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This chocolate peppermint holiday cake screams Christmas to me. These two flavors combined together create a delicious and moist holiday dessert.

When the holidays roll around, I bring out the extra special coffee to share with my friends and family. I create fancy desserts to enjoy while we sip cup after cup of delicious hot coffee.

This year, the cake that I made was OVER the top!- Everyone thought I had purchased it from a bakery because it was that good. Little did they know I have a couple of secrets! Today I am sharing the recipe and my secrets with you!

How to Make a Chocolate Peppermint Holiday Cake

Here is my secret — this is a boxed cake y'all. All my girlfriends thought I got this cake from the bakery. I have a secret to making boxed cakes taste just like bakery cakes.

You start by putting your cake mix into your mixing bowl.

To that, you just need to switch a few things out —

• Add 1 extra egg (if it calls for 3 use 4)
• Switch out the water for milk (if it calls for 1/4 cup of water — use 1/4 cup of milk)

And that's it! If you do that, your cakes will come out super moist and taste just like bakery-style cakes.

Now — once you get your cake mixed up, line your cake pans with parchment paper. This ensures that your cakes do not stick to the bottom.

Once the cake bakes and cools, just run a knife around the edges and it should pop right out. Then just peel away the parchment paper for a perfectly flat bottom cake.

Now, while the cakes are cooling, you are going to make homemade frosting. It is not hard at all!

Let's Make Some Frosting

One of my favorite homemade frostings is my Cream Cheese Frosting. I use it on birthday cakes and my delicious Homemade Carrot Cake.

All you need is —

• 1 cup of solid vegetable shortening
• 2 sticks of butter softened
• Peppermint Extract — 2 teaspoons
• 2 lbs of powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons of milk, half and half, or heavy cream

Cream together the shortening and butter. Add in your vanilla and then 1 cup at a time add in your powdered sugar and milk. If you add it all in at one time, you will end up with a cloud of dust.

Now, set your icing aside. You are going to want to level your cakes next. This is simply cutting off the bubble that forms on the top of your cake. You want a super flat surface. Take a knife and shave the top of each layer off.

To keep your cake plate from looking messy, take wax paper pieces and place them in different sections so that when you are done icing your cake, you can pull them out and your cake plate stays clean and neat.

Now — you are ready to icing.

This is where my next tip comes in. To make your icing smooth, simply take a glass of hot water and set it beside you so that as you are spreading the icing, you can dip your spatula in the water, which heats it and it will help make a smooth transition around your cake.

How to Decorate This Festive Cake

Now, for the decoration part! I buy chocolate peppermint candies instead of hard peppermint candies to decorate with.

I chop them up into little tiny pieces (but you can buy them pre-chopped to skip this step) so that I can use them on the cake.

Once I get them chopped up, then I take the cake and put them all around the base of the cake, pressing them into the frosting to make a beautiful red, white, and pink base.

Then, I take the leftover frosting and tint it with a pink gel, and using the largest 2″ star tip you can purchase, I decorate the top and the sides.

Then for the end, I simply take a few of the peppermint candies and place them on top for the perfect-looking holiday cake you will ever create!

Serve this delicious dessert with a cup of my Caramel Machiatto and if you are looking for a good coffee maker, check out the Ninja Coffee Bar. It is my favorite.