A delicious chocolate cake with mint buttercream and a chocolate ganache. Moist and delicious. Just heavenly.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! While I do have some Irish in me, I don’t generally do much to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day other than making sure I’m wearing green somehow on that day to avoid the pinching fingers that tend to come out on that day. Not being Catholic probably also contributes to my lack of enthusiasm for the holiday.
Well, this year I decided to change that. At least some. I decided I would make some sort of dessert with green in it. While I do appreciate the occasional green Jell-O, I wanted something a little fancier. So, I picked mint. But not just mint. I wanted to have something to balance the mint. And what goes perfectly with mint? Chocolate!
I set out looking for the right chocolate mint combination, and came across this cake. This cake is so good! SO GOOD! Its chocolate. And mint frosting. And chocolate ganache. And sooooo good. This cake recipe will definitely be made again. It’s the right level of moistness, and it still tasted fresh the next day. The flavor is so good, though I definitely think using a nicer cocoa like Ghirardelli was a factor.
I adjusted the original recipe so that it made a 2 tiered 6-inch cake, but you could definitely double it to make a 4 tiered 6-inch or 3 tiered 8-inch cake. If you wanted to make the bigger cake, double the cake, the frosting, and the filling recipe. Amount of ganache should be enough for either size.
*Adapted from Cakebycourtney.com
Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 scant cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3/8 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs (at room temp)
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup hot water
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Grease 2 6-inch cake pans. Line the bottom of pans with parchment, and grease again. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350.
In the bowl of your mixer, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, salt and baking powder.
In another bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Slowly pour into flour mixture with mixer running on low. Mix until just combined, but no longer.
Split the cake batter between the two prepared cake pans. I had about 12 ounces in each pan. Bake for about 17-19 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool for another hour.
Mint frosting
1 cup unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon mint extract (add more if you want it more minty.)
5 teaspoons heavy cream
Small pinch of salt
Green food coloring (optional)
Cream the butter for 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl. With the mixer on low, gradually add powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add remaining ingredients. Increase mixer speed and beat another couple of minutes.
Filling
¾ cup mint frosting
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
6 grasshopper or mint girl scout cookies
Break up the cookies. You can do this by placing them in a resealable sandwich bag and hitting them with a rolling pin.
Add the cookies and the chocolate chips to the frosting. Stir to combine.
Ganache
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
¾ cup heavy cream
Just before ready to use the ganache, combine the chocolate chips and heavy cream together in a small bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir. If the chocolate chips aren’t melted, microwave another 14 seconds, take out and stir. Repeat as needed until chocolate is melted and cream and chocolate has come together.
Assembly
On one of the cakes, spread the filing. Place the second layer bottom side up on top of the first layer.
Spread a thin layer of frosting around the sides and top for the crumb coat. Refrigerate 15 to 20 minutes. Take out the cake and frost the cake.
Chill the cake another 10 minutes. Spread the ganache on top and allow to drip down the sides. Decorate the top with remaining frosting, chocolate chips and cookies.
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