It was Sara’s birthday. She apparently decided to channel her inner 4-year-old and requested a “dirt cake” for her birthday. I couldn’t remember ever having one, but my mother recently reminded me that we did, in fact, make one for my little brother when he was about 7 or 8.

The recipe I used was a slightly modified version from Martha Stewart. Everyone seemed to like it, so I guess it’s a success for children and adults (or maybe just adults who think they are still children).

I decided to forgo the usual flower pot presentation. I used a 8″x8″ Pyrex baking pan for my “compost cake” and a 9″x13″ pan for my garden themed dirt cake, which Allie called my “Garden of Eaten”.

Ingredients

2 – 16 oz packages Oreo cookies

12 oz cream cheese, room temperature

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

4 – 3.9 oz packages instant chocolate pudding

4 3/4 cups milk, room temperature

16 oz frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a food processor, finely chop up cookies until they resemble dirt. (The frosting in the middle will get coated with cookie crumbs and become invisible.)

In a very large bowl, combine cream cheese and butter. Stir until creamy. (If the ingredients aren’t at room temperature, you’ll have a hard time combining them.)

In another large bowl, whisk together instant-pudding mixes and the milk until well blended.

Using a rubber spatula, fold pudding mixture into the very large bowl of cream cheese mixture. Combine until well mixed and color is evenly brown.

Fold in the whipped cream until well mixed and color is evenly light brown.

In your baking pan or flower pot, alternate layers of cookie crumbs with the pudding mixture. Your first and last layer should be the cookie crumbs.

Chill for atleast 4 hours, but preferably overnight before decorating and serving.