Thin Mint Cake

I know I don't have to introduce Thin Mints to my US readers, but they might not be as available in the rest of the world. Definitely not in Sweden, that's for sure. I remember having them in the US, and was thusly intrigued by the idea of the flavors transformed into an actual cake. I had to change the recipe quite a bit, since it starts out with a boxed cake mix and our cake mixes aren't even similar (nor the same size). So, I started with a from-scratch recipe for cake mix, and winged it from there. It turned out great!

I was really prejudiced against the so called buttercream, which as you can see, doesn't contained butter. I never use margarine, so I had to really take a leap of faith here. And I'm pretty glad I did, because it tasted great. I don't know if it's just in this particular cake, or if it's just a great frosting, but in either case, this is how I'll go on making it for this cake. A bonus is that it's pretty sturdy and thus easy to pipe with. (Please excuse my decorating job though - I usually don't make cakes with frosting, and my piping skills plainly suck. Not to mention my color-mixing skills. Next cake? Will be white.)

Thin Mint Cake

300 g flour
400 g sugar
100 g cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
55 g margarine
220 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 eggs
1 tbsp mint extract
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 banana, mashed
250 ml water

Start by mixing flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a food processor. Add the margarine and mix until it's well dispersed throughout the dry ingredients.

You can prepare up to here - this is basically a boxed cake mix, and it'll keep for weeks.

Next, stir together the butter, egg, mint, cinnamon and banana. Add the dry cake mix and the water. Divide into two well-buttered cake tins, and bake at 170°C for about 35-40 minutes. Check to make sure they're baked through and not wet in the middle.



Frost with this super simple "buttercream".

Super Simple Buttercream
150 g margarine
300 g powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk all ingredients into a smooth frosting. Frost between and around the layers, and decorate the cake as you wish.

Recipe in Swedish:
Thin Mint-Tårta