Nego's B-day cake

Celebrating birthdays is always lots of fun and it's also an opportunity to show how much you love others preparing sweet treats and delicious cakes for them. El nego chineo always gets to decide what cake to have for his birthday, and for his 25th birthday he wanted a chocolate and mint cake and this is what I came up with...



For the cake I used the Hershey's Kitchen recipe of the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:

½ cup HERSHEY'S Unsweetened Chocolate chips

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter, softened

2-1/4 cups sugar

6 eggs, separated

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2-2/3 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Combine chocolate + water in small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Beat butter and sugar in large mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and vanilla; beat well. Add chocolate; beat until blended. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; add alternately with milk to butter mixture. Beat egg whites in medium bowl until stiff, but not dry; fold into batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean (in pre-heated oven at 350°F or 175°C) Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

...So far I have the two chocolate layers :)

For the white chocolate and mint filling:

I used the recipe from kitchenvixen's chocolate mint cake. To make this filling you have to combine over a double boiler: 8 oz white chocolate + 1/2 cup whipping cream + 1 tbsp light corn syrup (I used substitute*). stir until smooth, remove from heat, add in mint extract, and let cool to room temperature.

*substitute for light corn syrup: 1cup sugar + 1/2 cup water: bring to a boil and let it boil for 1-2 minutes, let cool to room temperature and use as needed.

For the frosting:

(adapted from kitchenvixen's chocolate mint cake )

Combine over a double boiler: 1/2cup dark chocolate + 1/2 cup butter + 1 tbsp corn syrup + mint extract. stir until smooth, remove from heat, let cool to room temperature (for about 4-5 hours or overnight).

After that...you just have to put together all the parts for them to meet each other :) and the cake is almost ready !

Yummy that white chocolate!

And this is how it looked packed and all...!

Happy Birthday Byron ILY and I hope you enjoy eating it as much as I enjoyed baking it!