I have a very healthy mint plant that I need to trim from time to time to keep it from over growing. This past week I had some more clippings and of course, I couldn’t let them go to waste. Usually I’ll make a cup of tea with them since it’s quick and simple, but this time I really wanted to make something fun. That’s when I came across this fresh mint olive oil cake.
The original recipe didn’t include chocolate chips and it had a labneh cheese and honey topping, but I wanted something a bit more sweet that I knew my kids would dig into, so I made a couple of alterations to the recipe by adding the chocolate chips, and frosting it with a chocolate buttercream. I think this recipe would also work well just baked in a bundt pan and dusted with a bit of powdered sugar once cooled. It would make it a tad less sweet, but it would go perfectly with a nice hot cup of tea. I think I’ll do that next time.
Using fresh mint in this cake does tint the batter green a bit. The more you pack the cup full of mint leaves, the darker green it will be. I didn’t pack my cup so my cake turned out a very pale green, which doesn’t show very well in my pictures. I say this so you won’t be surprised if you end up with a green cake. I also wanted to up the mint flavor a bit so I added a couple drops of Young Living’s Peppermint essential oil from their Vitality line. Adding the peppermint essential oil isn’t necessary. You’ll still get a mint flavor to the cake without it, it will just be mild.
FRESH MINT AND CHOCOLATE CHIP OLIVE OIL CAKE
Makes: One 2 layer 6″ cake or 1 large bundt cake
INGREDIENTS:
1 c (50g) fresh mint leaves
1/2 c (118g) whole milk
1 1/2 c (190g) all-purpose flour
1/2 c (56g) almond meal
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 c (150g) extra virgin olive oil
1 1/4 c (250g) sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and line the bottoms of two 6” pans with parchment and set aside.
Rinse the mint leaves and then ring them out very well. In a high powered blender, blend the mint and milk together until very smooth. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond meal, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and lemon zest. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil and sugar until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking very well after each, and then add the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mint mixture in three alternating additions, whisking after each until just combined (leaving a trace of flour in the bowl when adding the chocolate chips will help prevent over mixing). Add the 1 cup of chocolate chips and stir in gently. Pour into the pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean; begin checking for doneness at 25 minutes. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Level off the tops.
CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM
INGREDIENTS:
250g butter, softened
500g powdered (icing) sugar
50g melted chocolate
30g cocoa powder
Splash of milk
DIRECTIONS:
Mix powdered sugar and cocoa powder together in either a stand mixer or medium sized bowl. Then add the butter and melted chocolate and beat until smooth. Add a splash a milk if buttercream is too thick.
Frost the top of the bottom cake layer and then place the second cake layer on top. Frost the top and sides of the whole cake and then serve.
Recipe adapted from My Name is Yeh
Disholicious 