Chocolate Candy Cane Cake

On Sunday night, Kensington hosted her very own Ugly Sweater Party with some friends.  When I asked her what she wanted on the menu, she said, “Mom, can you make a Chocolate Candy Cane Cake?”.  Um, YEAH!  Two of my favorite flavors in one cake?  Totally!  Since we were entertaining six girls, I thought it would be fun (and a little special) to make a stacked cake.  #hellolayers  Who doesn’t want a piece of cake with chocolate followed by two layers of frosting?  So, I baked up two cakes (each in 9″ round cake pans) and then frosted in-between.  Now, I went super easy and fancied up store bought frosting, but of course, you can use homemade.  I have a Peppermint Buttercream recipe HERE.  The result?  Very happy girls in ugly sweaters 🙂 .

This recipe makes one cake.

Shopping List
1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
½ cup butter, softened
3 cups of light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
a pinch of salt
12 oz of sour cream (so 1 (8oz) container plus half of another one)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 cans of buttercream frosting (or make it from scratch!)
1 (10 oz) package of peppermint crunch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease (I used Pam) two (9 inch) round cake pans.  Set aside.

Pour your chocolate chips into a microwaveable bowl and melt (I stopped to stir about every 30 seconds until it was melted).  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat your butter and brown sugar until nice and fluffy (it takes a few minutes).  Next, beat in your eggs until just combined.  Beat in your melted chocolate chips.  Set bowl aside.

In a second mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda and salt.  Beat this flour mixture into your chocolate mixture alternating with the sour cream (I did flour, sour cream, flour, sour cream and then finished with flour).  Beat in your peppermint extract.

Divide batter between your two prepared cake pans and pop in the oven to bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

When your cakes are done, remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before inverting them on to a plate.  Allow them to finish cooling completely before frosting.

Now, I scooped both cans of frosting into a mixing bowl and then added in almost all of the bag of peppermint crunch (reserving just a bit for garnish).  I stirred the frosting and crunch together.  Take one cake and frost the top of it.  Once it’s frosted, add the second cake right on top and then frost the top of that one.  Take your remaining peppermint crunch and sprinkle it down over the top.

Serve and enjoy!!