Mint Chocolate Cake (Grasshopper Cake) is the PERFECT combo of indulgent chocolate and mint frosting, made with cocoa powder, hot coffee, and mint buttercream, ready in under 60 minutes!
We love coming up with different dessert recipes for every occasion, and right now we’re loving this Classic Yellow Cake, Fudge Iced Brownies, Red Velvet Cake, and Easy Chocolate Fudge!
MINT CHOCOLATE CAKE (GRASSHOPPER CAKE)
Mint Chocolate Cake (Grasshopper Cake) is the PERFECT combo of my favorite Easy Chocolate Cake, and green Mint Frosting. The cake is made with rich cocoa powder and hot coffee, which really brings out the chocolate flavor, while the frosting is a classic buttercream with peppermint extract and green food coloring.
I love serving this dessert on St. Patrick’s Day because of the fun green color, and the mint-chocolate combination is always a winner with my family. Plus with bake time and decorating, it’s ready in a total time of under 60 minutes, so you can make this in the morning for later that day.
HOW DO YOU STORE MINT CHOCOLATE CAKE?
Mint chocolate cake can sit at room temperature for 2-3 days in an airtight container, or in the refrigerator for longer. Bring the cake to room temperature before serving it for the best texture.
CAN YOU MAKE MINT CHOCOLATE CAKE AHEAD?
You can make this mint chocolate cake a few months ahead, and store it in the freezer until you need it. Bake the cake and decorate according to the recipe, then place it in the freezer uncovered for about an hour, until the cake is frozen.
Then wrap the cake in plastic wrap and tinfoil and place back in the freezer. This way, the frosting is frozen when you wrap it and it will keep its shape. When you defrost the cake, remove the plastic wrap immediately before defrosting.
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TIPS FOR MAKING MINT CHOCOLATE CAKE
- After frosting, try decorating this chocolate cake with mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, Andes mints, chocolate shavings, or even mint flavored Oreo cookies!
- Add a cup of mini chocolate chips to the mint frosting for a mint chocolate chip cake (or mint chocolate chip layer cake if you make a few layers!)
- You can use dark chocolate cocoa powder for a richer chocolate flavor in the chocolate cake.
- If you want to make this chocolate cake even lighter, try using buttermilk instead of whole milk. The acid in the buttermilk will work with the leavening in this cake to help it rise and give the cake a fluffy texture.
- Top this chocolate cake with an extra layer of chocolate ganache or hot fudge sauce after you add the buttercream mint frosting, for a decorative look. Don’t cover the whole cake, just pour onto the top and let it fall down the sides.
- Instead of St. Patrick’s Day, you can change up the flavor and food color to use this cake recipe for other holiday desserts. Try peppermint extract with red food coloring for Christmas, or orange extract with yellow food coloring for Easter!
- Get a more fudge-like dessert by adding peppermint extract to my chocolate frosting instead of using the buttercream, and just leaving out the green food coloring altogether.
- For an adult version, you can add a splash of creme de menthe to the buttercream frosting. Add the creme de menthe before adding any milk, to make sure you don’t add too much liquid. If you do add too much creme de menthe by accident, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar back, one at a time, until the buttercream frosting thickens again.
- This is a regular chocolate cake recipe, but you can add a teaspoon mint extract for a chocolate-mint cake.
- I like to make this cake in layers so I use two round cake pans, but you can also make this a sheet cake if that’s what you have. Or turn it into a poke cake with my chocolate ganache or hot fudge sauce. Then top with the mint frosting for a grasshopper poke cake!
- For another variation, try adding the mint buttercream frosting between the layers of cake, then dust the entire thing with powdered sugar and sprinkle with semisweet chocolate chips. You can also decoratively top with cookies like Thin Mints or chopped chocolate pieces.
- If you’re really short on time, you can make this with chocolate cake mix and just make the mint buttercream frosting to decorate it. You can also use the cake mix to make cupcakes with mint frosting instead of a whole cake.
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup hot coffee you can substitute boiling water
- Mint Frosting Recipe
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and dust with cocoa powder two 9" cake pans.
- In a stand mixer on low speed mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt,
- In a small bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla then add it to the stand mixer on low then medium speed until just combined and finally add in the water carefully and stir it in by hand until just combined (do not turn on the mixer, it may splash on you).
- Pour half of the batter into each of the pans and bake for 30-35 minutes then remove, let cool completely and frost with the mint frosting.
Notes
Nutrition
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Hello! Thank you for sharing all your recipes. I enjoy many of them! They are all easy & practical. My question for this cake is most likely my issue not the recipe’s. The flavor is great. Very rich & chocolatey. However my outcome was too heavy & fell just a bit in the center. It seemed too much liquid BUT I did use the buttermilk instead of milk. Would that cause the difference? It was baked long enough & the humidity was low. If you think buttermilk was the issue (& I like using buttermilk) do you think reducing the coffee to 1/2 c would help? Or just go back to plain milk? Thank so much ahead of time.
So sorry for the late response. Buttermilk has more acid than regular milk, which will reduce the carbon dioxide released and thwart the leavening process important to these recipes. To achieve the desired result when using buttermilk instead of milk, be sure to substitute baking soda for some or all for of the baking powder.
