Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Cake – Double chocolate layer cake with peppermint cheesecake center and peppermint frosting! This rich dessert is sure to steal the show at your Christmas celebration!
Love chocolate and peppermint? Try our delicious Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti recipe with your morning cup of coffee! Or give these easy Chocolate Peppermint Grahams a try for a tasty no bake treat.
The Ultimate Christmas Cake
I have a new love in my life. It comes in the form of cheesecake cakes.
Seriously. I first fell in love when I made a pumpkin cheesecake cake. Now I’ve made a new version for Christmas. YOU MUST TRY THIS.
Believe me. There is NOTHING like this dessert. It has layers of rich chocolate cake surrounding a thick creamy peppermint cheesecake layer.
Two cakes in one? Yes, please!
Add in a fluffy buttercream frosting flecked with crunchy peppermint candies and you have the ultimate holiday dessert. A slice of this is the best way to celebrate the most festive time of the year.
No need to wait for Christmas, though. You can make it this weekend to get yourself in the spirit.
Or save the recipe for the holidays when you want to impress people with your cake making skills. The best part? You can make each layer on a different day, and freeze them so they are ready when you want to assemble!
You’re welcome.
Now, I have all the fun holiday treats planned out…what to get for gifts for family is a whole ‘nother story! Time to start shopping!
Ingredient Notes
- Cocoa powder- The dark chocolate cocoa powder makes the cake layer extra rich and chocolate-y. If needed, you can swap it for regular unsweetened cocoa.
- Coffee – Cooled brewed coffee is the other secret to getting the deepest chocolate flavor in the cake. Make a little extra with your morning pot and set it aside to cool until you’re ready to bake the cake.
- Andes peppermint crunch baking pieces – Folding these into the cheesecake layer and the frosting makes the peppermint flavor shine.
Step by Step Instructions
Yes this cake takes a little more time and effort than some Christmas desserts. The results are more than worth it!
STEP 1. Chocolate cake layers
Mix flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl. In a measuring cup, mix together cooled coffee and milk. Set aside.
In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar for 5 minutes, until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. Slowly add in dry ingredients alternating with the coffee and milk mixture, about 3 additions of each.
Pour cake batter evenly into 2 prepared round cake bans lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack. Freeze until ready to use or while you make the cheesecake layer.
STEP 2. The cheesecake layer
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. While it’s heating, place a roasting pan on the bottom rack to preheat too.
Wrap the bottom of a spring form pan with a double layer of foil. Spray pan with nonstick baking spray and line bottom (inside) with a circle of parchment paper. Now, boil a kettle of water to use layer.
While the water is heating up, beat cream cheese with granulated sugar for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Add in salt and eggs, beat well and then beat in sour cream, heavy cream and peppermint extract. Fold in baking chips.
Pour into prepared springform pan. Place pan in center of preheated roasting pan in the oven. Pour boiling water slowly into the roasting pan, until there is about an inch of water coming up the sides of the springform pan.
Bake cheesecake for 45 minutes. Turn oven off and let cheesecake sit in oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove and cool completely on counter.
When cooled, transfer entire springform pan into the freezer for several hours or overnight. Then, remove cheesecake and wrap in plastic wrap and return to freezer until you’re ready to use.
STEP 3. Peppermint buttercream frosting
When you’re ready to assemble the cake, make the buttercream frosting. Beat butter for 3 minutes, then add the powdered sugar and and cream and continue beating until fluffy.
Fold in the remaining baking chips and get ready to assemble the cake layers!
STEP 4. Assemble the cakes
Lay one frozen layer of chocolate cake on a cake plate. Top with the whole frozen cheesecake layer, then a second layer of chocolate cake.
Frost sides and top with a thin layer of frosting, then refrigerate 30 minutes to an hour before frosting the remaining cake.
Recipe FAQs
Make the Chocolate Cake layer, then wrap in plastic wrap and foil and freeze. The next day, make the cheesecake layer. Then, when you’re ready to serve the cake, put everything together, top with the frosting and you have an incredible homemade cake without much effort.
