Chocolate Mint Cake with Mint Cream Cheese Frosting
This Mint Chocolate Cake features rich chocolate layers filled with creamy mint cream cheese frosting and topped with a silky chocolate ganache. The mint flavor comes entirely from the frosting, giving each bite a refreshing finish that feels both classic and elegant.
Equipment
- stand or hand mixer
- large mixing bowl if using a hand mixer (If you don't have a mixer, you can mix by hand with a whisk.)
- medium mixing bowl
- large spoon
- small saucepan
- whisk
- measuring cups and spoons
- glass measuring cup
- Rubber/silicone spatula
- 3 6-inch round cake pans or two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans
- cake turntable (optional)
- Cooling grid
- small icing spatula (for loosening the cakes from the pans and frosting your cakes)
- toothpicks
- paper towels for cooling your cakes on the cooling grid
- 1M piping tip (optional)
- large coupler (optional)
- large piping bag (optional)
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 tbsp vegetable shortening, for greasing the pans
- 1 3/4 cups (224g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (75g) cocoa
- 1 1/2 tsp (7.5g) baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp (6g) baking powder
- 1 tsp (5.5g) salt
- 2 cups (402g) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (227g) milk
- 1/2 cup (108g) vegetable oil
- 2 tsp (9g) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (227g) boiling water
For the mint cream cheese frosting
**If frosting the cake as pictured with rosettes and a border around the chocolate ganache: Make double the cream cheese frosting recipe.**
- 1 cup (226g) butter, softened (2 sticks)
- 2 8 oz (454) cream cheese, softened (2 bricks)
- 5 cups (565g) powdered sugar
- 2 tsp (9g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp (2.5g) mint extract, or more to taste (See hint below.)
- 1 toothpick green gel food color, or more depending on how deep you want the color
For the chocolate ganache
- 2/3 cup (113g) semi-sweet chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 1/4 cup (57g) heavy whipping cream
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease the bottom of three 8-inch round cake pans with shortening. (You can also use two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans.) Trace and cut two circles of parchment paper and press into the bottom of each pan. Grease the inside of both pans and the parchment with shortening.
- Flour (or cocoa powder) each pan and set aside. (If you don’t have parchment, you can grease and flour without it. It just makes it way easier to get the cake out with it.)
- Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl. Whisk ingredients together until combined.
- Add milk, eggs, vegetable oil and vanilla extract to the dry ingredients.
- Using your paddle attachment, beat on low for 30 seconds until dry ingredients are wet. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a silicone/rubber spatula.
- Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes until ingredients are combined. While the batter is mixing, start boiling your water. Scrape down the sides of your bowl.
- Pour boiling water into batter and mix on low, gradually going up to medium for 30 seconds until combined. The batter will be very thin.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pans evenly.
- Bake cakes for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs attached. (If using two 8 or 9-inch pans, bake for 30-35 minutes.)
- Remove cakes from oven and let cool on a wire grid for 10 minutes.
- Loosen the sides of the cakes from the pans with a small spatula and turn the cakes out onto wire rack. (Hint: I usually line my wire rack with paper towels and turn the cake out onto them. If the cake sticks, you can just peel the paper towels off.)
- Let cakes cool completely before frosting. (1 hour or more.)
For the mint cream cheese frosting
- Add softened butter and cream cheese to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl.
- Beat butter and cream cheese on medium speed until light and creamy. Scrape down the bowl when needed.
- Gradually add powdered sugar, mixing after every addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Add vanilla and mint extracts. Mix until combined.
- Hint: When trying to determine how much mint extract to add to your frosting, add a little at a time (1/8 tsp) and refrigerate for 30 minutes and taste before adding more. The taste tends to evolve over time.
- Using a toothpick, add small amounts of green gel food color at a time to the cream cheese frosting. Mix after every addition until you get the color that you like. (The color deepens with time, so don’t add too much.)You can mix in the gel color with the paddle attachment on the mixer or do it by hand. I find it easiest to mix in the color with the mixer.
- Frosting Yield: One batch makes about 6 cups of frosting, enough to fill and frost an 8-inch 3-layer cake with a smooth finish and no decorations. For the cake pictured with rosettes piped around the sides and a border around the ganache, I recommend making 2 batches of frosting. You may have extra frosting left over either way, but it depends how heavily you frost and decorate.
- Fill each layer with mint cream cheese frosting.
- Note: If you're just frosting a smooth cake with no ganache, you can skip the crumb coat and the ganache and just frost your cake as desired.
- Frost the cake with a crumb coat of the cream cheese frosting and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, or the freezer for 15 minutes.
For the chocolate ganache
- Add chocolate chips to a medium mixing bowl.
- Add heavy whipping cream to a small saucepan and bring to a simmer on medium heat.
- Pour simmering cream into a mixing bowl with the chocolate chips. Let sit for 2-5 minutes.
- Mix cream and chocolate chips together until you have a glossy ganache with no lumps.
- Cool your ganache at room temperature for 15–20 minutes until it is just slightly warm to the touch and has a thick, honey-like consistency, rather than a thin liquid state. A chilled cake will cause the ganache to set quickly.
- Or, you can use the microwave: Microwave on high for 1 minute, then let it sit for 2–3 minutes to melt. Stir gently until smooth and glossy; if needed, reheat in 5-15 second intervals.
- Gradually spoon ganache onto the top of the cake. Don’t add too much or it will start to drip down the sides. We want the ganache layer to stop at 1/2 inch from the edge of the cake.
- Using a small offset spatula, smooth the ganache onto the cake until it has a generous amount that stops at 1/2 inch from the edge of the cake.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before frosting.
- Frost cake as desired.I used a large piping bag fitted with a large coupler and a 1M piping tip to make rosettes onto the side of the cake first. Then I used the same tip to make the vertical ruffle border around the ganache on the top of the cake.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Calorie content is based off of a simply frosted cake with ganache on top cut into 12 slices.
Refrigerator (Recommended)
Store the cake in the refrigerator in an airtight cake dome or loosely covered with plastic wrap for 5-7 days.
If your cake is decorated, to keep the heavy rosettes from falling off, chill the cake for 1-2 hours before fully wrapping to ensure the ganache and piping are solid.
Freezing Instructions
Flash Freeze: Place the entire cake (uncovered) in the freezer for 1-2 hours until the icing and ganache are solid.
Wrap and Protect: Once the cake is frozen, wrap tightly in plastic wrap (two layers) followed by a layer of aluminum foil.
Storage Time: Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Thawing: Thaw the cake in the refrigerator overnight, then bring to room temperature for 1-2 hours before serving.
Thawing: Thaw the cake in the refrigerator overnight, then bring to room temperature for 1-2 hours before serving.