Eggless Chocolate Peppermint Cake

My 238th recipe, "Eggless Chocolate Peppermint Cake", with Buttercream icing, Chocolate Ganache topping and White Chocolate decorations. It is time for a big celebration. Revi's Foodography is officially 1 year old now. What started on a Karthigai Deepam day in 2014 as a hobby has now gone a full circle and has become a passion for Cooking, Photography and Blogging. Thanks everyone who have been supporting me and my efforts all the while. It would not have been such a fruitful journey without all your encouragement.

Special occassions like these requires special recipes. To me there is nothing more special than chocolate. Chocolate might be everyone's favorite however I am of the extreme kind. I always make sure to keep some in my refrigerator and munch away whenever I feel so. Soon after lunch is when I love to have atleast a small bite of chocolate. At times, I will be out of stock of other candies and bars. But that wouldnt stop me from having my favorite chocolate. For sure, I would have some chocolate morsels in my freezer stocked up for baking 😉 I would just slip few of them into my mouth to satisfy my chocolate cravings 🙂 Nestle Toll House Semisweet Morsels and Premium White Morsels are two of my favorites for those occasions. And such is my crazy love for chocolates.

When I decided to make a celebration cake for my blog's 1st anniversary, it was easy enough to decide making a eggless chocolate cake. However, I didn't feel that a celebration would be complete, without adding some holiday flavors, especially at this time of the year. Peppermint is one flavor I love and during these holiday times tend to see it everywhere.

I knew that chocolate and peppermint would go well with each other. So decided to add my own spin and remixed my eggless chocolate cake recipe to turn it into a holiday special Eggless Chocolate Peppermint cake. The cake itself is so moist and soft that no one will believe you when you tell them that there are no eggs added.

Also, the recipe is pretty straight forward and you would just need 2 mixing bowls and a baking pan 🙂 As simple as that. And the icing perfectly compliments the cake with the peppermint flavor, the green color and the right amount of sweetness. The perfect icing for the cake 😉

Eventhough the cake turned out super delicious and with the holiday peppermint flavor singing and dancing through it, to me it was still missing some decadence. What could possibly add more decadence to an already delicious cake ? There is surely a way out. I decided to make the perfect chocolate ganache with the Nestle Toll House Semisweet Morsels. The chocolate morsels in themself are very flavorful and all you need is just some heavy cream to melt them.

Adds a nice shine to your cake and the perfect match for the peppermint flavored cake and icing. Still there was one last puzzle to solve. How can I leave the chocolate ganache layer blank. Of course I cannot. So I decided to go the unconventional way and made some decorations using white chocolate. It cant get any easier than these. It is so simple to make, by melting a bunch of Nestle Toll House Premium White Morsels, but people will think that you have spent hours making them. Surely, a 'my' kind of decoration 🙂

Eggless Chocolate Peppermint Cake

Eggless Chocolate Peppermint Cake

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Total Time 2 hrs

Servings 8

Youtube Video

Ingredients

  

For Chocolate Peppermint Cake (makes TWO 8X8 cake)

• All purpose flour - 3 Cups
• Baking Cocoa Powder - ⅔ Cups I used Nestle Toll House Cocoa
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Baking soda - 1 tsp
• Sugar - 1 ½ Cup
• Instant coffee powder - 2 tsp
• Melted Butter - 1 Cup
• Milk - 2 Cups slightly warm
• Peppermint extract - 4 tsp
• White distilled vinegar - ¼ Cup

For Icing

• Butter - 1 Cup softened, at room temperature
• Confectionary Sugar - 3 Cups
• Peppermint extract - 1 tsp
• Green Food Color - 1 pinch
• Heavy cream - 1 Tbsp

For chocolate Ganache

• Heavy cream - ½ Cup
• Nestle Toll House Semisweet Morsels - ⅔ Cup

For white chocolate decoration

• Nestle Toll House Premier White Morsels - ½ cup

Instructions

 

• First, add all the dry ingredients (all purpose flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, sugar, coffee powder) to a large mixing bowl. Mix well until combined.
  
    
• In a separate bowl, add the melted butter. To the melted butter, add the milk and peppermint extract. Mix well until combined. To the dry ingredients, add the wet mixture.
  
    
• Mix well until everything is combined into a smooth cake batter. Grease two 8X8 square pans and line them with a parchment paper. Also, preheat the oven to 375 F. Now, to the cake batter, add the vinegar.
  
    
• As soon as you add the vinegar the batter, it will react with the baking soda and turn white. Fold the cake batter until the vinegar is combined with the batter. It is perfectly fine when you see white streaks.
  
    
• Transfer the batter to the baking pans. Bake for about 25 mins until the cake is done in the center. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. Pull the cake from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  
    
  
    
• Once cooled, Slice a small portion from the top of the cake to make sure that the cake surface is flat.
  
    
• Now moving on with the icing. In a mixing bowl, add the softened butter and confectionery sugar. Using a hand mixer, beat in low speed until combined and fluffy. Add the peppermint extract, food color and beat in medium speed until combined. Finally add the heavy cream and beat in medium speed until the icing is nicely combined and fluffy.
  
    
• Place one of the cakes upright onto the cake board. Place small sheets of parchment paper under the cake so that it doesn’t get messy while icing. Add sufficient icing to the top of the cake and spread it out evenly with a spatula.Now place the other cake upside down onto the first cake. Similarly add the icing on top of the cake. Spread it evenly using the spatula. Do the same to the sides of the cake. Once the cake is completely iced, place it in the refrigerator until needed.
  
    
  
    
  
    
• We will now prepare the white chocolate decorations. Melt the White Morsels in a microwave. Once completely melted, let it sit for a short time. When it is warm and not hot, transfer it to a piping bag. Cut the tip of the bag and draw the necessary shapes on top of a parchment paper. Place it in the freezer until solid.
  
    
  
    
• Now we will now make the chocolate ganache. Slightly heat the ½ cup of heavy cream. Do not bring it to a boil, it should be only hot. To the cream, add the Nestle Toll House Semisweet Morsels. Wait for about 1 min. Then mix until the morsels are melted. Leave the ganache for a few mins until it thickens to the desired consistency.
  
    
  
    
  
    
• Pull out the cake from the fridge and pour the chocolate ganache over the top. Use a spatula to spread it out. Peel the white choco shapes from the parchment paper and place them on top of the cake.
  
    
  
    
• Enjoy.
  
    

Notes | FAQ

- Since I had only one 8X8 baking pan, I had baked twice using half the quantity of the ingredients mentioned each time.
- You can add the instant coffee powder either along with the dry ingredients or with the wet ingredients. I have shown both the methods. One in the step wise pics and one in the video.
- In case you do not find or like peppermint flavor, you can replace peppermint extract with vanilla extract.