Maggie Monday: Easy Chocolate Peppermint Loaf Cake

Several years ago, one of my cousins had a really big peppermint craving. She couldn’t get enough. As it turns out she was anemic and peppermint is a sign of it. Does it mean that I’m anemic if I crave what Maggie has put together for us? Take a look…

This is a Cooking.com recipe from Larry Sales. It uses a chocolate cake mix as the base, which saves time yet produced little loaves that made great gifts at the holidays. The pudding mix and sour cream made for a moist and rich cake and the peppermint made it festive.

I did give several of these as gifts, but my entire family really liked it too, so we kept a couple loaves back for ourselves. I was very pleased with the taste, texture, and presentation. I purchased cute tiny little corrugated cardboard baking loaves from the Dollar Spot at Target. They were great for single-serving portions and I was able to add them to boxes of cookies for the neighbors. It was a nice touch and a change from the usual cookies and fudge. (which were in there too!)

This was really fun, and Picky Pants just walked by and looked at the screen while I am typing this… “That was good! You should make it again”.

Picky Pants Approved.

Easy Chocolate Peppermint Loaf Cake

What you need:

• For Cake:
• 1 box (16.5 ounces) devil’s food cake mix
• 1 box (3.5 ounces) chocolate instant pudding mix
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• 1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

• For Topping:
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons water
• 12 to 16 peppermint candies, chopped ( I found little bags of crushed peppermint bits at the store during the holiday baking season)

What you do.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees F for dark or nonstick pans and 2-3 minute longer baking times). Grease and lightly flour mini loaf pans.

In a large bowl blend together mixes, sour cream, oil, eggs, water, milk and extract at low speed for about 30 seconds. Continue mixing at medium speed for another 2 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips if desired. Pour batter into pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until loaf springs back when touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from pan. (I used disposable paper pans so I could give them away, and no need to remove from pan).

In a small bowl stir together powered sugar and 1 teaspoon of water. Add a few drops of water at a time until you have a glaze consistency you like. Drizzle over cooled loaves and sprinkle with candy bits.