With Christmas just a few days away, I have been pouring over my cookbooks to finalize my menu. With everyone coming to my house this year, I won’t be cooking for just a day, but for several days. So I want to make sure I have a lot of great desserts on hand.
The Chocolate Peppermint Cake Recipe listed below is from Lori Burke’s Best Ever Christmas Dessert Recipes book, reprinted here with permission from the author. This book is full of fabulous dessert recipes and I highly recommend it for not only holiday baking, but baking throughout the year.
Chocolate Peppermint Cake
Makes a 9-inch cake
Ingredients
1-3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon Peppermint Schnapps
1 cup strong hot coffee
Muti-colored sprinkles or colored sugar
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour a round 9 inch x 2 inch cake pan.
Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl.
Add the sugar, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa powder to the flour. Whisk until the dry ingredients are blended.
Gradually add the eggs, buttermilk, butter and schnapps. Beat with a mixer for 2 minutes. Stir in the hot coffee. If the batter is thin don’t worry.
Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool completely.
Prepare Peppermint Icing and ice the cake
Peppermint Icing
Ingredients
5 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint schnapps
Directions
Put the chocolate into a medium bowl.
In a small saucepan heat the heavy cream on high until it boils. Stir in the peppermint extract and peppermint schnapps.
Pour the cream mixture into the chocolate. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Stir the chocolate until it’s smooth. Cool for 3 to 7 minutes until the icing mixture thickens and falls in smooth bands from the spoon.
Put a cake stand on some waxed paper. You can also invert a large bowl and top that with a piece of heavy round cardboard that’s the size of the cake.
Chill the cake before icing. Pour a generous amount of icing on the center of the cake. Use a spatula to spread the icing evenly over the top of the cake and down the sides of the cake. You can either evenly smooth the icing on the sides of the cake or you can let it flow and spread naturally.
Sprinkle the top of the icing with multi-colored sprinkles or colored sugar.
Allow the cake to set for 30 minutes.
Enjoy!
