Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Cake – Double chocolate layer cake with creamy cheesecake center and peppermint frosting! This rich dessert is sure to steal the show at your holiday 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 Holiday 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.
Believe me. There is NOTHING like this dessert. It has layers of rich chocolate cake surrounding a thick creamy cheesecake filling.
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.
Ingredient Notes
The recipe starts with a rich dark chocolate cake. You’ll also need to plan ahead to make the cheesecake layer ahead of time.
- 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. And no, the cake will NOT taste like coffee.
- Andes peppermint crunch baking pieces – Folding these into the cheesecake layer and the frosting makes the peppermint flavor shine. You’ll see I use these candies in our peppermint cheesecakes too! Avoid crushed candy canes as it will create an entirely different texture.
You’ll need to soften the butter and cream cheese to make a creamy frosting. Use our tips and tricks on how to soften butter quickly!
How to Make Peppermint Cake
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
You’ll need two 9-inch layers of chocolate cake. Freeze until ready to use or while you make the cheesecake layer.
STEP 2. The cheesecake layer
Adding a pan of water to the oven (but not necessarily putting the cheesecake IN the pan) still gives the same moist atmosphere this cheesecake needs to create a perfect texture.
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. Crumb coating of frosting
You’ll need to create a crumb coating on the assembled cake. This provides a nice base to spread the chunky peppermint frosting over.
STEP 4. Frost
Frost entire cake with peppermint buttercream frosting. Add extra andes peppermints on top.
Recipe FAQs
Make the Chocolate Cake layer, then wrap in plastic wrap and foil and freeze. Additionally, you can make the cheesecake layer ahead of time and freeze. 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
- Twinkie Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Dirt Cake
- Coconut Cake
- Hershey’s Chocolate Cake
- German Chocolate Cake
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Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cake Layers:
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup brewed coffee cooled
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
For the Cheesecake Layer:
- 2 packages cream cheese, softened 8 ounce each
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- ½ cup Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips
For the Frosting:
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup heavy whipping 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.
- 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:
- Prepare the cheesecake layer. This can be done early in the day, or the night before. If freezing the cheesecake, can be stored 1-2 weeks in the freezer.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using a large roasting pan, add 1 inch of water to the pan. Place it on the lowest rack of the oven! Allow it to preheat in the oven.
- Prepare 9-inch springform pan by lining the bottom (inside) with a circle of parchment paper.
- 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, until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Fold in peppermint baking chips.
- Pour into prepared 9-inch springform pan. Place pan in center of preheated oven, with the roasting pan of water on the lowest rack. The cake will not SIT in the water, but still get the benefit of a water bath by being in the oven with it.
- 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, remove outside portion of the springform pan and place into the freezer for several hours or overnight. I put it in freezer for about 2 hours. If using within 24 hours, feel free to just refrigerate cheesecake!
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!
Notes
- Make the Chocolate Cake layer, then wrap in plastic wrap and foil and freeze. Additionally, you can make the cheesecake layer ahead of time and freeze. 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.
- If your cheesecake cracks, it’s okay. You can still use it between the cake layers, nobody will know!
Nutrition
Can you imagine any more indulgent and delicious Christmas themed dessert? This Chocolate Peppermint Cake with a cheesecake center is guaranteed to impress!
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!
I made this dessert for a special party. It was so delicious I made two more for Christmas Day! One was a gift.
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