This cake can also be fully made and assembled up to the day before.
Store your cheesecake cake in the fridge tightly covered, then let stand at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Garnish with more crushed peppermint candies or candy canes if desired.
Nothing. If your cheesecake cracks, it’s okay. You can still use it between the cake layers, nobody will know!
More Cheesecake Cake Recipes
Love cheesecake cakes? Here are a few of our favorite versions!
Salted Caramel Cheesecake Cake– two layers of chocolate cake, with creamy caramel buttercream frosting and a layer of cheesecake in the center!
Red Velvet Cheesecake Cake– two layers of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.
Eggnog Cheesecake Cake– the ultimate holiday dessert. From scratch spice cake with creamy eggnog cheesecake filling and frosted with homemade eggnog buttercream.
More Cake Recipes
Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Cake
Layers of chocolate cake with pepperming cheesecake filling and peppermint frosting!
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cake Layers:
- 1 ¾ cup flour
- ½ cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ cup brewed coffee, cooled
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
For the Cheesecake Layer:
- 2 pkg (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- ½ tsp peppermint extract
- ½ cup Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips
For the Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 5 cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips
Instructions
For the Cakes:
- In a small bowl, mix flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a measuring cup, mix together cooled coffee and milk. Set aside.
- Grease 2- 9inch round baking pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
- IN mixer, beat butter and sugar for 5 minutes, until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. Slowly add in dry ingredients alternating with the coffee and milk mixture, about 3 additions of each.
- Pour cake batter evenly into the 2 prepared pans. I also use Wilton's Baking Strips on my pans to keep the cakes from getting rounded on the tops (I found them at Michaels).
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack. When completely cooled, you can wrap each layer in plastic wrap and put in the freezer for later assembly!
For the Cheesecake Layer:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using a large roasting pan on the lower ⅔ of the oven, preheat the pan too!
- Prepare springform pan by wrapping bottom of pan (outside) with double layer of foil. Spray pan with nonstick baking spray and line bottom (inside) with a circle of parchment paper.
- Meanwhile, boil a kettle of water to use later.
- Beat cream cheese with granulated sugar for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Add in salt and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream, heavy cream and peppermint extract. Fold in baking chips. Pour into prepared 9inch springform pan. Place pan in center of preheated roasting pan in the oven. Pour boiling water slowly into the roasting pan, until there is about an inch of water coming up the sides of the springform pan.
- Bake cheesecake for 45 minutes. Turn oven off and let cheesecake sit in oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove and cool completely on counter.
- When cooled, transfer entire springform pan into the freezer for several hours or overnight. I put it in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove cheesecake and wrap in plastic wrap and return to freezer, or assemble cake.
For the frosting,
- beat butter for 3 minutes. Add powdered sugar and heavy cream and beat an additional 3-5 minutes until fluffy. Add baking chips.
- To assemble the cake, lay one frozen layer of chocolate cake on cake plate. Top with frozen cheesecake and second layer of chocolate cake. Frost sides and top with a thin layer of frosting to apply a crumb coat. Refrigerate 30 minutes to an hour. Remove from refrigerator and frost remaining cake. I keep the cake covered in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
- Remove and allow to sit about 15 minutes before slicing. ENJOY!
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Can you imagine any more indulgent and delicious Christmas themed dessert? This Chocolate Peppermint Cake with a cheesecake center is guaranteed to impress!
I finished making the chocolate layers and they came out fine . However, the cheesecake layer
is a different story. I followed the recipe to a T except I used Bob’s Peppermint candies & crushed
them with a meat tenderizer, (We did not have those Andes’ baking chips at several stores I checked).
