This Chocolate Peppermint Cake is the perfect holiday treat! Rich, moist chocolate cake layers are infused with a hint of peppermint and paired with a light, fluffy peppermint whipped cream frosting. Finished with a sprinkle of crushed candy canes for extra crunch, it’s ideal for holiday parties or cozy nights in!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
If the combination of chocolate, peppermint, and whipped cream sounds irresistible, then this cake is sure to become a favorite! Here are a few reasons you’ll love this recipe:
Easy to Make – Both the cake and frosting are incredibly simple to prepare and come together in no time.
Super Moist – The chocolate peppermint cake layers are adapted from my beloved chocolate cake recipe—one of my all-time favorites! They’re incredibly moist, rich in flavor, and enhanced with a subtle hint of peppermint.
Perfect Flavor Balance – This recipe strikes the perfect harmony between chocolate and peppermint. The flavors complement each other beautifully, with just the right amount of each, so neither overwhelms the other. The whipped cream frosting also ensures the cake has the perfect amount of sweetness (not-too-sweet!).
Great Holiday Cake – This cake is the perfect holiday dessert, combining the rich, comforting warmth of chocolate with the cool, festive flavor of peppermint. The combination of flavors is indulgent yet refreshing, making it an ideal treat for holiday parties, family dinners, or simply enjoying by the fire.
For more holiday cake recipes, check out my popular fruit cake recipe as well as my pumpkin cake and gingerbread cake recipes!
How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Cake
Chocolate Cake
You can find the full list of ingredients for this gingerbread cake recipe in the recipe card at the end of the blog post (for easy navigation, hit the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the blog post). Here is a quick visual breakdown of the recipe (recipe video is also provided in the recipe card below).
Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional and grease two 8-inch pans (I use my homemade cake release). Line the bottoms with parchment paper as well.
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a whisk, mix until well combined. Set aside for now.
In a large bowl add in brown sugar, white sugar, milk, melted butter, unflavored vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla and peppermint extract/essence. Using a whisk, mix until well combined.
Add the flour mixture from earlier to the wet ingredients and mix with a whisk until just combined. Do not overmix.
Add in hot coffee and mix with a whisk until well combined. The mixture should be smooth, but avoid overmixing.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pans from earlier. Drop the cake pans lightly on the counter to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 35-38 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
Allow the cakes to cool in the cake pans for 20 minutes, before carefully turning them out onto a wire rack to completely cool. Once cooled, prepare the frosting.
Peppermint Whipped Cream Frosting
In a large bowl, combine mascarpone, powdered sugar, vanilla and peppermint extract/essence. Mix on a low speed until well combined and smooth. If using a stand mixer use the whisk attachment.
Add in heavy cream and mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds (to allow everything to combine without the cream splattering), and then turn up the speed to a medium-high and whip until you reach stiff peaks. Keep a careful eye on the mixture as you don’t want to overwhip the cream.
Assembly
Begin by levelling the tops of the cake layers. They’re already quite flat, so I only trim off a small amount.
Place the first cake layer onto your cake stand/serving plate and spread out a generous amount of frosting (I use my offset spatula).
Place your second cake layer on top and spread out a generous amount of frosting on the top and sides. You can use a cake scraper to smooth out the sides (see video demonstration). If you don’t want any chocolate cake crumbs getting into the frosting, then I recommend doing a crumb coat first. Check out this video for more tips on how to do that.
Place the remaining frosting into a piping bag with a 1M piping tip on it and pipe swirls around the top of the cake.
Place candy canes into a snaplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush them (you could use any type of peppermint candy) . I like to have a combination of smaller and larger pieces. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top. You can also use them to decorate the sides of the cake as well. Enjoy!
How to Store Peppermint Cake
This cake can be left out at room temperature for a couple of hours, but due to the whipped cream frosting, it will need to be refrigerated after that.
Place in an airtight container before putting it in the fridge to prevent the cake from drying out. For more tips on how to best store a cake in the fridge and prevent it from drying out, check out my blog post on 3 uncommon baking tips.
