This Easter dirt cake is an easy no-bake dessert with crunchy Oreos and a cool and creamy whipped pudding filling. It’s rich and chocolatey, and loads of fun to decorate. Make it in a casserole dish, or assemble in jars!
We love celebrating Easter with family-favorite recipes like cinnamon rolls and carrot cake, and fun Easter desserts like this Oreo dirt cake topped with decorations.
Easy No-Bake Easter Dessert
This Easter dirt cake recipe is an easy no-bake treat that’s especially great to make with kids. They have so much fun decorating the finished dirt cake with Peeps marshmallow treats, sprinkles, and more. If you’ve never heard of Oreo dirt, it’s a sweet and creamy combination of chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and crushed Oreos topped with even more Oreo crumbs. This Easter dirt cake is a delicious holiday version, guaranteed to become a tradition.
Why We Love Dirt Cake
- No baking. This Easter dessert is quick to prepare, and even though it’s a “cake,” there’s zero baking involved. It’s ready in 20 minutes with very little effort.
- Make it ahead. This dirt cake does take a few hours to chill afterward. That’s my favorite excuse to make a dessert in advance!
- Crowd-friendly. This is a great dessert to make for a crowd, whether you assemble your Easter dirt in a casserole dish or make dirt cups in individual jars. Kids love it and Oreo lovers can’t resist it, either!
A Few Ingredient Notes
Here are some notes on the important ingredients you’ll need to make this easy Easter dessert. Scroll down to the recipe card after the post for a complete, printable recipe with the amounts and details.
- Oreo Cookies – Crushed up with the filling to make an Oreo crust. This is quick to do in a food processor, or you can crush up the cookies by hand using a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin. The by-hand method is a fun way to get kids involved!
- Chocolate Pudding Mix – Use Jell-O instant chocolate pudding mix or your favorite brand from the store. You’ll also need your choice of milk to mix with the pudding.
- Cream Cheese – The brick kind, brought to room temperature.
- Whipped Cream – I make homemade whipped cream from heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla. You could skip this step and use Cool Whip if you prefer.
- Decorations – I like to stick to edible decorations like marshmallow PEEP bunnies, edible grass, candy eggs (like Cadbury), etc. I include more ideas further in the post.
How to Make Easter Dirt
It’s quick to mix up the creamy, tangy chocolate pudding filling for this Easter Oreo dirt cake recipe. Afterward, it will take some time for the cake to chill in the fridge before you can decorate. I sometimes like to make the cake the day before! Follow the steps below, and scroll down to the recipe card for the printable recipe instructions.
- Prepare the Oreo crust. Begin by crushing up a package of Oreos until you reach fine crumbs. Mix the Oreo crumbs with melted butter, and press the mixture into a 9×13” casserole dish. Chill the crust in the fridge for now.
- Make the pudding. Meanwhile, whisk the instant pudding with milk and set that in the fridge to set for 10-15 minutes.
- Make the whipped cream. First, whip the cream cheese until it’s smooth and creamy. In a separate, chilled bowl, beat heavy cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Then, add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and the whipped cream cheese. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
- Crush more Oreos. Roughly crush about 12 Oreo cookies by hand, and grind another 12 cookies up into fine crumbs for the “dirt” topping.
- Combine. Fold the roughly crushed Oreos into the chocolate pudding along with the whipped cream. Spread the filling into the prepared crust from earlier. Sprinkle the extra Oreo crumbs over top.
- Chill. Place your dirt cake into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours, until it’s set. Before serving, decorate the cake with any decorations you’d like (see below).
Make Dirt Cups Instead
You can make this recipe as individual Easter dirt cups if you prefer. You can follow the assembly for my Halloween dirt cups and skip the cookie crust in this case. Simply layer the whipped cream filling and crushed Oreo crumbs into a jar or cup, and add the toppings as directed before serving.
Topping Ideas
It’s easy to make edible “grass” from shredded coconut and green gel food dye:
- Add ¼ cup of shredded coconut to a bowl, and stir in 1-2 drops of green food coloring.
