Peppermint Swirl Cake Technique

Sometimes one of my favorite things is a cake that is simple on the outside and stunning on the inside. Making a pretty peppermint pattern on the inside of the cake is easy using a simple technique for pouring batter. This technique will leave you with a gorgeous christmas cake that will get the neighbors talking.

First you need to make a double recipe of white cake. Use whatever recipe you like, even two box mixes which is perfectly fine. My favorite white cake recipe is the WASP cake (white almond sour cream) but if you make that one you will not need to double it as it is a very large recipe originally meant for wedding cakes.

Once you have your cake batter made separate it into two bowls with pour spouts (or you can use a regular bowl and a measuring cup). One bowl needs a little bit more than the other one but don’t get too scientific, just eyeball it.

Whatever bowl has the smaller serving size, tint red using food coloring.

Your baking pans need to be really well prepped for this cake. The best way that I have found to do it is to coat the entire inside of the pan with baking grease (Crisco). Then cut out a circle of parchment paper large enough to fit the bottom of the pan. Lay the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan, on top of the grease and then flour the pan as you usually would. The paper keeps the cake from sticking to the bottom and will actually come out of the pan stuck to the top of the cake. Just peel the parchment paper off and you should be good to go.

I actually used three pans for this cake and you will need more than two since you have a doubled recipe.

To start pour a small circle of the white batter into the middle of the cake pan. Yes I know the first picture does not depict the middle but it’s hard to take pictures and pour cake batter.

Next you are going to pour the red cake batter right into the middle of the circle.

Keep going alternating the white and red batter being poured directly on top of the other color of batter, in the middle of the pan, until it resembles a giant bullseye. I found that it was best to count to 3 while pouring the white (which was my larger serving size) batter and I counted to 2 while pouring the red.

I filled three pans in this same way and then placed them in the oven to cook according to the recipe’s instructions.

Once the cake is baked you will see that the colors have been set into nice rings.

I iced the cake using a regular buttercream recipe, which I just know by heart without a recipe, but I substituted half of the vanilla with peppermint extract. That added a great touch of the look, smell, and taste of christmas all rolled into one cake.

When the cake is served it looks like a peppermint landed on the plate. Beautiful colors and the red coloring could be substituted for green if you have a child that is affected by red but is ok with green food dyes.