Layered Peppermint Cheesecake

Layered Peppermint Cheesecake

Pepperminty recipe number 3!

These words are coming from Tricia's mouth out of my fingers.

First off... this recipe can be time consuming but SO WORTH IT.

(Recipe form with amounts down below)

Cheesecake:

Trish first made the cheesecake portion of this recipe.

She preheated the oven to 325 and lined two 9-inch round cake pans with foil.

Then she beat the softened cream cheese, sugar, and  butter for 1-2 minutes until smooth.

Then Trish added the eggs one at a time, beating well until blended after each one. 

Adding the flour, sour cream, vanilla, and peppermint extract, she blended again until well mixed.

Then she stirred in the candy canes that took me forever to crush.

Seriously. It took forever.

All the store had was miniature candy canes...40 to a package...all individually wrapped.

And then for some reason crushing them was next to impossible.

Magic bullet? Nope. Malt mixer? Nope.

And then came my genius idea.

Yep. Crushed them with a malt cup... IN the package, before unwrapping them.

Of course I thought of this after hand crushing the 1st whole box... this was the 2nd box.

:(

She poured the batter into the 2 pans...

 ...and placed them in a larger pan with about an inch of water on the bottom.

The batter looks super good!

See? Trish really is the cheesecake queen!

She baked these two bad-boys of cheesecakes until they are set, she guesses maybe an hour, and after taking them out let them cool completely in the pans in the freezer until they were pretty much completely frozen.

While the cheesecakes are in the oven, she made the cake batter for the cake layers.

Cake:

She beat a white cake mix with eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, and water until well blended. 

MMM...

Then she poured the batter into three 9 inch greased and floured cake pans.

Yes I know these are only two... she had to use one twice :)

She baked these until they were tooth-pick-test-ready... about 15-20 minutes at 350.

After the cakes were done, they also had to cool completely.

Like she said before.... this recipe takes a long time... but trust us both it's worth it!!

THEN... here comes the best part in my opinion (but also the hardest part).... making the White. Chocolate. Mousse. Frosting.

yumyumyumyumyum

Frosting:

This part needs to be done very carefully... I know because last night when we made this cake the first time, I watched her make it twice since the first batch didn't work out right :(

First you stir sugar and water over medium-low heat in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved, around 4 minutes.  

Then you add white chocolate chips, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  

Remove from heat, and COOL to room temp.... this will take longer than you think (can be to about 30 minutes) and this is what went wrong the first time making this... it wasn't cool enough.  Trish said it worked good when it was around 74ish degrees.

While the chocolate mixture is cooling, beat the cream and vanilla at high speed for a few minutes until soft peaks form.  

Then gradually fold in the COOLED white chocolate mixture (you can see in the picture its not runny, but still pour-able) into the whipped mixture, folding it until it becomes a spreading consistency.

Once this is done... the fun parts are what is left!!!!

Assembling the cake:

Once all the layers are pretty frozen, peel the foil off of the sides of the cheesecake.

:)

Take the cakes out of the pans...

And look at them at eye level to shave off any extra cake to make sure they are all even.

Place the first cake layer on a plate or whatever you are going to be serving this on... I wouldn't recommend moving it after putting it together because it is quite heavy.

This is the second cake we made, and we decided to put frosting and candy canes in between layers, and also dye the middle cake layer bright pink.

Top that layer with a cheesecake layer, spread a thin layer of the frosting on...

As you see, instead of picking the cheesecake up out of the foil, Trish just flipped it over onto the cake.

 Top with the second cake layer, and another thin layer of frosting...

Pink cake!!!

 Then the second cheesecake layer, more frosting... :)

And then finally top the whole thing with the last cake layer!

Soooo goooood

Spread the frosting over the entire cake... and decorate if you would like.  

Tada!!!!!!
We sprinkled the rest of the candy canes on the top and sides.

Chill until ready to serve... which might be right after you make this because you just can't help yourselves.  Enjoy!

Here are some pictures from the first cake we made.... I obviously could not stop taking pictures of this cake.. it was wayyy too pretty not to!!

Recipe Form:

Cheesecake layers:

• 3 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 2/3 cup crushed candy canes

Sour Cream Cake:

• 1 package white cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 (8 oz.) container sour cream
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup water

White Chocolate Mousse Frosting:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Garnishes: white chocolate curls, peppermint candies, etc.

1. Prepare cheesecake layers: Preheat oven to 325. Line 2 9 inch cake pans with aluminum foil.  Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup, and 2 Tbsp. butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 1 to 2 minutes or until creamy and smooth.  Add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each one.  Add flour, and next 3 ingredients, beating until blended.  Fold in candies.  Pour batter into prepared pans.  Place cake pans in a larger pan, adding about an inch of water in the large pan.

2. Bake at 325 until set, can be about an hour.  Remove from oven to wire racks, cool completely in pans (about an hour).  Cover cheesecakes and freeze until frozen solid.  Leave cheesecakes in freezer until ready to assemble cakes.  Once completely ready to build the cake, lift frozen cheesecakes from pans, using foil as handles. Gently remove foil from cheesecake.

3. Prepare sour cream cake layers: Preheat oven to 350.  Beat cake mix, and the rest of the ingredients, at low speed with an electric mixer 30 seconds; then beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.  Spoon batter into 3 greased and floured 9 inch round cake pans.

4. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until tooth pick comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks 20 minutes; remove from pans and cool about an hour on cooling racks.

5. Prepare frosting: Cook 2/3 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring often, 3 to 4 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.  Add white chocolate chip; cook, stirring constantly, 2-3 minutes or until melted and smooth.  Remove from heat, and cool to room temperature (about 30 minutes), whisking occasionally.

6. Beat cream and 2 tsp. vanilla at high speed with an electric mixer 1-2 minutes or until soft peaks form.  Gradually fold white chocolate mixture into whipped cream mixture, folding until mixture reached spreading  consistency. 

7. Assemble cake: Place 1 cake layer on a cake stand or plate.  Top with cheesecake layer.  Top with second cake layer, and remaining cheesecake layer.  Top with last remaining cake layer.  Spread top and sides with frosting.  Garnish if desired.  Chill until served.

Happy baking!