I did, however, get my act together enough to whip up a special birthday cake. The birthday boy in question is fond of chocolate and mint, so I scoured the internet to try to find a mint chocolate cake. I never really found anything that was close to what I was looking for, so I combined several recipes into one to suit my needs.
I wasn't quite ready to try my hand at making a cake from scratch, so I went looking for a boxed chocolate cake mix. I ended up with Devil's Food because stores don't seem to sell just "chocolate cake" mix any longer. I think in the future, I would pick something that was more chocolatey, like chocolate fudge cake.
I followed the directions on the box and made two round nine inch layers. During the mixing process, I added a tiny bit (maybe half a teaspoon) of peppermint extract because I was worried that the frosting wouldn't be minty enough, but this turned out to be unnecessary and I would actually advise against it, especially if using the devil's food flavored cake. It wasn't bad tasting, I just think it would have been better and more subtle without the extra mint flavoring.
To go between the two layers, I made my own mint frosting.
Mint Frosting
- 1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons), softened
- 2 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 tablespoon water *
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and beat until whipped and fluffy.
* I found that 1 tablespoon of water was not nearly enough and butter/sugar was flying everywhere when I was using my hand mixer. I poured in more water until it softened everything up and created a frosting-like consistency while I was blending.
After spreading that on top of the bottom layer, I placed the top layer on it and used a serrated knife to level the cake. I chose just a plain chocolate frosting to go over the cake and then decorated it with some white piping. It wasn't quite as tasty as a thin mint, but it was well-received and a good starting point if I wanted to improve upon the recipe in the future.
I ended up having to freeze a good portion of this cake. I cut into slices, put each slice in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes or just long enough to harden the frosting, and then wrapped each slice first in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil before throwing them in a Zip-Lock bag. Here's hoping it keeps well.