Do you like Oreos? As a kid (who am I kidding, and still today), I was always a "filling" person. I prefer the double or "mega" stuffed Oreos (yes, mega stuffed is a thing) so that the icing to chocolate cookie ratio is probably 3-1. No thin Oreos for me.

So you can bet I've always been a major fan of my mom's dirt cake. You may know it - the dessert with crumbled Oreos (the "dirt) layered with a whipped filling (or vanilla ice cream!)... and growing up it was usually topped with gummy worms. It can be served in a large 9x13 inch dish or individually in little cups.

This summer, my mom made a batch of this dirt cake in individual half pint-sized mason jars. These froze beautifully and any time we were over, there would be dirt cake ready to be thawed and enjoyed. Chad and I even took a few jars home for our own freezer...

Then, for my baby shower, my mom and I made another large batch of this dirt cake to serve in small cups at the dessert table. We topped each with whipped cream and a mini Oreo.

My mom and I decorated and prepped that whole weekend and then, on a sunny and hot Sunday afternoon in July, we celebrated my little Dylan with family and friends.

I read all the time that you are supposed to let others do the work for you for your showers, but I enjoyed cooking and preparing for the shower so much with my mom... so I don't think we should always go off what we read we "should be" doing (mostly because I am usually doing the opposite). And if we do only do what we read we should, most of the time it's not genuine or a reflection of who we really are. (See my past posts here and here where my mom and I baked and decorated for my wedding!)

Here is a glimpse of some of my baby shower's food and decor. We kept it natural, using Eucalyptus and sunflowers along with wood platters and crates. A huge thanks to my lovely friend, Amanda, for taking some of the photos featured below!

My sisters and I with our mom. Photo by Wilens.

The dirt cake we served at the shower. Photo by Wilens.

Here is the recipe for my mom's dirt cake - handed down from a distant family member but pretty similar to other dirt cake recipes you'll find. You can also make this with vanilla ice cream instead of the whipped filling. It's great either way!

Oreo Dirt Cake

1 (1 lb.) package Oreo sandwich cookies (or other chocolate sandwich cookie)
11 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 medium sized container of Cool Whip
2 (3 1/2 oz) package of vanilla instant pudding
3 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Crush Oreo cookies until finely ground and set aside.
Mix the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and mix well. Fold in the Cool Whip.
In a separate bowl, mix the pudding package with the milk and vanilla. Combine with the cream cheese mixture.
Place a layer of cookie crumbs in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan, or into individual cups or jars .Then add a layer of the whipped cream mixture. Alternate between cookie crumbs and whipped mixture and top with Oreo crumbs - it should resemble dirt.
Chill or freeze the dirt cake. If in a pan, cut into squares and serve.

Dirt Cake Jars & Scenes From My Baby Shower