On the Menu: Hershey Chocolate Cake with Mint Buttercream Frosting

My brother's birthday was a few weeks ago. He loves all things mint. Mint chocolate chip ice cream is his favorite flavor of ice cream. Inspired by this I was on a mission to make the ultimate mint chocolate cake. This was going to be a surprise for him as we had never made this cake before. I found a recipe and changed it a little. Once thing I changed was to up the amount of mint extract, because I didn't think it smelled minty enough when I was mixing it up. I thought it tasted great and had an excellent flavor.

On my brother's birthday we had dinner out and then returned home for dessert. Tracy had picked up some ice cream and I pulled out the surprise cake. My brother loved it. He said he thought it tasted delicious. I added the pinwheels on top of the cake to decorate it up a bit since it was for his birthday. What do you think? The polka dot napkins and floral napkin rings were DIY projects that Tracy and I had made earlier. They were super easy to make and looked great with this cake.



Ingredients
Cake:
2 cups Sugar
1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 cup Unsweetened Hershey Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
2 Eggs
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup Boiling Water
Frosting
2 Sticks Salted Butter, slightly softened
1/3 cup Heavy Cream
4 teaspoons Mint Extract
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
4 cups Powdered Sugar
Green Food Coloring

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 eight or nine inch round pans.
2. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk together. Add the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat with mixture on medium to combine, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and slowly stir in the boiling water.
3. Pour batter evenly into the pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a knife or tooth pick inserted into cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in pans for about 10 minutes, then finish cooling on wire racks.
4. To make the frosting you will beat the butter, cream, and both extracts on medium until smooth. Slowly add in the powder sugar and beat on low until just combined. Add the food coloring until you achieve the desired shade of green you want. Mine was a pastel mint color, but I wish I had made it just a shade darker. Beat on medium for about a minute until light and fluffy.
5. If the frosting is too thick, add another tablespoon or two of cream and beat for about another minute. I ended up adding almost a tablespoon more to mine. When the cake has cooled frost and enjoy.
6.Refrigerate cake until ready to serve.