The cheesecake was very jiggly loose after the recommended baking time, so I put it back in the
oven for another 10 minutes & let it sit in the oven again ( I have a brand new Samsung range btw). It seems very, very soft, after I put it on one of the chocolate layers, so I am putting those 2 layers back in the freezer overnight because I am afraid of putting the weight of the top chocolate layer onto the cheesecake. I may add some straws as structural support. I hope the frosting will hold up in the frig overnight also. This is for my mom’s birthday cake (yes, December 25th), I hope for successful results tomorrow.
The cheesecake will be jiggly after baking. And needs to be refrigerated before assembling the cake.
Can this cake be made as a sheet cake? Am wondering especially about the cheesecake -would it be made in the same pan as the cakes – someone asked me to make it for them if possible. Thanks.
Hi, I recently made your Salted Caramel Chocolate cheesecake and OMG it was amazing!!
I will also be making the peppermint cake but was hoping you could include the nutritional information for your recipes?
I’m working on adding it to all my recipes 🙂
Made this dessert for a special party. Took my leftovers to work and a coworker requested one for Christmas Day. So I made two. One for her one for me. Happy Holidays!
This was awesome! I made a different peppermint frosting to go on it (a cooked flour one) and used Ghirardelli peppermint bark in placed of the Andes. The cheesecake baking method was perfect and I had no cracks and the whole cake itself was exceptional- I was not the only one who went back for seconds. This is definitely going to be making another appearance some other time.
Yay!! So glad you had a showstopper dessert 🙂
I made this last week for Christmas and it was delicious. I did cheat a little and used boxed devil’s food cake and it still turned out really well. I missed that I needed two bags of the Andes chips so when I went back to the store to get a second bag they were all gone. I used crushed peppermint in the frosting and was happily surprised when it retained its crunch. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe. I love chocolate and peppermint!
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I made this last night and it was delicious!! I did want to share a couple of changes I made (not really because it needed it, mind you:) that made this already awesome cake even more awesome. First, I omitted the peppermint chips in the frosting – partially because I didn’t have enough and secondly, because I thought the crunch from the chips in the cheesecake would be enough. So instead, I added about 3/4(ish) tsp. peppermint extract. Then (because I love decadence and am an extreme chocoholic:-), I also added a ganache to go over the frosting – yeah, it was good… Thanks Aimee for an incredible recipe!!
Just had this for dessert after Christmas dinner. All my mom could say was, “Wow!” Thank you for an absolutely delicious recipe!!!
Whoohoo!! Happy to hear it turned out great 🙂
Just want to say thank you for this! Making it now to serve at our Christmas dinner! Cannot wait to try it!
Enjoy 🙂
i don’t drink coffee, is there a replacement that I can use instead of brewed coffee in this cake recipe?
You can use water to replace the coffee if you prefer. ENJOY
I don’t have a roasting pan that will fit my springform pan – how do you recommend I change the baking of the cheesecake if I can’t do that part?
I would put a large baking sheet with water under the springform pan.
Out of curiosity, is the cheesecake supposed to be fairly soft?
Ummm, it should be soft like a normal cheesecake texture….hope that helps!
This looks amazing…I want to make it for Christmas but we don’t drink coffee. . . Any suggestions for a substitution? Thanks!
Oh never mind …just saw the above comment…sorry!
I cant think of any words that would describe how good this is!!!!
I’m having trouble finding the baking chips. I do have a 5 lb bag of mini candy canes that have yet to be put to use though…would those chopped up be okay to use? Or do they have to be soft like the Hershey candy cane kisses? (I saw that in a previous comment!) or maybe both of them mixed together?? I love peppermint but want the right texture and don’t want to ruin a beautiful recipe like this!
About how many serving are in one cake? I really want this for my vow renewal/anniversary party, but with 100-120 people present, I’m not sure how many or how big I should make it.
Looks delicious! I want to try, but need a substitution for the coffee…any suggestions?
Hi Natasha, you can use skim milk or water to replace the coffee. Either works just fine!!!
I have been seeing this so much and I think I will have to try it. Love the chocolate/mint combo. I think the hubby would like the eggnog