Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake

Do you love chocolate and peppermint? Imagine a dark chocolate cake topped with dark chocolate ganache with a kiss of peppermint. You can make this delicious chocolate peppermint bundt cake in no time at all.

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Why This is the Best Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake Recipe

This chocolate bundt cake recipe produces a rich chocolatey peppermint cake. It’s full of butter, eggs, cocoa powder, coffee, yogurt, and vanilla. But that’s not quite enough! You also top it with a rich and creamy chocolatey peppermint glaze!

If you want a Christmas bundt cake or any other kind of holiday bundt cake, this chocolate peppermint cake is for you.

This is the best recipe for chocolate bundt cake from scratch. It’s so much better than one made with a box cake mix.

And it’s easy to make it without peppermint flavor. All you have to do is leave out the peppermint extract from the ganache and don’t top it with crushed peppermint candy.

What is a bundt cake?

A bundt cake is simply any kind of cake baked in a bundt cake pan. These special pans come in various sizes and designs and could be called cake molds. After the bundt cake is turned out of the pan, it is in a decorative shape.

Bundt cakes will often have a simple glaze drizzled over the top or be lightly dusted with powdered sugar so that the beautiful appearance of the cake is not hidden. The bundt cake pan produces a cake with a hole in the center. The cake can be made fancier by filling the hole with fruit, ice cream, or whipped cream.

How Did the Bundt Cake Get its Name?

H. David Dahlquist founded a Minneapolis-based company called Nordic Ware, which manufactured kitchen products. In 1950, two members of a Jewish women’s service group called Hadassah asked Dahlquist to make a special kind of cake pan. They missed the dense, rich cakes of their tradition and needed a pan with a hole in the middle. Dahlquist called his pan a bundt pan – the German word for community, “bund,” plus a “t.”

In 1966, a bundt cake (Tunnel of Fudge Cake) took 2nd place during the Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off. Dahlquist was flooded with orders and began making 30,000 pans a day.

Ingredients

Here’s a list of of the cake ingredients:

• Vegetable shortening
• Butter
• Cocoa powder
• Salt
• Milk
• Strong brewed coffee
• All-purpose flour
• White granulated sugar
• Baking soda
• Eggs
• Nonfat plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
• Vanilla extract

Here’s what you need for the ganache glaze and peppermint topping:

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Corn syrup
• Sugar
• Heavy cream
• Mint or peppermint extract
• Peppermint candy or candy canes

How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake

1. Grease a bundt pan with vegetable shortening.
2. Place butter, cocoa, salt, milk, and coffee in a small saucepan.
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, just until the butter is just melted. Take off the heat and set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, and baking soda.

5. Whisk to combine dry ingredients then add half of the chocolate mixture and mix on low speed, until combined.
6. Add the remaining chocolate mixture and mix again.
7. Add eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract.
8. Mix until the batter is thoroughly blended.
9. Pour the cake batter into the greased bundt pan.

10. Bake at 350°F for 30 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
11. Allow cake to cool in the pan for 30 minutes then turn over onto a wire rack to cool completely.
12. Place the cake on a platter until ready to add the ganache.

How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Ganache

1. In a small bowl, add chocolate chips and corn syrup.
2. Heat the heavy cream and sugar either over the stove or in the microwave until hot and steaming but do not boil.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate chips.
4. Set a plate over the top of the bowl to keep the heat in for about 5 minutes.
5. Stir until the ingredients are well combined.
6. Add the peppermint extract and stir again.
7. Let the ganache stand until you reach the desired consistency.
8. Drizzle the ganache over the cake.
9. Top with crushed candy canes or peppermint candy.
10. Serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

• If you can’t find peppermint extract, you can use mint extract.
• If you don’t have a stand mixer, use a whisk to combine the ingredients. You will still add the liquid chocolate in two batches.
• You can use the peppermint glaze right away, but it will be thin. It will thicken as it cools. If you don’t want drips all the way down the sides of your peppermint cake, wait until the ganache is a bit thicker (about 15 minutes).
• You can use a spoon to put the ganache on top of your chocolate bundt cake and gently push it over the edge to drip a little.
• The crushed peppermints are best put on just before serving. They will get soft and start to run the longer they sit.

How to Store Bundt Cake

The ganache will remain soft and sticky, so it’s best to store your bundt cake under a cake topper.

Store the cake on the counter for 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. If refrigerated, let it come to room temperature before serving.

Tips for Greasing Your Bundt Cake Pan

This kind of pan helps bake a dense batter more uniformly, preventing under-cooking areas that tend to occur in a traditional baking pan. However, you must grease and flour every area of the pan before you pour in the batter. Also, before you put the pan in the oven, give it a couple of thumps to remove any air bubbles in the batter. This style of pan is best suited to a moist cake batter. The extra surface of bundt pans means that your cake could dry out quickly.

Bundt cake pans are decorative and valued for their beauty. Some people collect them just for displaying on their kitchen walls. However, their detailed designs are hard to grease, giving them a bad name for sticking. Even a generous coat of a nonstick spray doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. Instead, there are two methods that will work better:

Fat Plus Flour Creates a Nonstick Layer

Create a nonstick layer between the pan and the batter. Melted fat (butter or shortening) and flour make a dynamic duo, baking into a protective barrier around the cake. Here’s a way to do it.

• With a pastry brush, brush the bundt pan with melted fat. Make sure to get into all nooks and crannies of the pan.
• Sprinkle about 1/4 cup of flour evenly over the bottom of the pan.
• Seal the top of the bundt pan with plastic wrap and shake well to coat the pan.
• Invert the bundt pan and remove the plastic wrap and the excess flour.

Use a Pan Release Paste

• In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup shortening, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour.
• Make a paste by mashing everything together with a fork or kneading with your fingers.
• Apply the pan release paste to your bundt pan with a pastry brush.

Favorite Holiday Cake Recipes

• Holiday Poke Cake
• Pistachio Cake
• Sara Lee Pound Cake
• Italian Lemon Cream Cake
• Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake
• Pineapple Angel Food Cake
• Ambrosia Cake
• Double Fudge Coca Cola Cake
• Mountain Dew Cake
• Chocolate Pudding Cake

More Christmas Treat Recipes

• Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark
• Oreos Dipped in White Chocolate
• Peanut Butter Balls

Be sure to check out more of my easy cake recipes and the best Christmas dessert recipes.