Peppermint White Chocolate cake. Deceptively delicious, instant holiday mood booster and in its defense pretty easy to make. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to this holiday slathered space I so love- specially during this time of the year- and today we will discuss this fine alternative to a traditional Christmas cake and how you can serve it for coffee for max effect: from decorating the cake to drink pairing and what serveware to choose to make it all very special without putting much effort.

I also think we need to unscape tables and s**t a bit

No, don’t get me wrong. I love a good tablescape. But I also somewhere think that maybe we need to let loose a bit. What if a friend is coming over to your place? Are you going to sit and set the table with napkins et al? Or would you rather take out a few pieces of crockery and cutlery that you know will do the trick easily without taking away from the happy occasion? I say stack out a few good plates, take out those shiny brass spoons and stirrers, a good teapot (I used brass) and a good cake stand. Casually place it all and make a good cake and a pot of tea or coffee. When it comes to the holidays I think, informal does it. And we need to totally normalize informal!

Serveware I recommend for Holiday Cake and Coffee sesh

Holidays to me is ess-p-aar-kay-ell-yyy! Haha. Double the lights, double the sparkle, double the magic. And I totally, totally recommend something gold and brass! You can use silverware too but I would rather do gold and shiny with a just a bit of vintage thrown in. I also have been using brassware from ToppBrass from a gazillion years and I love them. Add it to any table and it instantly elevates the setting. And their new holiday collection is as expected- brilliant!

Little twisty dessert spoons, shiny plain ones too, heart shaped stirrers and coasters that drives away your blue

That cute little cakestand, perhaps made by elves, a glint, a shine- transports you to holiday realms

Hahaha, I am a bad poet. But I am an incoercible expresser of feelings and that’s how Topp Brass’ Holiday serveware makes me feel!

So before I get to the peppermint white chocolate cake recipe- which is long-ish, let me give you all the links to the serveware incase its just that you are interested in. Find the above two products in the link below

All we need is love stirrer set- Buy here

Amanta Dessert Spoons- Buy here

All we need is love heart coasters – Buy here

Marble and brass Meld cake stand- Buy here

So simple, so beautiful and finds use through out the holidays and beyond! And I will go as far to tell you that Topp Brass does the best brassware here in India. I have not seen any other live up to the mark personally!

And now for the peppermint white chocolate cake recipe🍭

The 3 parts of the cake

To begin with, this cake has two parts. 1. Making the cake. 2. Making the frosting. 3. Piping the trees

Part 1: Cake

The cake is fairly simple. I used my vanilla cake recipe that I use every single time and it never fails me. You can find it here: Basic Vanilla Cake. This time I doubled the recipe and filled in 2 x 6″ cake pan and made cupcakes from the extra batter. Bake time is as is in the recipe.

De-mould, slice each cake into half (horizontal) and cool. Wrap them with a towel and keep them in your oven.

Make it the night before or atleast 6 hours before. Because you want a completely cooled cake for frosting.

Part 2: Frosting

As for the frosting, here is where the game changes. It’s Buttercream in two distinct holiday flavours.

There are two different frostings in the cake. First, a plain vanilla buttercream with liquid white chocolate. The other is white chocolate butter cream with peppermint extract. I used the latter for piping the christmas trees on top and to sandwich the middle layer of the tier cake. You’d bite into a fairly white looking cake but the explosion of flavours will make you go boom!

The trees are done with icecream cones so it tastes quite nice when you break into one.

How to make buttercream

INGREDIENTS

225 gram of plain unsalted butter

340 gram white chocolate, melted

130 gram of icing or confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Gel food colour – Green. I used leaf green.

How to make white chocolate buttercream

In a bowl, whip unsalted butter in medium speed for about 3 minutes or until the butter is very pale yellow in color. This is important to ensure your buttercream is light and delicious and not thick and cloggy.

Next, in the microwave, melt white chocolate in bursts of 30 seconds. Dont put it in for 1.30 together or it will start to burn. Meecorweevy for 30, stir and put it back for another 30. Stir and check. Add 15 sec if needed. Slightly cool.

Add the melted white chocolate to the whipped butter and continue mixing until all the white chocolate is incorporated.

Next, add the sugar- 1 tbsp at a time. Whisk away till you get defined peaks. The minute you see your buttercream is stable, stop whisking. If you overbeat, it’ll be grainy.

Divide your buttercream- 2 parts for peppermint and 3 parts for vanilla. Add essence and whisk. Vanilla first, then peppermint. Divide your peppermint to two parts.

Assemble the cake

We are doing a naked cake so crumb coating is not necessary. Add vanilla butter cream to the first layer and place one disc (cake disc) on top. Add peppermint buttercream on this layer and sandwich with the top layer. With a spatula, spread vanilla frosting evenly on the whole cake. Add a little more on the top.

Part 3: Piping

You’ll need: Piping bags, open star piping nozzle and ice-cream cones. I used a medium open star about 1 cm diameter.

First, take out 3 cones. Keep one as is, the other two cut to two different sizes. You can simple break the cones from the broad end until you reach the desired height. This will form the tree base.

Next, fill your piping bag with green-peppermint butter cream and gently pipe the tree. You would want to start from the broader end and move up to the top. Once you reach almost near the top, stop and place the tree on the center of the cake. Finish the piping. This way you will have place to hold and place the tree.

Add all three! Next add red edible baubles around the trees! Dust with icing powder before serving!

You can serve with coffee or hot chocolate – to kids and elders. I have had this with irish coffee and man it’s delicious! And ofcourse, don’t forget to make your cake and coffee sesh extra special with glowy brass tableware!

You are welcome. I have singlehandedly sorted you for a great winter evening!

Happy Friday and a great weekend to you

Love

Rukmini

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