Christmas Chocolate Mint Cake

Peppermint is a cool, crisp wintery flavor. It dresses up chocolate cake for a wonderful, finish to your holiday celebration.

To make this festive, delicious cake I used the recipe for Classic Buttermilk Chocolate Cake and it is perfect for 3 layers. If you desire a fourth layer, to give you plenty of height for decorating, simply increase the ingredients by 1/4 and follow the same directions. Alternatively, if you’d prefer, pick up to boxes of your favorite chocolate cake mix and bake as directed.

The rest of this post is dedicated to the decoration of the cake. And honestly, the decorating is the funnest part of putting this cake together. Plan on a few hours to accomplish the decorating, and feel free to make it uniquely yours. Your family and friends will be delighted.

Ingredients

3 or 4, 8” round bake chocolate cake tiers

Frosting

1 stick unsalted butter

2 cups vegetable shortening

1/2 teaspoon salt

5-6 cups confectioner’s sugar

1/2 to 1-1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract

1/8 to 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Red food coloring

Peppermint candy

Beat the butter, shortening and salt together until mixed and smooth. Add 5 cups of confectioner’s sugar, and 1/8 cup heavy whipping cream together. Mix to combine on low. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat mixture on high for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of bowl again. Add peppermint extract to taste. Remember, start with less, and add more as desired. If necessary, add additional heavy whipping cream. You are looking for a light, fluffy, and easily spreadable consistency on this frosting.

Once the frosting is mixed and you have achieve a spreadable consistency, put 2-1/2 cups into a separate bowl. Add 4-5 drops of food coloring, in different spots. Lightly mix the food coloring into the frosting. I prefer to leave the frosting non-homogeneous, and kind of blotchy in appearance. This colored frosting will be piped between the layers as they are stacked up.

Once the layers are stacked, trim off any unevenness. Then apply a crumbcoat all the way around and on top of the cake. Transfer the stacked cake into a freezer for 1 hour. This helps the cake set up, and makes it much easier to frost as the layers will stay where you put them. Working quickly, you may apply another layer of pure white frosting. If necessary, you may need to repeat this step, in order to cover over all the chocolate crumbs completely. You shouldn’t however, need to keep it in the freezer for more than 15-20 minutes the second time.

You may decorate the outside, however you desire. I saved out some of the frosting, and tinted in green to decorate the side with an evergreen, dusted with confectioner’s sugar. Crushed peppermint also makes a beautiful finish.

One final note. Enjoy this journey. Perfection is not the goal. Remember, the flavors are delicious, the cake is moist, and there isn’t anything, quite like giving of yourself through baking, that conveys love and caring, and thoughtfulness. I hope your Christmas is bright, happy and healthy.

Oh! And I’d love for you to post your images of your finished dessert on the Facebook page.