Chocolate Cake with Fluffy Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

This Chocolate Cake with Fluffy Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream features the best chocolate cake recipe ever, piled high with irresistibly fluffy mint flavored frosting. It’s crazy awesome!

Growing up, birthdays were always celebrated with a chocolate wacky cake. Made in one mixing bowl, with minimal and inexpensive ingredients (a cake recipe made famous during the Great Depression), it’s still a quick and easy favorite chocolate cake recipe of mine. But I’ve been playing around with recipes over the past few years, determined to find a go-to chocolate cake recipe of just a bit more indulgence. And I can finally say that I have it. I’m sharing the recipe with you here today, topped with an irresistible frosting. If you like to celebrate with a little bit o’ green for St. Patrick’s Day, this Chocolate Cake with Fluffy Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream would be a most excellent dessert choice!

I’ve made a number of different chocolate cake recipes over the years, but the one I kept returning to is from Ina Garten’s book Barefoot Contessa at Home, named “Beatty’s Chocolate Cake”. Ina’s cookbooks and Food Network show are among my favorite and most trusted cooking and baking sources. I like Ina’s gentle, positive spirit, plus her kitchen knowledge and approachable recipes.

My cake recipe is just slightly adapted from Ina’s. It’s rich and chocolatey, with a large, super moist crumb. I have deemed it “perfect”. For my birthday, I want this chocolate cake.

This recipe includes espresso powder and hot brewed coffee. And whenever I include these ingredients, there are always people asking if they can eliminate them. I answer back, “Of course you can, but I highly recommend just trying it first, because those ingredients only help to boost the chocolate flavor”. It’s true. And if you’re one of those people, I beg you to just give it a try. I promise that you’ll be rewarded with some of the best chocolate baked goods you’ve ever had.

I topped the cake with a super fluffy mint flavored buttercream frosting. Oh my. Incredibly light in texture, and so killer creamy, it’s totally a lick-the-beater-clean kind of frosting. When the finely chopped chocolate is folded in, it’s like the best frosting version of that awesome mint chocolate chip ice cream.

This chocolate cake with fluffy mint chocolate chip buttercream would be perfect for celebrating so many holidays – think St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Christmas, and New Year’s. And I know several people in my life who would absolutely love to have this sweet chocolate treat to celebrate with on their birthday. I also happen to know a person who would make this cake for no other reason than simply wanting to enjoy the best chocolate cake ever, piled high with irresistibly fluffy mint chocolate chip buttercream. {pick me!}

Chocolate Cake with Fluffy Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

Yield: 24 servings

prep time: 20 minutes mins

cook time: 40 minutes mins

total time: 1 hour hr

Chocolate cake with mint buttercream is perfect for any occasion. With fluffy mint frosting flecked with chocolate, it's such a crowd-pleaser!

4.5 Stars (17 Reviews)

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Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, for greasing the pan
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus a bit more for dusting the pan
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1½ teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1 teaspoon Morton kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (do not use a make-your-own buttermilk substitute)
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

• 1 cup unsalted butter, at softened room temperature
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons half and half
• 2 teaspoons pure mint extract (not peppermint extract)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• green food coloring, if desired (I use a little bit of Americolor Leaf Green #111)
• 3 ounces (about ½ cup) finely chopped good quality semi-sweet chocolate

Instructions

Chocolate Cake

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9″ x 13″ pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper, and then butter the parchment paper. Add a bit of flour to coat the entire inside surface of the pan, tap out the excess, and set pan aside. This will allow you to turn the cake out onto a platter. If you want to leave the cake in the pan, skip the parchment paper and follow the rest of the steps.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, espresso powder, and salt. Mix on low speed to combine dry ingredients well.
• Add buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to dry mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed to low and carefully add hot coffee to the cake batter. Once coffee is incorporated, scrape the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula and then turn mixer speed to high and beat for 1 minute.
• Pour cake batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the center is mounded and firmed up, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Place serving platter upside down on top of cake pan, and invert cake onto it. Let cake cool completely before adding buttercream.

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, whip butter on medium-high speed until very fluffy, about 8 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
• Add powdered sugar and salt, and beat on low to incorporate. Add half and half, mint extract, and vanilla extract, mixing on low until combined. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 to 6 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
• Add green coloring, if desired, and mix until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, fold in the chopped chocolate. Then spread finished buttercream evenly over the chocolate cake.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 1 Calories: 332kcal Carbohydrates: 46g Protein: 3g Fat: 16g Saturated Fat: 7g Polyunsaturated Fat: 8g Cholesterol: 38mg Sodium: 290mg Fiber: 1g Sugar: 35g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.

Did you make this recipe?Please leave a comment below. And share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #afarmgirlsdabbles or tag @farmgirlsdabble!

© Brenda | A Farmgirl’s Dabbles

Cuisine: American

Course: Cake

Here are more chocolate + mint recipes you may like:

• Mom’s Chocolate Mint Brownies
• Grasshopper Cake
• Mint Oreo Cupcakes from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen
• Mint Chocolate Bark from Chocolate, Chocolate and More
• Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies from Two Peas and Their Pod

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