Just this week I needed an easy, wonderful tasting dessert for a get together with friends. I also wanted to use some extra eggs up–as the chickens haven’t slowed down production this winter. I scanned my recipes and found a flour-less chocolate cake that fit the bill. It’s super rich, super easy, and uses 6 eggs!
To dress it up for the festive holidays, I decided to add a white chocolate “frosting” with crushed candy canes on top. The taste is like a decadent, better-than-you-can-imagine peppermint bark that’s dense, rich and creamy.
How to make Chocolate Cake with a Peppermint Twist:
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
9 Tablespoons butter (1 stick plus 1 Tablespoon extra)
18 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used half semi-sweet chocolate chips with half extra dark chocolate chips)
6 eggs
Topping:
2-3 mini candy canes
8 oz white chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon butter
Preheat oven to 350.
Butter a 10″ spring-form pan, line the bottom with parchment and wrap the outside of pan with 3 layers of foil (to cover the bottom and up the sides). Place spring-form pan inside a larger roasting pan and fill with hot water (to rise about half way up the sides of the spring-form pan).
Add water and sugar to saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Simmer for 5 minutes.
In second saucepan, add butter and chocolate. Stir until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing them in well.
Pour mixture into spring-form pan and place in oven. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until center is set when gently jiggled.
Cool on wire rack before placing in refrigerator. (Cake tastes best if you have time to refrigerate it overnight).
Topping: Break up candy canes (I used my Vitamix, but you can also use a hammer!) and place in bowl. Melt white chocolate with butter and spread over top of cooled cake. Sprinkle candy pieces on top.
Besides the taste, which is out of this world, the next best thing is that your friends and family will think you spent hours in the kitchen to create this dessert! That right there is a win/win in my books. (Plus, you’ll also get to lick the bowls when you’re done!)
Enjoy!
P.S. We just ate the cake last night and it was wonderful…however, in my enthusiasm to cover the cake with a thick layer of white chocolate, I didn’t take into consideration that it would be HARD to cut through that thick layer. In the future, I think I will reduce the white chocolate on the top layer to 1/2 cup instead of a whole cup. This will still give the same great flavor, but be easier to cut through and therefore easier to eat.
(However, even with the thick upper layer, the cake was a hit last night and people wanted the recipe!)
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Chocolate Peppermint-Twist Cake
You can find Kerrie at City Girl Farming.
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CindyP says:
Looks good, Kerrie! I myself would leave all the toppping….a candybar on top of a cake! What could be better 😉
On December 23, 2010 at 6:31 am
Pete says:
OH My! That looks absolutely WONDERFUL! I’m with Cindy – the solid piece of white choc on top would just be candy added to cake with candy, and great. But, I can see that it could make cutting it a problem.
Would making a white chocolate frosting with lots of white chocolate pieces/chunks in it (and still finish with the peppermint pieces) have the same effect but make cutting easier?
On December 23, 2010 at 8:16 am
oneoldgoat says:
That looks delicious! I may have to give it a try. You are so lucky that your chickens are still laying!
Beth
On December 23, 2010 at 9:04 am
Judy says:
The cake looks yummy…I agree with Beth,SOOO nice to have fresh eggs. No one in our area has eggs right now.
On December 23, 2010 at 11:56 am
Kerrie says:
I’ve thought of another variation to try since making this cake. Next time I think I might reduce the dark chocolate by half, and pour half the sugar water in, use half the eggs, and then repeat with white chocolate and mix the candies into the white layer batter…pour the chocolate layer on the bottom, the white layer on top and bake. This would give the cake the same consistancy overall, but still have the same flavors as the above recipe…but yes, the candy bar on top was pretty tasty…so maybe I’d just leave it too! 🙂
On December 23, 2010 at 1:25 pm
AspenFlower says:
This cake looks so good! I love peppermint candies. One of my favorite ways to use it, is by making peppermint bark. There’s also a local ice-cream shop in my area that makes delicious peppermint milk shakes. I’ve tried making the milk shakes at home, they’re pretty simple. Just use ice cream & milk like you would making a regular shake, and then add crushed peppermint candies. These shakes are oh, so yummy. Thanks for cake recipe by the way! I’m definitely going to give this one a try!
On September 19, 2012 at 2:33 am