Saturday, May 14, 2016

Andes Mint Cake for Swee's Birthday


On Wednesday, it was my colleague Swee's birthday, and of course, we had to celebrate with cake!  I knew from previously making a cake for Swee's dad that Swee liked choc mint flavours, so I was determined to make a choc mint cake for her birthday.    I settled on this very elegant looking Andes Mint Cake from Bird on A Cake.  Umm, mine got lost in translation somewhat and looked more like The Incredible Hulk than elegant, but it did the job.

Here is what each of the three chocolate sponge cake layers looked like:


The little patches are where the Andes mint chips (that I luckily had stashed away from my US trips) melted into the cake.  The chocolate flavour is all from cocoa, so the cake isn't overly rich.

The layers are spread with a peppermint flavoured buttercream:


I used half of what the recipe says - I think Australian tastes on cake to icing ratio are a little different to the US.  My cake stack leaned a little once I had finished putting on the buttercream, but I decided to stick with it.

Finally, a ganache is poured on top - this is where The Hulk factor came in, as my ganache had thickened a little too much and not so much poured as was pushed, lava style, over the top of the cake:



Andes mint chocolate is not sold here (at least, not outside speciality stores), so I decorated the top of my cake with a crushed Mint Crisp instead of chopped Andes mint bars.

Here's a look inside the finished cake:


It tasted pretty good from where I was sitting! And the birthday girl loved it.

Here we all are, posing with the cake: 


Happy birthday Swee.

10 comments:

Teresa said...

Your workplace celebrates birthdays in style! They must consider themselves lucky to have a baker in the bunch. The cake may not have resembled the photo from the recipe, but I bet it tasted wonderful!

Liz That Skinny Chick Can Bake said...

Can you believe Bill doesn't like mint in his desserts?? (of course you can!). But I did make some peppermint chocolate cupcakes for Nick's birthday and left them all for him and his roommates to devour. I'd definitely love a slice of your Andes Mint cake :)

~~louise~~ said...

I must disagree with you Gaye:) That cake does not look like anything but dee...li...cious!!!

You are so sweet to bake for your colleagues. Any time you want Andes you just let me know. I will gladly send some your way. Of course, I will need to see more of your creative creations to quench my taste, lol...

Thank you so much for sharing, Gaye...

Marcelle said...

Chocolate and mint are some of my favorite things! I bet this cake tastes amazing!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

What a clever idea for a cake!! That reminds me, I haven't had an Andes Mint for the longest time! :D

2paw said...

Oh, it looks luscious and rich. I agree about the cake to frosting ratio here being smaller. That said, I like a lot of lemony filling in melting moments. You certainly do celebrate birthdays in style.

Johanna GGG said...

The cake looks great esp love the green buttercream and the peppermint crisp on top - though I put peppermint crisp on cupcakes once and took them to share the next day adn the paeppermint had melted so it looks like you were wise enough to do it at the last moment

Kari said...

Yum! This looks delicious.

Diane Zwang said...

I think this sounds delicious. I love mint chocolate chip but like Liz said my husband does not. I laughed at your description of making it. I have had a few of those moments myself. Looks like you made your lunch bunch very happy.

Kayte said...

Oh my goodness look at all that chocolate! It's so cute with the green and the little layers inside, I bet she was thrilled. I do like mint a lot. You are so thoughtful to make everyone cakes like you do, makes everyone feel so special. Nice photo of you all, you look great! xo