This gorgeous green Mint Chocolate Cake is a show-stopping layer cake perfect for St. Patrick’s Day or Oreo fans! One of our favorite holiday recipes ever!
St. Patrick’s Day Mint Chocolate Cake
Usually I am a purist when it comes to chocolate cake, but sometimes I’ll get a hankering for a decadent mint chocolate dessert.
In high school I worked as a waitress at Big Boy restaurant (pretty much the same thing a Shoney’s for all my east-coast readers). Big Boy was famous for their brownie sundaes — at least that was MY favorite thing on the menu!
After almost every shift, I would buy myself a brownie sundae to-go and make it myself: two brownies with a heaping scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream in the middle. Then I would douse it with their amazing hot fudge.
Oh the good old days of teenage metabolisms!
This layered mint chocolate cake brings back all the feels for me — it reminds me of my mint chocolate sundaes, only this mint Oreo cake is MUCH prettier!
Isn’t the green ombre effect just AMAZING?? Green is my favorite color – I love these mint green Baileys Cheesecake Bars too!
Whether you’re a chocolate fan like me, or looking for a crazy awesome St. Patrick’s Day dessert idea, this is IT!
Yes, there are quite a few moving parts to this recipe, but it’s actually not as tricky as it looks. I’ve included step-by-step photos below so you can see exactly how it’s done!
And it’s totally worth it!
Related: For a low-calorie mint chocolate treat, try our “Lightened Up” Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Pie!
Kitchen Supplies Used
For your convenience in re-creating our Mint Chocolate Cake, I’ve included shop-able ad links to some of the products we used. Disclosure policy available here.
- 3 (9 inch) round cake pans
- Parchment paper
- 10 inch round cake board
- Frosting decorating bag with star tip
- Kelly green food coloring
- Mint green food coloring
- Leaf green food coloring
- Plastic squeeze bottle
Green Ombre Layer Cake Photo Tutorial
Makes a BIG 3-layer 9″ round cake.
A free printable copy of the full recipe and ingredient list is available at the bottom of the post. Keep reading for photo step-by-step instructions and prep tips or click here to jump to printable recipe card.
This green ombre layer cake looks complicated, but once you have all the components made it’s pretty simple to assemble. Here’s how you do one full layer:
Start by trimming your cake so that it is flat on top and will stack evenly.
Next you add a generous scoop (or two…or three) of your mint Oreo frosting and then smooth it out.
Sprinkle on a handful of crushed mint Oreo cookies.
Add the second cake layer and repeat the process.
After you add your third cake layer, cover the entire thing in your white frosting and smooth it out.
Pipe each color of frosting around the sides of the cake twice, using a cake board on top to keep it neat.
Then you smooth the whole thing out so it’s ready for the ganache and toppings.
See — not so difficult after all!
Love Oreos? Try our White Hot Chocolate recipe made with Oreo creme filling!
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Grab a free printable copy of our Oreo Mint Chocolate Cake recipe:
If you like this mint chocolate cake recipe, rate it! We’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Green Ombre Mint Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon mint extract
- 1 cup unsalted sweet cream butter softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 cups flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 5 egg whites
- 4 cups crushed mint Oreo cookies
Mint Oreo Frosting Ingredients:
- 2 cups unsalted sweet cream butter softened
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup mint Oreo cookies finely crushed
- 4-6 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Vanilla Frosting Ingredients:
- 3 cups unsalted sweet cream butter softened
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 5-6 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Chocolate Ganache Ingredients:
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Food Coloring Needed:
- Kelly green food coloring
- Leaf green food coloring
- Mint green food coloring
Instructions
Cake Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare your cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the milk and vanilla and set aside.
- In a different large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer.
- In a third mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.
- Gradually add both the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients to the bowl with butter mixture, alternating and mixing as you go. Mix on low to medium until combined.
- Using another large mixing bowl and a hand mixer, beat the eggs until stiff peaks form. Fold into cake batter.
- Divide the batter among three clean bowls.
- Stir a few drops of kelly green food coloring into one bowl, a few drops of leaf green coloring into the second bowl, and a few drops of mint green coloring into the third bowl. You will end up with batter that is three different shades of green.
- Pour each bowl of green batter into its own cake pan.
- Bake for 23-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean.
- Remove from oven, but allow cakes to cool completely before removing from pans.
- Once cool, place cakes on a cutting board. Trim the cakes so that they are flat on top.
- Place the darkest cake layer on your cake stand.
Mint Oreo Frosting Directions:
- Using a standing mixer, beat all ingredients together of the mint Oreo frosting until stiff peaks form (about 3-5 minutes).
- Scoop about 1 cup of the mint Oreo frosting onto the bottom layer of cake and spread. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the crushed Oreos onto the top of the frosting.
- Place the second lightest layer of cake on top of your bottom layer.
- Repeat steps with the frosting and another cup of crushed Oreos.
- Place the last layer of cake on top.
Vanilla Frosting Directions:
- Using a standing mixer, combine all of the vanilla frosting ingredients into the mixer and mix until stiff peaks form.
- Scoop two cups of frosting onto the top layer of cake and frost the entire cake. Use an offset spatula to smooth.
- To Decorate:
- Place a 10 inch round cake board onto the top of the cake.
- Split the rest of the white frosting into three bowls. Mix a couple drops of leaf green food coloring into one bowl, a couple drops mint green food coloring into another bowl, and leave the remaining frosting white.
- Scoop each color of frosting into their own piping bags. Use a star tip for the white frosting bag.
- Pipe the darker green frosting around the edge of the bottom of the cake twice.
- Pipe the lighter green frosting around the middle twice.
- Pipe the white frosting around the top twice.
- Smooth frosting so that the outside of your cake appears striped.
Chocolate Ganache Directions:
- In a small pot, heat up the heavy whipping cream until simmering and place the chocolate chips into a heat safe bowl.
- Once the heavy whipping cream is steaming, pour over the chocolate chips and begin to stir.
- Continue stirring until chocolate chips have melted and ganache is smooth.
- Slowly pour the chocolate ganache over the top of the cake, so it drips a bit down the sides.
- Allow the ganache to harden.
- Finishing by pipping vanilla frosting rosettes and sprinkling crushed Oreos over the top of the entire cake.
- Slice and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Pin this Oreo Mint Chocolate Cake on Pinterest:
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Niki Jones says
Hi, there! My son wanted a mint cake for his birthday, and we found this recipe and he’s sold! I have a couple of questions about the cake ingredients/directions specifically. If you could clarify, I would be so grateful!!
1- The cake ingredients list includes mint extract, but I don’t see where to put this in– I am presuming with the milk and vanilla?
2- The cake ingredients list 4 cups crushed mint Oreo cookies, but I don’t see where the 4 cups of crushed Oreos go into the cake?
Thank you so much for your time and clarification– and for this incredible recipe!
All the best,
Niki
Stacey aka the Soccer Mom says
Hi Niki, yes the mint extract can go in with the wet ingredients in the cake batter. The crushed Oreos go in between the layers of the cake, on top of frosting. So it would be cake, frosting, crushed oreos, cake, frosting, crushed oreos, etc. Hope this helps!