Mint Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and prepare either (3) 6″ round cake pans or (2) 8″ round cake pans. Coat in nonstick cooking spray and place a parchment paper round at the bottom of each pan. If you have cake sleeves, use those as well.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil, followed by the eggs, vanilla, and peppermint extract.
4. Now alternating with the dry ingredients and buttermilk, mix in the dry, buttermilk, dry, buttermilk, dry. Once smooth, stir in the hot water. The batter should be very thin now.
5. Evenly distribute the batter among your cake pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick in the center of each cake comes out clean.
6. Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for about 30 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack and chill in the refrigerator for about 1 hour. If you need to store them overnight, let them cool completely at room temperature and then wrap in plastic wrap before chilling.

Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream

1. Once the cakes have chilled, make the buttercream.
2. In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, mix the butter until smooth.
3. Mix in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, followed by the milk and extract.
4. Now mix in your green food coloring, just until you get a light green pastel color. You can stop there or follow it up with 1 drop of blue gel food coloring and a half a drop of brown. This will give you a more natural mint color.
5. Now for the chocolate, make sure it’s chopped as finely as possible without it turning into complete dust. If chopped by hand, you likely have a good mix of small bits and chocolate powder. Try not to add that much of the powdered chocolate into the buttercream. Scoop up about 1/2 cup of the chocolate with your hands and gently shake off any powdered bits. Fold into the buttercream and leave the remaining chocolate for decoration.
6. To assemble, level off the cake layers if needed. Then spread an even layer of buttercream between each cake and chill for about 30 minutes to set. Then slather a thick layer of buttercream all around the outside and smooth out by hand. I recommend smoothing the sides with an offset spatula rather than a cake scraper as this will drag the chocolate chunks around. For more info, check out my post all about how to frost a layer cake.
7. Now slice and enjoy!