The party yesterday for Marla Scissors was a huge success, with over 500 people in attendance, and the event raised over $32,000 for fighting ALS! Wow! There were many beautiful and delicious desserts; one dessert (baked by Barry Marcus) was so sought after that after the auction closed, a little old lady elbowed her way to be the last bid. The dessert with the highest bid was the Alsatian Caramelized Pear Tart made by Rasha Dove, a student at Kitchen Conservatory.

This dessert, a humongous Oreo Cake, was contributed by Patty Padawer, who has taught cooking classes at Kitchen Conservatory for more than 17 years.

Chocolate Cookie Cake

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1 1/3 cups milk
  
• 1 cup sour cream
  
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
  
• 1 recipe Chocolate Sandwich Cookie filling
  
• 1 recipe Chocolate Frosting
  
• Oreo chocolate sandwich cookies, a 1-pound 2-ounce package

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of four 9-inch round cake pans and fit with four 9-inch parchment circles. Spray the paper liners and set pans aside.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add milk, sour cream, butter, eggs, vanilla and melted chocolate. Beat with an electric mixer set at low speed until mixture is well-blended, about 1 minute. Turn speed to high and beat 3 minutes, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing batter evenly among the four pans. Bake in center of a preheated 350 degrees, oven until a toothpick inserted in center of layers comes out clean, about 15 – 18 minutes. Cool cakes on a rack for 10 minutes then remove pans from cake layers and let layers cool completely.

Make chocolate sandwich cookies filling, but reserve 1/4 for cake garnish. Put one cake layer on a serving plate and top with 1/3 filling, spreading filling evenly over layer. Add second layer of cake and spread with another 1/3 portion of filling. Add another cake layer and spread with remaining filling. Top with final cake layer.

Make the chocolate frosting. Frost top and sides of cake with a thin coat of chocolate frosting, chill until firm. When chilled, finish frosting the top and sides of the cake with the remaining chocolate frosting.

Stir reserved plain filling and put on center top of cake. Spread filling in an irregular shape over top of cake, forcing some white filling down sides of cake. Garnish center top with chocolate sandwich cookies that have been split in half between the icing. Using the remaining cookies decorate the side of the cake with cookie halves.
Yield: a lot

Chocolate Sandwich Cookie Filling

• 6 cups powdered sugar
  
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
  
• 6 tablespoons cream, more as needed
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 18 chocolate sandwich cookies- lightly broken

Put sugar, butter, cream and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer set at medium speed until mixture is very smooth and easy to spread. Put 1/4 of the plain mixture in a small bowl and reserve for top of cake. Crush chocolate sandwich cookies and beat into remaining filling. Use as directed above.

Chocolate Frosting

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
  
• 3/4 cup butter
  
• 6 cups sifted powdered sugar
  
• 1 cup sour cream
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Melt chocolate and butter together in a medium saucepan. Combine sugar, sour cream and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Add melted chocolate mixture and beat with electric mixer set on high until mixture is smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Cool until thick enough to spread, about 5 to 10 minutes. Use as directed above.