- Continue adding drops of dye until your desired color is reached and evenly distributed throughout the coconut.
- Sprinkle the green coconut strands over the Oreo crumb topping.
Afterward, decorate your Easter dirt cake with candy eggs, marshmallows or Peeps, sprinkles, jelly beans, etc. Other fun ideas include chocolate covered pretzels, cookie dough-filled Easter eggs, and chocolate covered strawberries (pro tip: dip the strawberries in orange candy melts, and they’ll look like carrots!).
Recipe Tips
- Ignore the pudding instructions on the box. Follow the recipe as written and combine the instant pudding mix with milk before you place it in the fridge. Don’t follow the instructions that come with the pudding box.
- Chill your tools. Before you make the whipped cream, chill the stand mixer’s bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Cold tools and cold ingredients are key to the fluffiest whipped cream.
- Soften the cream cheese. You’ll want to use cream cheese that comes in blocks (like Philadelphia or similar) and not the bagel spread. Soften the cream cheese until it yields lightly when pressed, but don’t melt it.
- Don’t over-whip the cream. Stop whipping once you reach stiff peaks, as overworking the whipped cream can cause it to curdle.
How to Store
- Make it ahead. You can prepare the cake up to 1 day ahead, leaving off the decorations until you’re ready to serve. Cover the cake and store it in the fridge. Before serving, sprinkle over the Oreo crumbs and add the decorations.
- Leftovers. Keep any leftover Easter dirt cake covered with plastic wrap or foil, and refrigerate it for up to 3 days.
- FreezingI don’t recommend freezing this cake as it doesn’t thaw to its original texture.
More Easter Desserts to Try
Easter Dirt Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Chilling Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 15-18 servings
- Category: Cake
- Method: No-Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Easter dirt cake is an easy no-bake dessert with crunchy Oreos and a creamy, chocolatey pudding filling. Top your cake with marshmallows, Peeps, candy eggs, shredded coconut, and more.
Ingredients
- 2 packages (13oz) Oreo cookies, crushed (with filling)
- 1/2 cup (113g) butter (salted or unsalted), melted
- 2 boxes (3.4oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
- 3 cups (472ml) milk, any variety
- 8-ounce (226g) full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (356ml) heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup (65g) powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoon (10ml) pure vanilla extract
- Edible Decorations
Instructions
- Grind one 13oz package of Oreos into a fine crumb using a food processor or blender. Pour the melted butter over the cookie crumbs and stir until the crumbs are well coated. Press into a 9×13-inch pan. Set in the refrigerator.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the milk with instant pudding, until no clumps appear. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes until set.
- Beat the softened cream cheese until it’s completely smooth and soft.
- Prepare the whipped cream. Place the mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to chill. Pour the heavy whipping cream into the chilled bowl and use an electric mixer to beat the heavy cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks start to form. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and whipped cream cheese. Continue beating on medium to high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Roughly crush 12 Oreos in a large Ziploc bag using a rolling pin or an ice cream scoop. Separately, using the food processor, grind 12 Oreos into a fine crumb and set aside for the topping.
- Next, fold the whipped cream mixture and the crushed Oreos into the pudding mixture, stirring until well combined. Pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the top of the pan with the Oreo crumbs.
- Refrigerate for at least 3 hours until set. When ready to serve, decorate using candy eggs, Peeps or sprinkles.
Notes
- You can make these into individual jars instead, depending on the size of jar you could make 8-12 servings.
Storage
-
- Make it ahead. You can prepare the cake up to 1 day ahead, leaving off the decorations until you’re ready to serve. Cover the cake and store it in the fridge. Before serving, sprinkle over the Oreo crumbs and add the decorations.
- Leftovers. Keep any leftovers covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container and refrigerate it for up to 3 days.
- Freezing. I don’t recommend freezing this cake as it doesn’t thaw to its original texture.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 223
- Sugar: 10.5 g
- Sodium: 142.9 mg
- Fat: 17.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 14.2 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 3.3 g
- Cholesterol: 46.1 mg
