Peppermint Bark Cake
This peppermint bark cake combines rich chocolate layers with creamy peppermint buttercream and festive candy topping for an easy Christmas showstopper. No mixer needed for the cake, and store-bought peppermint bark makes decorating effortless.
Servings: 16
Equipment
- 2 8 inch cake pans (note this is a thick cake so your cake pans need to have at least 2" sides)
Ingredients
for the cake dry ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
wet ingredients
- 1 cup half and half or buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot coffee
frosting
- 1 1/2 cups butter, at room temperature
- 5 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted (sift after measuring)
- 6 Tbsp cream
- 1/2 tsp peppermint extract*
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
garnish
- peppermint bark, broken into shards
Instructions
for the cake
- Preheat oven to 350F. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper discs.
- Whisk all the dry ingredients together well in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients EXCEPT the coffee.
- Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing as you go. Once incorporated, add the hot coffee, and mix everything until there are no pockets of dry flour left. The batter will be very thin.
- Divide the batter between the two cake pans, and bake for 35 minutes until risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out without wet batter clinging to it.
- Allow the cakes to partially cool in the pans, then turn out onto a cooling rack to completely cool before frosting. The cakes can be made a day ahead and kept wrapped in plastic before frosting.
for the frosting
- While the cake bakes make the frosting. Note: I make my frosting in my food processor, it makes a quick silky lump free frosting that never breaks. You can also do it in a stand mixer or with electric beaters.
- Load the room temperature butter, sugar, cream, and extracts into your food processor and pulse/process until it becomes smooth and creamy. Add more cream if it's too dry, and more sugar if it's too runny.
- Frost the completely cooled cake. First the center, then the sides and top. See post for notes on how to crumb coat the cake before adding the final layer of frosting.
- Decorate your cake with peppermint candy shards. You can use smaller pieces around the base, and larger pieces on top.
- The cake will be at room temperature for the first day, but leftovers should be refrigerated.
Notes
*Be careful not to add too much peppermint extract: it is potent and can easily be overwhelming. I found 1/2 teaspoon to be enough.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 slice · Calories: 412 kcal · Carbohydrates: 76 g · Protein: 4 g · Fat: 12 g · Saturated Fat: 4 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 4 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 3 g · Trans Fat: 0.1 g · Cholesterol: 32 mg · Sodium: 305 mg · Potassium: 144 mg · Fiber: 2 g · Sugar: 63 g · Vitamin A: 166 IU · Vitamin C: 0.2 mg · Calcium: 42 mg · Iron: 1 mg
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
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