeze the cake for 10 minutes to set the frosting for easier handling, but it is not necessary.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine all of the chocolate ganache ingredients. Microwave in 30 second bursts, mixing slowly in between, until all of the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is glossy.
Pour the chocolate ganache on top of the cake, smoothing out to the edges with an offset spatula.
Dust the bottom, sides and top of the cake with oreo crumbs and whole oreos, if desired.