Candy Cane Cake

So, I made this cake up for the most part. Emma kept sending me pictures of peppermint cake in emails and saying she wanted me to make her one. So, I did. And it was awesome. It gets a 9, if not a bit higher. This is probably one of the best cakes I make. The official name should be chocolate cake with white chocolate peppermint mousse layers and peppermint ganache, but that is a ridiculous name, so I have shortened it.

So, here is what I did. First, use the Devil’s Food Cake recipe from Fine Cooking magazine that I blogged a few minutes ago. Put it in 2 9” cake pans (I baked mine for about 20 minutes), cool, and then you will cut each of those in half so you have a total of 4 layers of cake.

In between the layers, you put white chocolate peppermint mouse, which I blogged a few minutes ago as well. I had a bit left over, and you only have 3 layers of mousse since the top of the cake just gets decorated, but I used probably about 80% of the mousse recipe as filling. Anyway, you put your mousse in the middle and slowly spread it out to the edges. Don’t go all the way to the edge or when you put the next layer on it will push the mousse out and it will drip down the sides. And, it will make the cake too easy to move from side to side and look uneven, so cover about 85% of the cake layer with the mousse, and you should be good.

So, after you have all your layers assembled, you frost it with peppermint ganache. Once again, I didn’t write this down, and I kind of improvised, so as far as I remember, here is what I did.

Peppermint Ganache

12 oz. dark chocolate

1 1/2 cups cream

pinch salt

2 T. butter

1 1/2 – 2 tsp. peppermint extract

So, you basically pour the cream over the dark chocolate and the butter. You melt that down in a stainless steel bowl over boiling water, stirring constantly. When it’s off the heat, I added the salt and the peppermint. Now, keep in mind, I was randomly adding bits of peppermint extract until it ended up tasting like melted Andes mints. In other words, the amount is a guestimate. I know I used at least 1 1/4 tsp., so start there and add a bit more at a time until it tastes right. Anyway, you stir it about every 10 or 15 minutes until it starts to set up a bit. This won’t take more than an hour.

After your layers are assembled, you put the ganache on the cake. Put a glob in the middle and frost outward, and then to frost the sides I put a small glob right on the edge and use my flat spatula to smooth out the sides from there. When you are done, I put chopped peppermint bark on the top, and then crushed candy canes on the sides. From there, I took some in my hands and kind of just pushed it into the side of the cake and it stuck. Do this before your ganache sets up. Anyway, this cake is a crowd pleaser!