Peppermint Red Velvet Cake

This moist red velvet cake is covered with a peppermint frosting, adorned with snowmen and glittering trees in a winter playground.

I love all things Christmas related, and Christmas cakes are my favorite kind of cake to make. Every winter I eagerly await when my local Paris Baguette bakery puts out their Christmas cake display. I go there almost every week to see which cakes are on display (and watch them decorate at the viewing window – they are so fast and skilled!). This week the Christmas cakes were officially out!

Kicking off the start of winter cakes along with Paris Baguette, is this peppermint red velvet cake! This is Savoring Spork’s birthday cake. The cake is a moist red velvet cake infused with generous doses of almond, vanilla, and chocolate extract to create a flavor packed red velvet. The peppermint frosting is a minty balance to the red velvet underneath. This is one of the moistest red velvet cakes I have had yet.

The cake is decorated with Peeps snowmen. Did you know Peeps made snowmen? I have eaten the brightly colored Peeps marshmallow birds, but this is the first time I saw snowmen. The minute I saw them I knew I had to make something incorporating them! I purchased my snowmen marshmallows from Target, but they are probably available at many grocery stores.

The trees in the back are made out of gum paste, coated in glittery green sugar. Some of you may wonder what is gum paste? Gum paste is basically sugar putty you can roll out really easy and make shapes. Some people are really gung ho about making their own, but you can buy pre-made packages of white gum paste at your local crafts store, Wal Mart, or on Amazon. It’s very cheap, like eight dollars a bag, and a little goes a long way with gum paste! To make the trees, pinch out ball about a quarter sized ball and tint it it green by dipping a toothpick in green gel food color and then putting the food color in the gum paste ball and kneading in your hand to evenly distribute the color.  Then roll it out on a board lightly dusted with powdered sugar, using a rolling pin, and take a tree cookie cutter to make the trees!

Gum paste drys super fast, so make sure to save any you don’t use by wrapping it in saran wrap and placing it in an airtight bag. Let the trees dry completely an hour (the gum paste turns really hard so the trees can stand up). Then brush some gum paste glue (pinch of a pinky tip size of gum paste and dissolve in 2 tablespoons water about 30 minutes beforehand) and sprinkle glitter green sugar all across. Let dry again and you have beautiful trees!

To make the birthday sign, I drew the banner on a folded piece of printer paper (to make it thicker), and taped a toothpicks to the back. Since toothpicks are quite long, you can go ahead and snap a toothpick in two and tape the two halves to the back of the sign.

The color of this cake is a deep red. It’s not the super bright red that some red velvet cakes are, but I kind of like that because it looks less artificial. You can play around with different brands and volumes of food coloring if you want to get it really red. The general rule is that it will get darker after you bake (before I baked the batter was a vibrant red), so when in doubt – add more color for a brighter red final cake. In fact if you get the small sized liquid food color bottles, might as well dump the whole thing in (seriously).

For more information on frosting and decorating the cake, you can refer to my cake and cupcake tutorials page, and the cake supplies page for information about tools used for cake decorating. The specific sprinkles I used on this cake were: Silver Stars, Shimmering Sugar, Silver Sprinkles, Glitter Green Sprinkles. But any glittery sprinkles would work well for making the snow sparkle.

Peppermint Red Velvet Cake

Savoring Spoon

Moist red velvet cake wrapped in minty fresh coat!

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 2 hours hrs 35 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 22

Ingredients

  

Dry

• 3 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Wet

• 3 cups soy milk
• 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon of gel food coloring dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water or alternatively 2 tablespoons liquid food coloring
• 4 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoons almond extract
• 3 teaspoons chocolate extract*

Frosting

• 1 1/3 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening room temperature
• 2/3 cup vegan margarine room temperature
• 6 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
• 4 tablespoons soy milk
• 4 teaspoons peppermint extract

Decorations

• 1 tablespoon gum paste tinted green
• 1 tablespoon glittering green sugar sprinkles for trees
• 3 crushed candy canes
• assorted glittery sprinkles optional, to make snow glitter
• 2 snowmen marshmallows

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Grease three 9 inch baking pans by melting about 3 tablespoons of vegan margarine (or butter if not vegan!) in the microwave and brushing it on the pans. Line pan bottoms with parchment paper (I use pre-cut parchment rounds).
• Whisk the soy milk and vinegar quickly, and set aside for 15 minutes to let it curdle. Meanwhile mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Add oil, food coloring, extracts to the soy milk and vinegar mixture. Whisk to combine, and fold wet ingredients into dry. Mix till well combined. A few small lumps is good.
• Pour batter into the greased and lined cake pans. About 3 cups of batter per pan.
• Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted to the center comes out clean.
• Let cool in pan for 20 minutes. Then flip cake out onto cooling racks to cool completely.
• Meanwhile make frosting. Cream shortening and margarine until creamy and well combined.
• Sift in powdered sugar. Then add peppermint extract and mix. Add 1 tablespoon of soy milk at a time till achieved desired consistency.

Decorating Tips

• Once cake is completely cool, level the cake, then frost a crumb coat. Let crumb coated cake set in fridge fro 15 minutes to seal in crumbs.
• Remove from fridge and finish frosting the cake, pressing down and up on the top of the cake to create the "snow" You'll want a thicker layer of frosting on the top for the fluffiest looking snow.
• Add crushed peppermint candy canes and snowmen on top.
• Place glitter trees in the back. See blog post for how to make the trees. Use a wad of frosting behind trees to stabilize them.
• Sprinkle cake top with sparkling sugar or edible silver stars to make the snow glittery. Sift powdered sugar over top of frosted cake to "make it snow" Enjoy!

Notes

*chocolate extract is hard to find but worth getting because it takes the cake from very good to yum yum yes please three more slices! I recommend going to a specialty store like Sur la Table or Williams and Sonoma to find the chocolate extract. I got mine at Sur la Table. As with extracts in general, buy the nicest extract you feel comfortable paying for, the taste of extracts really come through in vegan cakes.

The cake recipe is adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World cookbook's crimson velveteen cupcakes. The frosting recipe and decorations are Savoring Spoon originals.

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