A Three Year Old's Dream: Dirt Cake

Although I made a birthday cake for my daughter a few weeks ago, her real birthday was on May 31st, and we were lucky enough to have her aunt and a friend visiting that weekend, so I had them bring some "American" supplies to make a dirt cake. My daughter is obsessed with buckets and sandboxes (since every park has beautifully clean sandboxes, and no European child is without a bucket and shovel) and has a slight addiction to gummy worms. I thought a dirt cake for her 3rd birthday would be perfect. I found this recipe at Dianasaur Dishes, and it turned out great! I cut the recipe in half since there would only be five of us, and it was the perfect amount. The final result was extremely rich, but that didn't stop us from devouring it! (Although my daughter only ended up eating all of the gummy worms off the top...)

Dirt Cake
from Dianasaur Dishes
Serves 6

1 lb. Oreo cookies (just less than 1 package)
3/4 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 Tbl powdered sugar
4 oz cream cheese (I used fromage à tartiner here in France.)
1/4 stick butter
1 small package vanilla instant pudding
1 3/4 cups milk
gummy worms

Place the Oreos in a food processor and grind until finely crumbled and looking like dirt (include the cream).

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. In another bowl whip the whipping cream and powdered sugar until thick. In a third bowl, combine vanilla pudding and milk. Mix well for two minutes. Stir the whipped cream into the pudding. Add the butter/cream cheese mixture and stir well.

Layer the cake in your bucket 2-4 hours before serving time. (I did mine the night before, and it turned out fine.) Place 1 1/2 - 2 inches of cookie crumbs in the bottom of the bucket. Then layer the same amount of pudding mixture on top. Continue layering them, leaving room for a layer of crumbs on top. Just before serving, top with crumbs and worms. Serve with a shovel.

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