Mint Chocolate Chip Cake
Fresh mint leaves, not mint extract, make the flavor of this layer cake truly special. Mint Chocolate Chip Cake is a wonderful dessert to make in the summertime, when the mint plant in your garden has turned into a hedge, or when you can find big bunches of the fragrant herb for cheap at the farmers’ market. Because the flavor of the mint is so natural and subtle, we added it to the rich devil’s food-like cake layers and the fluffy buttercream frosting. The trick to extracting the most fresh mint flavor is to bruise the mint leaves by slapping them a few times between your hands. This helps the oils in the leaves come out more easily. Then, steep the mint sprigs in hot water (for the cake layers) and cook them in butter (for the frosting). The flavor of this cake can’t be beat. If you’re a fan of mint chocolate chip ice cream, this might become your new favorite dessert.