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December 29, 2008

Chocolate Peppermint Cake

Earlier this year, I had a dream about a cake...a single-layer chocolate cake with peaks of fluffy white icing and a topping of crushed candy canes...and I knew I'd have to make that cake around Christmas.

It didn't, however, turn out to be the cake of my dreams. The 7-minute frosting wasn't light and fluffy (I'm not sure what I did wrong). So, instead of icing the entire cake, I just drizzled the icing (which still tasted good!) over each piece & sprinkled on the crushed peppermint canes.

Even though Christmas is over, I'll bet you still have a few candy canes left on the tree. This is a yummy--and easy--way to use up them up before (or after) you take down the tree.

Chocolate Peppermint Cake
adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake
& Smitten Kitchen's Seven Minute Frosting


For the cake:
4 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
  • Sift the cocoa, flour, salt, baking soda, & baking powder.
  • In a separate bowl, beat the butter & sugar until light & fluffy.
  • Add the egg & mix until incorporated.
  • Add 1/2 of the dry ingredients, then the water & milk, then the rest of the flour...mixing each addition in fully.
  • Pour batter into a buttered 9-inch cake pan with a parchment circle on the bottom (butter underneath & on top of the parchment).
  • Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  • Cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minute or so, then remove from pan and continue cooling on a rack.
For the icing:
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • Combine frosting ingredients with a pinch of salt in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and beat with a handheld electric mixer at high speed until frosting is thick and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes.
  • Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat until slightly cooled.

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