Peppermint Stick Snack Cake with Marshmallow Buttercream: A Piece of Cake #45

So leave *this* peppermint stick for old Saint Nick

Jingle your bells, deck your halls, and pull out your best Dickensian caroling outfit: The holidays are upon us. And here’s a little treat of a cake for this festive season of parties and gatherings. The layer cake version of this one was a best-seller back in the MeMe’s Diner days, and I still have people tell me it was their favorite of all the cakes. This snack cake version is topped with easy but impressive buttercream peppermint stick stripes.

memesdiner

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The base of this cake is again my tried and true chocolate cake, adapted years ago from Martha Stewart. It’s an old-fashioned hot water chocolate cake, which means it will stay moist for days, and more importantly, that it’s sturdy enough to take a lot of peppermint schnapps brushed into it. Yep, there’s your festive twist: this cake doubles down on the wintery mintiness, both in the buttercream and in the cake. Use as much schnapps (or as little) as you’d like here! For a non-boozy version, put a couple of teaspoons of peppermint extract into the cake batter prior to baking.

The buttercream on this cake utilizes one of my favorite not-so-secret ingredients, marshmallow fluff. Beating in a tub of fluff to a classic American buttercream gives it an incredible texture that your guests won’t quite be able to place at first. It’s light, it’s creamy, and most importantly, it’s really easy. 

Speaking of easy, the piping style I used is a simple-but-effective way to give a snack cake a holiday party makeover. Using a small paintbrush, I painted stripes inside the piping bag. Then I carefully loaded the bag with peppermint buttercream and piped straight, diagonal lines across the cake. The stripes in the back blurred just enough, giving the piped icing festive candy-cane-like stripes. For this cake, I used a medium-sized round tip. To make the lines nice and even I started in the center and worked my way out on both sides. Obviously, you can just slather on the peppermint buttercream in any fashion you’d like to, but showing up to a party with this candy-striped confection is an easy way to win Best Guest of the Night. No one needs to know just how simple it was. 

A big thank you to Hunter’s parents for letting us shoot this recipe in their beautiful home.

By the way, this is your sign to buy a cheap set of paintbrushes to have ready for food-related projects. I bought a variety pack for under $10 years ago and keep them with all my pastry decorating tools. You never know when you’re going to want to watercolor some cookies, or gold leaf a special-occasion treat! 

This is just the start of my holiday sweet recipes to come out this week. Coming very soon, I’ve got a full cookie spread for subscribers, with three new cookie recipes I can’t wait to share. 

Peppermint Stick Snack Cake with Marshmallow Buttercream

For the cake

¾ cup cocoa powder, I used very dark nice cocoa, but whatever you have in your pantry is fine

1 ½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ cup sugar

6 tablespoons canola oil

¾ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

¾ cup very hot water

Peppermint schnapps, for brushing. If omitting the schnapps, add 2 tsp of peppermint extract to the cake batter prior to baking. 

For the buttercream

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 - 7.5 ounce container of marshmallow fluff

Make the cake 

1. Sift together all the dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer: cocoa, salt, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar.

2. With the paddle attachment on medium-low, mix the oil, then buttermilk and vanilla. If omitting the peppermint schnapps, add the peppermint extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until fully incorporated.

3. Add the hot water and mix on low to start to avoid a mess. Gradually bring the speed up to medium, and mix until fully incorporated. Scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl and mix again to incorporate the scrapings. 

4. Line an 8-inch square cake pan with parchment and spray with pan spray. Pour in the cake batter and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Let it cool completely and remove from the pan. 

Make the buttercream

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until very light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, and mix in on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until very light and fluffy. 

2. Add the extract and the marshmallow fluff. Beat until well combined. Note: switch to the whisk attachment if you’re having trouble getting this to beat into a beautiful buttercream cloud. 

Assemble

1. Flip the cooled cake out of the pan and place face-up on the serving plate. If desired, trim the top of the cake flat for a tidier finished appearance. Eat the trimming as a snack. 

2. Brush the cake liberally with peppermint schnapps.

3. Fit a 14” piping bag with a round tip. Using a red gel food dye and a small brush, paint 4 stripes on the interior of the piping bag. Fill the piping bag with buttercream. 

4. Squeeze a little out onto a plate or in a small bowl just to get the stripes started. Once the buttercream is piping out striped, start by making a straight diagonal line from corner to corner of the cake. Then fill in the top, piping stripes directly next to another. 

   

Quick Bites: 

• Our friends over at Jono Pandolfi just started their annual holiday sale pop-up! Sign up through their site. Not an ad! But what are the holidays about, if not telling people where they can get discounted handmade ceramics?

  jonopandolfi

  

  A post shared by Jono Pandolfi Designs (@jonopandolfi)

• King Arthur Baking just released their holiday cookie recipes and, of course, they're great. David Tamarkin and the team pulled together 14 (!) cookie recipes, and I’m already picking the ones I want to bake. Plus the photos are gorge.  

  kingarthurbaking

  

  A post shared by King Arthur Baking Company (@kingarthurbaking)

• I’ve been burning through books this fall, here are a few of my recent favorites: 

  • The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

  • The Family by Naomi Krupitsky

  • Life at the Dakota by Stephan Birmingham 

  • Stanley Tucci’s new memoir Taste is great, and I highly recommend the audio version. And yes, it’s read by the author.

    

  A Piece of Cake is written by Bill Clark and edited by Andrew Spena. Photography by Hunter Abrams. Logo design by Brett LaBauve.