This is my recipe for a Chocolate Mint Bûche de Noël using Rheo Thompson hostess mints or Andes Mints. You can sub other mint chocolates to your liking. If you fear dealing with whipped egg whites, add a 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract to my basic Bûche de Noël jelly roll cake recipe and join up at the “preparing the mint cream” stage, below. Also, if you’d like less of a mint-forward mint-chocolate cake, feel free to omit the mint from one or more of the elements of the recipe.
Chocolate Mint Bûche de Noël
Ingredients
Chocolate Mint Jelly Roll Cake
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 eggs room temperature and separated
- 1/4 cup sugar to be added to the egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar to be added to the egg whites
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp peppermint extract [I used organic]
- icing sugar & a clean kitchen towel for rolling the cake
Mint Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons icing sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract [I used organic]
- 3 drops green food colouring if desired
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup bashed Rheo Thompson hostess mints, Andes candies, mint chocolate bars, or mint chocolate chips if desired
Chocolate Mint Buttercream
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 1 cup butter
- 2 tbps cream
- 1/2 tsp peppermint extract [I used organic]
- 3+ cups sifted icing sugar
- additional cream, half & half, or milk if icing is too thick
Cake Decor
- 1-2 cups bashed Rheo Thompson hostess mints, Andes candies, mint chocolate bars, or mint chocolate chips
Instructions
Cake & Assembly
- Heat oven to 375f.
- Grease a 15x10x1 baking or jelly roll pan.
- Line it with a waxed paper rectangle cut 1/2 inch smaller than the pan (14×9).
- Grease the paper.
- Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl or onto another sheet of waxed paper.
- In a mixer or in a bowl, by hand, beat eggs yolks and vanilla until thick and yellow.
- Add the 1/4 c sugar and beat on high until dissolved.
- Set the mixture aside in a clean bowl. Wash the mixer bowl and beaters.
- Beat the egg whites on medium until soft peaks form.
- Add the 1/2 cup sugar slowly and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Fold the egg yolk mixture into the beaten egg white mixture quickly with the mixer or with a spatula.
- Quickly, but gently, by the quarter cup, alternate adding in the flour mixture and the water, just incorporating with the mixer or a spatula.
- Spread batter into the pan as evenly as possible. It is best to smooth the top of the cake as much as possible with a large butter knife or icing spreader.
- Bake 12-15 minutes until the centre springs back when pressed lightly with a fingertip. [The cake may look a bit bubbly or even mountainous! No worries! It will flatten out with the folding, anyway!]
- While the cake is baking, spread a large tea towel on a countertop or table and dust the towel with icing sugar.
- Also, make sure your mixing bowl and beaters are clean. And place them in the refrigerator or freezer to chill for your whipped cream.
- Take the cake out of the oven, place the pan on a wire rack, and let it cool only slightly, for 3-5 minutes.
- Run a knife along all four edges of the pan to loosen the cake.
- While still warm, invert the cake onto the sugar-dusted towel and gently remove the parchment or waxed paper from the surface of the cake.
- Make sure that the cake is situated in "landscape" mode in front of you, so that you will maintain its 15-in width and that the 10-inch sides will "roll" into a "log."
- Gently roll the cake right in towel, dusting with icing sugar as you go.
- Set the rolled cake in its towel on a flat surface or rack and cool completely. [You can store the cake like this for up to one day or re-roll the cake in wax paper, wrap wax-paper-rolled cake in foil and freeze for 2-3 weeks.]
Prepare the Chocolate Mint Cream
- If desired, gather 1/2 cup bashed Rheo Thompson hostess mints, Andes mints or similar mint candies. To bash them, I put them in a ziploc-style bag and beat them with a rolling pin. I bash the mints for my cream much finer than the mints for my cake decor.
- In the cold bowl of a mixer fitted with a cold whisk, combine all the ingredients except the mints and beat until stiffly whipped.
- If desired, with a spatula, gently fold in the bashed chocolate mint candies.
Prepare the Chocolate Mint Buttercream
- In a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of boiling water, melt the chocolate and add the mint extract.
- Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature. I often move the mixture to a clean bowl, so it will cool more quickly.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer whip the butter until slightly fluffy.
- Add 2 cups of the icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined.
- Add another cup of the icing sugar and beat until combined.
- Slowly beat in the chocolate mixture until combined.
- If the buttercream is still quite liquid, add additional icing sugar until the buttercream is smooth and spreadable.
- If the buttercream is too stiff, add milk or cream by the tablespoonful until the buttercream is smooth and spreadable.
Construct the Bûche de Noël
- Unroll the cooled cake.
- Spread the exposed surface of the unrolled cake with the Mint Whipped Cream.
- Gently re-roll the cake.
- If desired, slice a 1 1/2 to 2-inch slice off of each end of the cake roll to use as the "knots" on your cake. You may also just ice the jelly roll.
- Place the large portion of the cake on your serving tray.
- If desired, use the Chocolate Mint Buttercream to attach these "knots" to the left and right sides of the cake as you see fit.
- Ice the main portion of the cake with the Chocolate Mint Buttercream, leaving the swirly knots and ends exposed.
- You might also choose to ice the ends and knots. If so, do so quickly and gently, with a clean spreader.
- If desired, with the tines of a clean fork, create a bark pattern on your yule log cake. [I skipped this step this year.]
- Decorate the cake with bashed Rheo Thompson hostess mints, Andes mints, or similar mint treats.
- This cake should be refrigerated until 30 minutes before serving.
- Store in refrigerator for 3-5 days max.
Notes
I used Rheo Thompson hostess mints for this recipe. Andes Mints will also work, as will bashed bars of mint chocolate, or mint chocolate chips. If you want to use something soft-inside, like an After Eight, omit the bashed candies from the Cream portion of the recipe, and slice the chocolates with a sharp knife or use them whole for the cake decor.
Voila
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