Disclosure: I suck at baking. The good news? My husband is great at it! So when preparing for Saturday's St. Patrick's Day party, I made the food, and he made the cake.
I found this great recipe on Pinterest for a Mint Chocolate Cake. It turned out amazing (thanks to my hubby) and it was beautiful to boot.
Here's how you do it.
St. Patrick's Day Mint Chocolate CakeIngredients
Cake:
2 Boxes of White Cake Mix (and the eggs and oil to make it)
2 TSP Mint Extract, separated (we couldn't find plain "mint" so we used peppermint)
Green Food Coloring
2 TSP Unsweetened Cocoa Mix
Dark Chocolate Bar (like Hershey's)
Frosting:
1 Stick Softened Butter
1 Pound (Half a Bag) Powdered Sugar
1/4 TSP Salt
1 TSP Vanilla
1 Pint Whipped Cream
Instructions
Make white cake according to mix directions. Separate into four bowls. Leave first bowl as-is. In second bowl, add cocoa mix. In third bowl, add 1 TSP of mint extract and one drop of food coloring. In fourth bowl, add 1 TSP of mint extract and four drops of food coloring.
Pour equal parts of the four cake mixes into two 9" cake pans, swirling with a spatula as you go to create a pretty swirled pattern. Bake according to cake mix directions. Let cool.
Once cooled, cut off the cake tops so each cake is perfectly flat on both sides. We chose to keep one of the tops in place, so the cake had a dome shape, but good practice is to make it flat on top. Make the frosting.
To make the frosting, beat the whipped cream until stiff. Set aside. In a mixer, blend butter and vanilla. Mix together salt and powdered sugar and add to butter mixture. Beat until well mixed. Fold in whipped cream.
Place frosting atop one of the cakes, and then stack the second cake atop the first frosted cake to create a double-layer cake.
Frost the outside of the cooled cake and refrigerate until time to serve. Garnish with flakes scraped from dark chocolate bar.
