Don’t forget “Photographic Friday”. The theme is “Celebrating Christmas”. Share your photos that depict the sights and sounds of this holiday season . Remember, the simple and the ordinary are full of beauty if gazed upon from the correct angle.
Today I would like to share a recipe for an absolutely delicious peppermint cake. My daughters and I were immediately drawn to the December 2008 cover of Bon Appetit. It sported a luscious Devil’s Food Cake with Peppermint Frosting. As we are not fond of Devil’s Food Cake, we came up with our own version featuring a lovely white cake with peppermint flavoring. Our recipe utilized the frosting and filling featured in the Bon Appetit recipe with a few minor adjustments.
Peppermint Triple Layer Cake
3 9-inch cake pans, generously greased with solid shortening and lightly dusted with flour (you may utilize a cake release product instead)
1 plain white cake mix
1 cup whole milk
8 tablespoons melted butter
4 eggs
1 tsp peppermint extract
Combine the cake mix, milk, butter and peppermint extract in a mixing bowl and blend for about 30 seconds. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after every addition. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes scraping bowl about every 30 seconds.
Divide the batter between the 3 pans. Weigh your batter in the pans to ensure even baking. You can utilize just 2 pans. You will have to adjust your baking time. I would suggest when utilizing 2 pans, split the layers so that you have 4 thin layers to stack.
Bake the 3 layers for 17 – 19 minutes at 350°. Be careful to not over bake your cake layers.
Cool the layers on a rack for 10 minutes in the pans. Then turn the layers out onto the racks and cool completely before frosting.
White Chocolate Cream
12 ounces high-quality white chocolate, finely chopped
3 cups chilled heavy whipping cream, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons pure peppermint extract
Bring 1 cup of the cream to simmer in a heavy sauce pan. Place the chocolate in a large heat proof bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let stand 1 minute and whisk until smooth. Whisk in extract. Cover and chill until the sauce thickens. This thickening process takes at least one hour so plan accordingly. Add the remaining 2 cups of cream to the white chocolate cream and beat on high in a mixer until peaks form. Be careful – it is easy to over beat the cream at this point and this can destroy the integrity of the sauce. Cover and chill.
Peppermint Frosting
5 cups sugar
1 cup water
6 egg whites (I utilize meringue powder as I have a “thing” about raw eggs in any form)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup crushed peppermint candy
Combine sugar, water, egg whites, and corn syrup in large bowl of heavy-duty stand mixer. Whisk by hand to blend well. Set the bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly with hand whisk until mixture resembles marshmallow creme, about 9 minutes. Whisk in extract. Attach bowl to mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until the mixture is barely warm to the touch and very thick, about 8 minutes. Fold in the peppermint candy.
Place a layer on a cake plate. After dusting off crumbs divide the white cream and spread on the layer. Top with the second layer and repeat with the white cream and then top with the third layer. Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Garnish with extra crushed peppermint candy and sugar crystals.
“. . . for it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself.” – Charles Dickens
