The Best Balance Of Mint And Chocolate In A Cake

Mint chocolate cake is a stunning combination of creamy mint frosting and fudgy dark chocolate cake. Decorating is easy with either a chocolate ganache drip or mini chocolate chips.

Recipe: https://sugarspunrun.com/mint-chocolate-cake/

Ingredients
2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour (330g)
2 cups granulated sugar (400g)
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed (200g)
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Dutch cocoa powder (112g)
2 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 cup neutral cooking oil (avocado, canola, or vegetable oil) (240ml)
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted (170g)
3 eggs, room temperature preferred
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups buttermilk, room temperature preferred (354ml)
¾ cup very hot/boiling coffee (may substitute hot water) (177ml)
Frosting (see “decorating” section in notes below)
1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened (339g)
6 cups powdered sugar (750g)
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
1-4 Tablespoons heavy cream, as needed
Mint colored food coloring (optional) (I use Americolor Mint)

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Instructions
00:00 Introduction
00:14 Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and grease and flour three 8” (23cm) round pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
00:25 In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt until well combined.
02:06 Add oil and melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients have been moistened. Batter will be thick.
03:26 Add eggs and vanilla extract and stir well until batter is smooth and uniform.
04:27 Gradually add buttermilk, stirring until batter is completely combined.
05:02 Slowly pour hot coffee into the batter and stir until uniform. Be sure to scrape the sides and borrow of the bowl and stir again.
06:20 Evenly divide batter between prepared cake pans (if you’re weighing your cakes you’ll need 700 grams in each cake pan). Bake in center rack of 350F (175C) preheated oven for 35-38 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. If your oven bakes unevenly, rotate cakes during baking.
08:06 Allow cakes to cool in their pans for 15 minutes, then run a knife along the edge to loosen cakes from pan and carefully invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
08:55 In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until creamy and smooth.
09:30 Gradually add sugar, about a half cup at a time, using your electric mixer to stir on low-speed until combined before adding the next.
10:38 Once all the sugar is added in, add salt, vanilla, and peppermint extracts and stir until completely combined. If desired, stir in food coloring until desired color is reached.
11:47 Add a Tablespoon of heavy cream, and beat until well incorporated. Add more cream as needed until frosting is smooth, creamy, and easily spreadable.
Assembly
12:55 Level cakes if needed and evenly cover with frosting. I find it helpful to do a crumb coating, meaning after applying icing between the layers and stacking the cakes I’ll do a very thin layer of frosting around the exterior of the cake then place it in the freezer for 15 minutes (this will catch all the crumbs) then remove and finish decorating the cake with an even layer of frosting. See decorating notes below for more ideas on decorating.

Notes
Decorating Notes/Options
Ganache:For a ganache drip, see my recipe and tutorial on how to do a ganache drip
Decorative swirls: If you’d like to do decorative swirls on top of the cake (as seen in pictures), you will need to increase the frosting recipe by 50%. I used an Ateco 848 piping tip for piping the swirls in the photo.
Mint chocolate chip cake: As shown in the video you can forgo the ganache and the decorative swirls and press mini chocolate chips up the side of the cake. They also work nicely as decoration on top of the cake and in between the layers!
Heavy cream
You may substitute milk (non-dairy would also be fine), just note you will need less as it is thinner than cream. The additional liquid is for thinning the frosting and giving it a somewhat light, silky texture.
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This cake may also be tightly wrapped and frozen for up to 3 months.

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