Chocolate Peppermint Cake Roll with a cream cheese peppermint filling and chocolate ganache on top. A beautiful, festive dessert for the holidays!
I'm so happy to see how many of you loved my tips for making the EASIEST Pumpkin roll. I've loved all of the photos you've shared of your roll and the nice comments you've left on Pinterest.
So for all of you cake roll fans, here is another holiday favorite you can enjoy this Christmas: Chocolate Peppermint Cake Roll.
A delicious chocolate sheet cake, rolled up with peppermint cream cheese frosting in the center, and covered in chocolate ganache. This cake roll is heavenly! It's perfect for wow-ing guests and beautiful for celebrating this special time of year.
Lots of people avoid making cake rolls because so many recipes have you invert the baked cake onto a large towel dusted with powdered sugar. The whole process seems messy and tricky. Fear not! This method is the easiest, fuss-free way to do it!
First, grease a 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with parchment paper. Grease and flour paper.
Make the chocolate cake batter and pour it into the prepared pan.
Bake, allow it to cool for 1 minute in the pan, and then lift the parchment paper and cake onto your counter to quickly roll the hot cake up inside the parchment paper. Let it cool on top of a wire cooling rack, and then in the fridge. 
Unroll the cooled cake and spread the peppermint cream cheese frosting gently over it.
Roll it back up, this time without the parchment paper. Don't worry if it's not pretty to look at yet. The chocolate ganache will cover up any imperfections!
Refrigerate it again for an hour. Pour chocolate ganache over the top. ENJOY!
Tips for making a perfect chocolate cake roll:
- Make sure the cake is well cooked, before rolling it up. If it’s undercooked at all, it will be too sticky to release from the parchment paper.
- When removing it from the oven, allow it to cool for just 60-90 seconds in the pan. Then remove it to the counter and roll it up immediately. I like to give the top of the cake a minute to rest before rolling it up, but you do need to roll it up while the cake is hot from the oven, to prevent cracking.
- Allow the rolled up cake to cool completely, on top of a wire cooling rack so that it can cool underneath the roll, to keep it from sweating.
- You really can NOT cut corners on allowing this cake time in the fridge (both after the initial rolling, after it's filled with frosting, and after adding the ganache). If you try and unroll-it too soon, frost it too soon, or serve it too soon, it may be messy.
- There are several ways to make this cake ahead! See my notes at the bottom of the recipe.
CONSIDER TRYING THESE HOLIDAY TREATS:
- Homemade Caramels
- Caramel Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods
- Peppermint Brownie Trifle
- Peppermint Candy Cane Brownies
- Turtle Thumbprint Cookies
- Chocolate Peppermint Bundt Cake
- Caramel Hot Chocolate
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Recipe
Chocolate Peppermint Cake Roll
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 4 large eggs , separated
- 1/2 cup + ⅓ cup granulated sugar , divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup water
For the filling:
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 20 starlight mint candies crushed
For the ganache:
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or 3 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate
- starlight mint candies , crushed for topping
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with parchment paper. Grease and flour paper.
- Beat egg whites in large bowl until soft peaks form; gradually add ½ cup granulated sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.
- Beat egg yolks and vanilla in medium bowl on medium speed of mixer 3 minutes. Gradually add remaining ⅓ cup granulated sugar; continue beating 2 additional minutes.
- Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to egg yolk mixture alternately with water, beating on low speed just until batter is smooth.
- Gradually fold chocolate mixture into beaten egg whites until well blended. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.
- Bake 14 to 16 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly in center and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Allow cake to cool in the pan for ONE minute.
- Lift the parchment paper and hot cake out of the pan and onto a flat (heat-safe) surface. Immediately, while the cake is hot, starting at one of the short ends, use your hands to gently and slowly roll the cake (and parchment paper!) all the way up.
- Allow the rolled up cake to cool completely, on top of a wire cooling rack. (Setting it on a wire rack allows it to cool underneath the roll, and keeps the cake from sweating).
- Transfer to the fridge to cool for an additional 30 minutes.
- While the cake roll is cooling in the fridge, mix the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and peppermint extract together with an electric mixer until fluffy and smooth.
- Gently stir in desired amount of crushed peppermint candies, to taste. Save a handful for sprinkling on the ganache, at the end, if desired.
- Once the cake roll is cooled completely, unroll it very carefully. Gently smooth the filling in an even layer over the cake.
- Roll up the cake, without the parchment paper. (If you see it start to stick at all to the paper you can use a butter knife gently scrape along the bottom edge of the cake as you roll it up, to help release it.)
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
For the Ganache:
- Heat heavy cream in a saucepan until hot. Pour over chocolate and stir continuously until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Allow the ganache to cool for several minutes to give it time to thicken up a little.
- Gently spoon/pour the chocolate ganache over the top of the peppermint roll. Sprinkle additional chopped peppermint candy on top, if desired.
- Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes before serving.
- Store in the fridge, covered, for up to three days.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
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The red candy pieces turned my filling pink! How did you prevent that from happening? Also, once you put on the ganache, can it be striped with a fork for a yule log?
We hope it still tasted delicious! Try to just barely fold the candy pieces in the frosting and avoid stirring it too much. We haven’t tested doing the fork stripes on it, but it should work after the ganache is set. Enjoy!
Disaster. Whipping the egg whites created such a light and airy cake that it couldn’t hold any structure at all. It barely peeled off the parchment and once it did, continuously cracked and broke. I’ll try again without separating the eggs but the recipe as is was a total waste of time and ingredients.