Moist Chocolate Peppermint Cake
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
Chocolate Peppermint Cake
- 1¾ cups (210 g) all purpose flour
- ¾ cup (75 g) cocoa powder - Dutch processed preferred (see note 1)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt - only use ½ tsp if using salted butter in this recipe
- 1 cup (200 g) soft light brown sugar
- 1 cup (200 g) white granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (180 g) milk - room temperature, whole milk
- ¼ cup (56 g) unsalted butter - melted
- ½ cup (105 g) unflavored vegetable oil - I use canola oil
- 2 large eggs - room temperature
- 2½ tsps vanilla extract/essence
- ¾ tsp peppermint extract/essence
- ¾ cup (180 g) strong hot coffee - I use 1 tbsp instant coffee powder in 180g (¾ cup) hot water, but you can use espresso as well.
Peppermint Whipped Cream Frosting
- 1½ cups (345 g) mascarpone - cold
- 1 cup (115 g) powdered sugar - also known as icing/confectioners' sugar
- 1½ tsps vanilla extract/essence
- 1½ tsps peppermint extract/essence
- 2¼ cups (515 g) heavy cream - cold
Extra
- 3 (or more) candy canes - for decorating. I crush mine (see video for demonstration).
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350°F) conventional (see note 2 if using a convection oven with a fan) and grease two 8-inch cake pans (I use my homemade cake release). Line the bottoms with parchment paper as well.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a whisk, mix until well combined. Set aside for now.
- In a large bowl add in brown sugar, white sugar, milk, melted butter, unflavored vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla and peppermint extract/essence. Using a whisk, mix until well combined.
- Add in presifted dry ingredients from earlier to the wet ingredients and mix with a whisk until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Add in hot coffee and mix with a whisk until well combined. The mixture should be smooth, but avoid overmixing.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans from earlier. Drop the cake pans lightly on the counter to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 35-38 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the cake pans for 20 minutes, before carefully turning them out onto a wire rack to completely cool. Once cooled, prepare the frosting.
Peppermint Whipped Cream Frosting
- In a large bowl, combine mascarpone, powdered sugar, vanilla and peppermint extract/essence. Mix on a low speed until well combined and smooth. If using a stand mixer use the whisk attachment.
- Add in heavy cream and mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds (to allow everything to combine without the cream splattering), and then turn up the speed to a medium-high and whip until you reach stiff peaks. Keep a careful eye on the mixture as you don't want to overwhip the cream.
- Once the cakes are cool you can assemble the cake and once ready to serve, sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top for a bit of extra texture (if you put them on too early they may melt). See blog post above or recipe video to see how I assembled mine 🙂
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
9 Comments
Hello Maryam,
I’m planning to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday..she loves choco mint flavour, so i was so excited when you release this recipe.. thank you so much..🤗
I want to know, will it be okay if i use cake flour, instead of all purpose in this recipe?
Hi Puci! So glad you’re wanting to give the recipe a go 😀
For this recipe I would recommend sticking with all purpose flour otherwise the cake may be a bit too soft (and will be more prone to breaking).
Hope that helps and hope your daughter loves the recipe 🙂
I know this cake is going to be amazing just like all your other recipes even before we make it but is there a substitute for the marscapone? Can I use cream cheese instead? Just can’t get to the shops and hubby want to make this one.
Hi Heather 🙂
Aww thank you so much! So glad you’re loving the recipes 😀
I haven’t tried with cream cheese myself and I wouldn’t recommend it as it will change the flavor profile of the cake and I’m not sure if cream cheese works well with chocolate peppermint (it may do though, just can’t say for sure as I haven’t tried it!). You could just stick to the whipped cream without any mascarpone (I would reduce the sugar though to maybe 1/4 cup), it’ll just be a little less stable but if you’re eating it the day it’s going to be made it should be fine 🙂
Hope that helps and hope you and your husband enjoy the recipe!
Wow wonderful 👍
Baked cake yesrerday-will responds later
A wonderful recipe! I served the cake to a family gathering yesterday-all rave reviews! So moist and flavorful-I used the gram measurements and baked at 180degrees in my conventional oven for 35minutes.
The frosting was so so creamy! It piped well although my piping skills need work!
Thank you so much for a wonderful recipe!
Aww yay! So glad everyone loved the recipe Leonie 😀
Sounds like you did an incredible job with the cake 🙂
Thanks so much Mukisa!
Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