Fresh mint is one of the first harvests from the spring garden. It’s delicious and easily preserved but can be used for so much more than just tea. This spring gather some sprigs of those herbs and bake up this fresh mint cake with dark chocolate mint frosting.
Tricks to Baking with Fresh Mint
Fresh mint seems to lose flavor in baked goods or is easily overpowered by strongly flavored ingredients. These truths, however; can be overcome. Working with fresh mint in baked goods can be a rewarding and delicious pursuit.
The trick to getting the mint flavor heavily embedded into this dessert is two-fold:
- Beating the mint with the butter and sugar in the cake batter. This muddling of the fresh herb helps release all those yummy volatile oils and intense flavor into the fat and sugar which will carry into the entire cake.
- Infusing the mint into the milk in the frosting makes a strong mint tea that shines through even the strong black cocoa flavor.
Don’t skimp on the beating or the infusing steps. These two steps are truly the keys to an amazing fresh mint cake that will delight and surprise everyone.
For the cake, do chop the mint finely. The mint stays in the cake, so aim for small specks of fresh herb throughout the cake rather than large leaves that might not be so enjoyable on the tongue in a cake.
Frosting Choices
A dark chocolate mint frosting was an obvious choice for this cake. Substitute regular cocoa powder for the black cocoa powder, if desired. The overall flavor will be less dark and the color less intense but it will still be chocolate mint.
Chocolate is, of course, a great choice for mint. However, choices abound:
- A plain chocolate honey frosting would be incredible.
- Berries and mint are a great combination making this Berry Cream Cheese Frosting a great choice.
- One can never go wrong with a honey & cream cheese frosting.
Fresh Mint Cake with Dark Chocolate Mint Frosting
Use the first herbs of spring in this fresh mint cake with dark chocolate mint frosting for a simple and yet elegant treat.
Ingredients
Fresh Mint Cake
- 2 Cups Unbleached, All-Purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ Cup Chopped Mint (1/2 ounce by weight)
- ½ Cup Butter, softened
- ½ Cup Sugar
- 1 Egg
- ½ Cup Milk
Dark Chocolate Mint Frosting
- ⅓ Cup Milk
- ¼ Cup Chopped Mint (1/4 ounce)
- ½ Cup Butter, softened
- ¼ Cup Black Cocoa Powder
- 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
Instructions
Make the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter & Flour two 8” round cake pans.
- Whisk together the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter, mint, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, and milk, mixing until incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine thoroughly.
- Divide and spread the batter among the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
Make the Frosting:
- In a small saucepan, combine the milk and mint.
- Bring just to a simmer (do not boil or scald). Remove from heat and cover the pan.
- Allow the minute to steep for 20 minutes.
- Strain the mint from the milk, pressing to squeeze out all the liquid. Let cool completely.
- Cream the butter slightly.
- Add the cocoa powder to the butter and mix well. Alternate a bit of the mint infused milk and powdered sugar and keep mixing until everything is incorporated and the frosting takes on the desired consistency.
- Spread on cooled cake.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1 Large SliceAmount Per Serving: Calories: 643Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 86mgSodium: 336mgCarbohydrates: 102gFiber: 1gSugar: 66gProtein: 6g
We try our best but cannot guarantee that nutrition information is 100% accurate.
Emer Maria Kielhorn says
I really enjoy fresh mint tea – but also struggle with the invasive problem!
Homespun Seasonal Living says
It can be invasive. I cut it back & thin it out often.
Cindy Gorney says
I keep it in a pot! I learned from the experience of having it invade and completely overrun my strawberries.
E says
Could cat mint be used in this recipe? I haven’t had luck keeping my mint alive, but cat mint is abundant here! Thanks for all the great content – love your posts!
Kathie Lapcevic says
I can’t imagine why not. I haven’t tested but I imagine it will work just fine though the flavor would be a little different.
Caro says
Where do you get the black cocoa?
Kathie Lapcevic says
I get mine from King Arthur Flour Company. You can get it on Amazon : https://amzn.to/2DDTB8p – I’m sure there are other companies that make it but I’ve always just used the King Arthur brand. I can’t ever find it locally in my little town – big cities with good bakery supply stores would likely have it.
Beth says
This recipe really sounds delicious. I was wondering if you use peppermint or spearmint?
Kathie Lapcevic says
I used peppermint but I think spearmint would be incredible.
tadpole says
This sounds amazing. My mint is just now starting to grow after a long winter. I will be trying out this recipe!
Anna Ruth says
Thank you for increasing the “palatability” of quarantine for me during this pandemic! I have spent lots of time gardening, and my mint is coming back strong. I used a combo of mountain mint and an unidentified mint that no one can agree on what it is. LOL. My chocolate mint is slower to regrow, so I couldn’t use it yet. I made this gluten-free with flour substitutes, and I’m really happy with it! Since I made the recipe as muffins but they came out flat (this is because I don’t have the hang of gluten-free cooking… not your recipe!), I am planning to slice the flat muffins open and use a thin layer of the icing to make it like a sandwich cookie! :) Best way I’ve seen so far to use loads of mint in one go!
Kathie Lapcevic says
Oh thank you so much for sharing all of this with me. Made my day!
Ellen says
Followed your instructions explicitly, but the batter turned out more like cookie dough. The cake turned out more like a scone. Frosting is spot on!
I wonder what happened.
Kathie Lapcevic says
I’m not sure. It is admittedly a drier than usual cake batter but I’ve had so many emails and comments about the success of this cake – I can’t say why it turned out scone like for you.
Nathan C says
Kathie, thanks so much for the recipe.
The same think happened with our cake as Ellen’s. We we laughing that we made a scone. It tasted very good, but was much more dense than cake. We suspect that it was because we used a hand mixer for step #4 of the cake instructions.
For in the frosting we used regular cocoa and reduced the sugar by a cup, and it was still overly sweet.
Daniela López says
Hi! I’ve just finished baking the cake, but it was turning out like cookie dough so I only used about a cup and ¾ of the flour and had to add approximately four spoons of extra milk so I could achieve the ideal cake batter texture.
It looks gorgeous I must say and smells I incredibly minty, I’m loving it!
Lillian says
I had the same issue it was like pancake mix. I added a little more milk but was nervous of messing things up. I’m neither a cook nor Baker. I have to follow the recipe to a T. It was good but more like a pound cake.
Michael Brohman says
I baked these with my daughter and I would agree with the previous comments that they taste very good but they did turn out like scones. The batter was the consistency of cookie dough. I wish that I had read the other comments before I baked them because I think that adding more milk like others did would help. The flavor was still very good.