Peppermint Mocha Hot Cocoa Cake ~ #TheCakeSliceBakers

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so......." hang on, since this is Hawaii the weather is only frightful in the heat of September/October or if a hurricane is coming. That doesn't stop us from celebrating the winter season with yummy cakes.

This is the second to last cake that The Cake Slice Bakers will be baking from The Perfect Cake. This has been such a wonderful cookbook to bake through, and one that I know I will turn to again and again to get just the perfect cake for any event. At the moment I am batting 11 out of 11 for successful cakes baked each month, and I don't think that has happened in any of the books I have baked from before. #atkcake

Fall will soon be a distant memory, and the snow is coming down already in some areas and the cake choices this month reflect the beginning of that magical holiday time of the year - Hot Cocoa Cake, Spice Cake, Cranberry-Sour Cream Pound Cake, and Yule Log. I was taken with the whimsical look of the Hot Cocoa Cake and how it mimicked the look of a cup of hot cocoa, so that was my choice.

Although it may look like a lot of work, this cake is surprisingly easy to put together, especially if you make the cake layers the day before. The other two components are the marshmallow creme filling which needs about 30-45 minutes in the fridge to set up and the hot cocoa flavoring for the whipped cream that needs to cool to room temperature. The only thing that gave me a little trouble was the whipped cream frosting as it was extremely soft, but that is only because it was a warm day.

Of course I could not follow the recipe exactly as it was written and decided to turn this into one of my favorite Starbucks drinks - the Peppermint Mocha Hot Chocolate. I achieved this by omitting the vanilla essence in the marshmallow creme and adding peppermint essence in its place.  This was a great contrast to the chocolate in the cake. My husband commented that he was glad I added peppermint as he thought the cake would have been just too sweet without it. Then, for the chocolate cream mixture I whisked in 1 tablespoon of espresso powder before it was poured over the white chocolate chips. I loved the depth of flavor it added to the frosting and how it brought the cake together to mimic the Peppermint Mocha. This is one of those cakes that looks like a show-stopper cake but is really quite easy to put together - that can be our little secret. Besides looking oh-so-fancy it is also delicious as the cake has a lovely crumb, the peppermint creme has the bite, and the chocolate-coffee frosting adds the creaminess. Seriously, make this cake and quite possibly there may not even be a crumb left.

America's Test Kitchen has asked us not to publish the recipes for the cakes we bake, and I want to honor that because they have been so amazing to work with, so you can find the recipe for this cake on page 276 of The Perfect Cake. Of course I encourage everyone to run out and purchase the book so that you can have access to all of the amazing recipes, but this recipe may be available online if you search for it.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!



Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes, or visit our blog where the links are updated each month. If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

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