Peppermint coffee chocolate cake!

When I was a kid I used to envy my Etta (brother) and his numerous trips to all the cool places in Bangalore. He'd go to Coffee Day and hang out with all of his friends and I would just dream of one day going out and relaxing at Coffee Day with my friends. Eventually, Madhu and me did just that, but much earlier in my life, my Etta took me out for my first Coffee Day trip. I think I was about 11 and Etta was in a particularly nice mood that day and he offered to take me out for coffee. Now my brother being my idol of sorts this trip would be the most memorable day of my life. I decided to wear something special and dressed up in my fancy clothes (my denim jacket and my denim skirt; yeah, in those days you could not get enough of denim), and we went down to the Coffee Day that was closest to our house; the one on CMH road (when CMH road was actually a road and not a Metro battlefield). That was the day I had my first cold coffee at a coffee shop and it was the day that I had my first mocha cake. I didn't even know what a mocha cake was but Etta said it was the best thing on earth and obviously I had to believe him. It didn't matter that my dear brother made me eat the stupid coffee bean that they put on the frosting saying that it was a bit of dark chocolate in the shape of a coffee bean. Moments later the damn thing exploded in my mouth and all the while I was trying to play it cool and say "yeah, this dark chocolate is so good!." This just made him laugh hard and I felt so stupid but I really miss that day so much and I miss my brother and all the dumb things he made me do.

Skip by a few years and move on to when I was 20, (that's just two years back, I know, but I want to sound cool) and Sandeep bought me my first peppermint white mocha latte from Starbucks. I was completely floored by the taste of peppermint and coffee. I never knew you could combine the two, but it just tasted so good. Well, those were the inspirations for today's cake. The cake as it is is quite fudgy, melt-in-your-mouth, light, airy and super-delicious! It's a mix of coffee and chocolate, hence that's the mocha component of the cake. Now, there's a frosting that goes over the cake, which is a dark caramel and chocolate frosting. It literally tastes like a Mars chocolate bar with a light hint of peppermint. This in between layer is what joins the inside mocha cake with the outside peppermint fondant. The fondant is a marshmallow based rolled fondant which is light, chewy and candy-like. I'm sorry the final pictures of the batter are missing, as I was talking to my best friend Madhu, while baking and amidst all the gossip and memories I totally forgot to take the pictures. So, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp of cocoa powder
• 2 tbsps of instant coffee powder (if you can get one of those cappuccino mixes, those work perfect)
• 1 cup of yogurt (really thick set)

For the caramel chocolate frosting:

• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate (dark chocolate)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 bar of Mars chocolate - melted
• 1 tsp of peppermint extract (if you don't get peppermint extract buy one of those cheap peppermint sugar toffees, the white tablet like ones, OR polo and grind them up and add it to the sugar)

For the fondant:

• 450 grams of confectioners sugar
• 275 grams of marshmallows
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 2-5 tbsps of water
• 1 tbsp of peppermint extract (if you don't get peppermint extract buy one of those cheap peppermint sugar toffees, the white tablet like ones, OR polo and grind them up and add it to the sugar)

Directions for the cake:

• Mix in the butter, sugar, coffee powder and cocoa powder till you get a creamy mass.
• 
• 
• 
• Add the flour, baking soda, yogurt and the eggs mixing in each ingredient as you add it.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Butter a cake tin which is of 9 inches in diameter and spoon in the batter. The batter will be thicker than the regular batters but have faith.
• Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 190 degrees Celsius for 50-60 minutes.
• 
• Pull the cake out fork test it and flip it over onto a cooling rack.
• 
• 
• 
• 

Directions for the frosting:

• Melt the butter, dark chocolate and mars bar together and stir and mix rapidly to combine. (You might want to use an electric mixer)
• 
• Mix in the sugar and the peppermint extract or the crushed mints.
• 
• Cream well till all ingredients come together into a smooth and rich frosting.
• Make sure that the cake has been cooled well, for at least 20 minutes before frosting it, otherwise your frosting will melt all over and create a mess.
• Dump the frosting on the center and spread evenly over the top and sides of the cake.
• 
• 

Directions for the fondant:

• Melt the marshmallows in a large bowl. To do this add 2 tablespoons of water to the marshmallows and heat for 30 seconds in the microwave. Pull out of the microwave and mix the marshmallows. Some of the marshmallows might be melted at this point; the idea is not melt everything together, rapidly, as the marshmallow might burn. Repeat this step over and over till you get a smooth batter of melted marshmallows.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Fold in 3/4ths of the amount of sugar and add peppermint extract or ground peppermint.
• 
• 
• 
• Grease hands and work surface generously with butter and place the remaining butter in an accessible bowl to keep hands greased well throughout the folding process.
• 
• 
• Combine well and knead for about 8 minutes. Feel free to add water whenever the dough dries out. If the fondant tears away easily add water (1 tablespoon at a time) and knead again till the fondant is elastic in nature.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Roll the fondant out on a sheet of wax paper.
• 
• 
• Lift the paper up with the fondant and gently turn it upside down, so that the wax paper is on top and in a swift yet gentle action place the fondant on the cake.
• 
• 
• The fondant at this point will look like a piece of cloth draped over your cake. Cut off the excess fondant that spills over and smoothen the top and sides with the flat back of a spatula.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Done!