Thank you so much! That helped. I used 2 t soda & 1 t BP & it was much better. I appreciate you taking time to teach!! Gotta go eat some cake now! Woohoo!
good food.
One of the best cakes I ever made for my sons 10th Birthday ? cake was moist and delicious and frosting was absolutely perfect, thanks for this amazing cake recipe it’s a keeper for sure
I’m a Professional Cook with Serv Safe Manager certificate. I’ve been cooking and baking over 22 years and I must say this is the perfect cake recipe best I’ve ever made in my life. I had to make one change I ran out of oil that day so I melted margarine for the batter. Thanks for sharing.
I made this cake using 3 x 6″ tins and replaced the sugar with coconut sugar and also used buttermilk. It was so moist and light it also wasn’t overly sweet. Thank you for sharing the recipe
Hi Vicky! Thank you so much for trying our recipe and glad you enjoyed!
I have made the cake but silly me did add a few v drops of mint extract into my batter will it be so minty have I spoilt the cake !
I stupidly put it in the oven, despite reservations about how sloppy it was and am only now checking the conversions. Sure it works well in the US version but unfortunately the metric conversion gives the equivalent of 1.5 not 1.75 cups of flour. But it’s too late to add in more now. And a cup of liquid is 136g not 150g so effectively 10% too much coffee making the problem worse. Be careful! In fairness, although it took a long time to bake and was a bit crumblier than I expected, it did taste delicious with the mint frosting plus After Eights round the side and mint Aero bubbles on top. One very happy 7 year old!
I stupidly put it in the oven, despite reservations about how sloppy it was and am only now checking the conversions. Sure it works well in the US version but unfortunately the metric conversion gives the equivalent of 1.5 not 1.75 cups of flour. But it’s too late to add in more now. And a cup of liquid is 136g not 150g so effectively 10% too much coffee making the problem worse. Be careful!
Hello
this looks like a perfect recipe ! Although I have a question – will this recipe be enough for 3x 9inch cake pans ??
Kind regards
Do you mean 9×13? If so, then yes.
They’re 9 ” round pans the shallow type that you use for layered cake
Do you have a recipe for the mont frosting?
Here’s the direct link:
https://dinnerthendessert.com/easy-mint-frosting/
Enjoy!
So excited to try recipe for the first time. question? How do feel a cream cheese addition would work with mint extract. New to baking so thought I would ask
I’m assuming you mean for the Mint Frosting recipe? If so, check out my Mint Cupcakes recipe which includes a Mint Frosting Recipe (https://dinnerthendessert.com/mint-chocolate-cupcakes/?swcfpc=1#wprm-recipe-container-85673).
I attempted to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday, however the cake ended up sinking. Any recommendations?
Oh no! There are a few different reasons that a cake would end up sinking but most likely it was underbaked.
I made this Chocolate Mint cake for my husband’s bday. It came out really delicious and moist. Perfect I can say. I just added peppermint essences instead of a vanilla essence. Everyone loved it.
Frosting I used fresh cream and but of peppermint essence.
GANACHE I used mint chocolate and dark chocolate.
Over all it was hit in my family.
I made it 1st time .
I’m so glad everyone loved it, Sneha! Thanks for the peppermint essence suggestion.
Hi there! Sorry I’m a very novice baker and going to try this out.
The temperature setting of 350 is that Celcius or Farenhite?
Fahrenheit 🙂
This turned out very well for me. I made the cake with the teaspoon of mint extract, and it was delicious.
However, adding the mint frosting on top of that was overkill (and honestly gave it a scent slightly reminiscent of toothpaste).
When I make this again, I will do the cake the same (with mint), but use a creamy non-mint frosting. The mint in the cake is enough!
Dutched cocoa or natural?
Natural
I made this for my son’s seventh birthday. I was in a pinch as I hadn’t read the reviews of the Martha cake I had planned on making, and when I did, I saw that they were awful. At the last minute, I took a shot on this recipe and was so glad I did. This was one of the better cakes I’ve ever made. I substituted buttermilk for the regular as suggested and added a teaspoon of mint extract. The cake was perfect — light, flavorful and moist. Thank you!!
I’m so happy you all enjoyed it, Katherine. Tell your son “Happy Birthday!”
I cannot seem to get to the frosting recipe? Can you please help me?
Here’s the direct link: https://dinnerthendessert.com/easy-mint-frosting/
You can always type mint frosting into the search bar on the site to find it too.
What flour do you use? Plain flour, all purpose or cake flour?
all purpose 🙂
Oh!! A big slice of this cake right now would be amazing.
Always a great time for cake!
This Grasshopper Cake is so perfect and easy to make. This one is on repeat!
Thanks, Kellie!
Mint and chocolate are my favorite together and this cake is delicious!
It’s a perfect match!
I have made this chocolate mint cake, several times. Next time I will make it the same, soooo moist I use my own secret recipe. This time I will use mint color frosting and mint chocolate drizzle down the cake Nd mint color of chocolate chips. Beautiful and tast Great!!! ???
Thank you Marie!
This is my favorite kind of cake!
Yay!
Did you use the hot coffee or hot water?
You can use either. 🙂 The coffee will give a richer flavor though.
Can instant coffee granules be used instead of ready made coffee?
Yes 🙂
Made this for my son’s birthday party last week and it was a huge hit!!!
I’m so glad everyone love it!