Chocolate Peppermint Cake
This rich and delicious Chocolate Peppermint Cake is a festive pound cake with fantastic chocolate flavor and a velvety soft texture.
We decorated the cake with a rich chocolate glaze and crushed candy canes for the Christmas season, but the combination of chocolate and mint is a year round favorite (as with our Mint Chocolate Chip Cake and Mint Oreo Cake recipes)!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
We love this Chocolate Peppermint Pound Cake for so many reasons! Pound cakes and bundt cakes are almost always quick and easy from start to finish. That is certainly the case here!
This a quick and simple whipping cream pound cake recipe with an added dose of chocolate and peppermint, and a rich ganache glaze.
The delicious chocolate flavor comes from cocoa powder combined with heated whipping cream. This blooms the cocoa powder to intensify the flavor, and we also used a bit of instant coffee to give the chocolate an added boost.
Key Ingredients
- Heavy Whipping Cream
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (we used Ghirardelli brand)
- Flavorings: Peppermint Extract & Vanilla Extract
- Instant Coffee/Espresso Granules (optional)
- Unsalted Butter (salt is added separately)
- Sugar
- Large Eggs add structure, richness, and emulsify the batter.
- Cake Flour makes for an extra tender cake
- Baking Powder for a bit of lift
- Salt to enhance the flavors
*We topped the finished cake with a rich chocolate ganache glaze (chocolate chips + heavy cream) and a sprinkling of crushed candy canes.
How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Cake
You can find the full, printable recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a large bundt pan or tube pan. (Ours was 10 inches)
- Cocoa Mixture: Next, we combined the cocoa powder with heated whipping cream, whisking to combine. We added a bit of instant coffee granules , vanilla, and peppermint extract. Set to the side.
- Flour Mixture: In a separate bowl add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- Creaming the Butter and Sugar: Next, add the butter to the bowl of your mixer, mixing on medium until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium until fluffy and lightened in color (4-5 minutes).
- Adding the Eggs: Scrape the bowl down as needed. Mixing on low to medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing to blend after each addition.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the whipping cream/cocoa mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture. **Mix just until combined. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a long wooden skewer or toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. (Bake times may vary.)
- Allow the pound cake to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes before turning out.
Chocolate Glaze
Once the cake had cooled, we added a rich chocolate glaze to the top. This is a simple ganache glaze made in the microwave by heating chocolate and heavy cream, plus a bit of peppermint extract.
The glaze can be spooned over the cooled cake, or drizzled over the top with a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. While the ganache is still soft, sprinkle crushed candy canes on top.
More Cakes
Thanks so much for stopping by today. We hope that you enjoy this Chocolate Peppermint Cake! If you give it a try, we would love to hear from you!
We have many more Christmas cake recipes to share with you as well as many more chocolate cake recipes!
Some of our favorites are our Peppermint Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and Triple Chocolate Cake from cake mix. We'd love for you to check them out! We also have a great collection of Christmas Cake Design ideas.
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Chocolate Peppermint Cake
Ingredients
- 1⅔ cup Heavy Whipping Cream (387g)
- ¾ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder, sifted (62g) (measure first, then sift. If using a dry measuring cup, lightly spoon and level for most accurate measurement.)
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (8g)
- 1½ teaspoons Peppermint Extract (6g)
- 1 Tablespoon Instant Coffee/Espresso Granules (optional) We do this to further enhance the chocolate flavor.
- 1½ cups unsalted butter, softened (Equivalent to 3 sticks or 339g)
- 3 cups sugar (600g)
- 5 large eggs
- 3 cups Cake Flour (342g) (We used Swan's Down)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (2g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
For the Chocolate Glaze
- 4 oz Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate (Today we used Ghirardelli mini semi-sweet chocolate chips)
- 3 oz Heavy Whipping Cream
- ¼ teaspoon Peppermint Extract (optional) Adjust amount to your liking!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a large bundt pan or tube pan. (Ours was 10 inches)
- In a medium to large glass measuring cup or microwave safe bowl, heat the whipping cream until very warm/hot *but not boiling.*(Heat in 30-40 second increments, adjusting time as needed until hot).
- Next, stir the cocoa powder into the heated heavy whipping cream to dissolve (you may prefer a whisk for this). Stir in the tablespoon of instant coffee/espresso granules (this is optional but deepens the chocolate flavor). Stir in the vanilla extract and peppermint extract. Set this mixture to the side to cool.
- Flour Mixture: In a separate bowl add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- Next, add the butter to the bowl of your mixer, mixing on medium until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium until fluffy and lightened in color, this will take 4-5 minutes.
- Scrape the bowl down as needed. Mixing on low to medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, mixing to blend after each addition.
- Time to put it all together! With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the whipping cream/cocoa mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture. (We do three additions of the flour mixture and 2 additions of the whipping cream mixture.) **Mix just until combined. Then, scoop the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a long wooden skewer or toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Ovens bake differently so check at around the 1 hour mark and adjust the baking time as needed. (Also, if your bundt pan is smaller than ours, the batter will be deeper and therefore take longer to bake through).
- Allow the pound cake to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 5-10 minutes before turning out. Allow to cool before adding the glaze. (The chocolate glaze will become more thin if applied to a hot cake).
For the Chocolate Glaze
- Combine the 4 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate and 3 oz. heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave in small increments (30 seconds or less), stirring occasionally in between, until the chocolate is *almost* completely melted. Allow it to sit for a minute or two and stir until smooth. If using peppermint extract, you can stir it in now as well. (Start with less extract than you think you'll need and increase to your liking.)
- This glaze will thicken as it sits and cools. Spoon over the cooled cake, or drizzle using a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) with the tip/corner snipped away.
- As a final step, we sprinkled the glaze with crushed candy canes.
Storage
- This cake is fine to sit at room temperature under a cake dome, airtight container, etc. for 2-3 days. After that, I would move to the refrigerator for freshness. **If refrigerated, the cake firms up (because butter firms up when chilled) and so you'll want to remove from the refrigerator a few hours before serving (or pop slices into the microwave to warm & soften).