My fellow Baked Sunday Morning members are making this glorious Wintermint Cake today, and it’s so perfect for the season. It’s three layers of rich chocolate cake, stacked up with peppermint chocolate ganache and peppermint buttercream. Can’t you just picture eating a lovely slice with a cup of hot chocolate, or coffee spiked with Bailey’s, after your Christmas dinner, while snow falls softly outside your window?
But I didn’t make this cake this weekend. Oh no. I made it on a hot, humid, sweltering afternoon in the middle of August in 2013 with my air conditioning blasting. This was one of the recipes I tested for Baked Occasions! Instead of making it again, I thought I would just reflect back on my testing experience. (Update: I totally should have made it again! Check out Christine just whipping one up the day after her holiday party because she forgot to take pictures! She’s my hero!)
I revisited the notes I provided while testing, and compared them to the recipe as printed in the book. I thought it was kind of fun how I wrote that I found that the peppermint flavour of the buttercream was very subtle, and the Baked boys added a note in the book that the cake is “pepperminty, but not overly so; we prefer subtle peppermint flavor” and then mention that you can add a touch more extract for more intense peppermint-iness.
My own personal learning experience was to NOT spread the peppermint ganache right to the edges of the cake, because it can end up getting swirled into your crumb coat, like so:
Finally, when the recipe was sent to me for testing, it did not yet include the instructions for ombre frosting that appear in the book. I’m not sure if I would have been brave enough to attempt it anyway, but make sure you check out my fellow BSMers who had great success with this technique!
I can’t stress enough how amazing this cake is! It was by far my favourite of the recipes I tested for the book, and if your family likes chocolate and mint, this is a must make over the holidays!
You can find the recipe here!
More Baked Sunday Mornings here!
SandraM
December 26, 2014 9:12 pmBeautiful cake. The layers look perfect.
Susan
December 22, 2014 11:53 pmHow fun! I love seeing which comments made a difference.
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Robyn! Looking forward to continuing our baking journey in 2015!
Littlebakerbunny
December 22, 2014 9:21 pmThis is definitely one of my favorite Baked recipes, too! I’m glad that you were one of the testers, because your cake looks perfect! And thanks for the shout out — but I will use any excuse to bake a layer cake! 🙂
Sarah
December 22, 2014 8:31 pmLooks so tasty! So glad we got to be a part of the testing process… What a great experience! 🙂
Dafna | Stellina Sweets
December 22, 2014 6:20 pmBeautiful job, Robyn! Wow, I would not want to make this in August, but hey, at least it must have been refreshing, right?! This really is a special cake. I know, it’s cool how the tester feedback was taken into consideration in the final recipes/write-ups. 😀
Sheri
December 21, 2014 9:48 pmIt’s so interesting to see how the tester feedback got incorporated into the final recipes! You’re so brave for making this cake in the middle of summer.
Nicole
December 21, 2014 9:32 pmI know you mentioned this cake right after Occasions came out and I was really excited to make it ever since. So cool that your suggestion to potentially up the peppermint was included in the book and that you got to review the recipes. Your cake, although ombre free, still looks amazing.