Peppermint Crisp Traybake

A delicious chocolate and caramel cake topped off with a peppermint crisp frosting

With over half a million views across Instagram and TikTok, peppermint crisp remains one of my most popular recipes on my page.

I must be honest and say up until about 2023, I never bothered to share this recipe as I thought it is so simple – made with just four ingredients – that people really are not interested in this. Personally, I also found the dessert too sweet and could only eat it in smaller quantities.

I always share things which I enjoy eating, and so to fix the sweetness, I swapped out some of the caramel for mascarpone (though some people then complained that it was not sweet enough!). Oh well, I guess you cannot please everyone. So many of you however, have commented how the inclusion of mascarpone cheese gives it a rich, voluminous texture as opposed to just cream and so I am glad I shared this hack.

It was a no brainer when I was creating my “Tantilizing Traybake series” that a peppermint crisp version would feature in the lineup. A very simple marble cake, with flavours of caramel and chocolate, gets a layer of delicious peppermint crisp fiilling on the top. Almost like a hybrid between a tart and cake.

The most important thing to note when baking this cake is to line your tins in a specific manner that allows the filling to not overflow and gives you nice sharp edges. This is particularly important if you are using a shallow tin, with a height of about 5cm.

Another key area to note is to ensure that use milk powder instead of the malted milk powder (Horlicks) I use in my other caramel cake recipes. I noticed that the formula for Horlicks changed recently and the recipe tests I have done have just not produced the same results with the new formula. I have therefore decided to toast my own milk powder, to unlock all that caramelly goodness, whilst also ensuring a fluffy bake.

IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT THIS RECIPE

• Why is lining the tin so “complicated”? Most people have shallow 20cm tins. This means that the height of the tin is around 5cm. The cake and the filling combined may be slightly higher than this and I want people to have the most success in making the peppermint crisp as pretty as possible, so have been more pedantic about lining the tin.
• Why do you use toasted milk powder? I have initially used malted milk powder for this recipe, Horlicks being the most popular one. I have recently discovered however, that Horlicks has changed its formula which does not work so well in the recipe. I also think milk powder is more accessible and cheaper and is therefore better.
• Why has my peppermint caramel filling split? The whipping cream in this recipe, coupled with the mascarpone cheese can result in overwhipping and the fats separating from the water. So be careful when overwhipping.

OTHER PEPPERMINT CRISP RECIPES YOU MAY ENJOY

• Peppermint Crisp Tart
• Peppermint Crisp Cupcakes

If you make this recipe, please share it with me by tagging me on Instagram @adventureswithsugar or on Facebook at Adventures with Sugar.

FOR THE CHOCOLATE AND CARAMEL MARBLE CAKE

Important Recipe Edit: I have often used Horlicks for the malted milk powder in my caramel cake recipes, however the formula for Horlicks has been recently revised. I have found that this does not produce as nice a texture as previously, so I have edited the recipe to use a toasted milk powder instead. Whilst it is an additional step, it produces a wonderful, caramel flavour.

Please use the toasted milk powder instead of the malted milk powder that the initial version of the recipe requires.

• 30ml vegetable oil
• 105g salted butter, at room temperature and cut into 2cm cubes
• 125g muscovado sugar
• 30g golden syrup
• 125g self-raising flour
• 25g toasted milk powder
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon caramel essence (optional)
• 3 large eggs
• 30ml milk
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, mixed with about 3 – 4 teaspoons boiling water

METHOD

1. Prepare the toasted milk powder: Please see important note at the beginning of the recipe where I now use toasted milk powder instead of malted milk powder. Begin by preheating the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Place the milk powder on a baking sheet and place in the oven to toast for 10 minutes. Give it a mix every 3 minutes to ensure it does not burn. The milk powder is done when it is a light tan colour, not too brown. You can skip this step and just use untoasted milk powder, but the caramel notes of the cake are so much more pronounced with this.
2. Prepare your oven and cake tin before baking: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. It is important to do this properly, especially if using a shallow tin. To line the tin, cut a single piece of baking paper that will line the base, but also overhang off the sides, about 5cm higher than the height of the tin. This will ensure that the cake is easy to lift out the tin, but also creates a collar once you add the peppermint crisp topping. Then line the remaining two sides with separate pieces of baking paper, coming 5cm up over the tin. Fold this over the edge of the tin so that It does not burn.
3. Prepare the wet ingredients: In a jug, add in the eggs, milk and vanilla essence. Whisk by hand for about 30 seconds until the yolks are broken up and everything looks like a homogenous mixture.
4. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl: Place the butter, oil, muscovado sugar, golden syrup, self-raising flour, toasted milk powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients: Pour a third of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix for about 30 seconds, the mixture should look like wet sand. Then add the next third and mix for 30 seconds and then the final third of the eggs and milk. Once the final mix is added, let it mix for about 45 seconds to a minute until the mixture looks thick, glossy and slightly voluminous. The batter may sometimes look slightly curdled, but that is no reason to worry. It will come together as it bakes.
6. Make the cocoa swirl batter: Begin in a larger bowl than you think you will need, as you will ultimately transfer half the batter into this bowl. To begin, place the cocoa powder and boiling water and mix to form a thick paste. Then add in about a quarter cup of the caramel batter and mix until everything is well combined. Then, transfer some of the remaining caramel batter into the bowl and gently mix into the cocoa mixture. In total, you want half the batter to be chocolate and half to be caramel.
7. Add the batter to the tin and marble: To ensure you get a proper marbled effect, use a tablespoon to dollop random patches of caramel batter into the tin. Then fill in the gaps the chocolate batter. Once you have a base layer, then repeat the process randomly with a second layer of chocolate and caramel batter. Use the back of a sharp knife to swirl the batter together to make a marble pattern.
8. Bake the cake and let it cool before frosting: Bake the cake for 35 – 45 minutes, checking on it after 20 minutes. The toasted milk powder could cause it to brown quite quickly. To avoid a burnt look, simply cover with a sheet of foil and continue baking for the remaining time.
9. Prepare the cake for frosting: Once out of the oven, let the cake rest for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and letting it cool completely. If the top has domed slightly, trim that off so that it sits flat. Frost the cake only once completely cool. Once ready to frost, add the cake back into the tin with the baking paper you prepared earlier coming up around 5cm over the tin.

FOR THE PEPPERMINT CRISP FROSTING AND DECORATION

• 90g butter, at room temperature
• 90g mascarpone
• 180g tinned caramel
• 70ml whipping cream

• 1 Tablespoon of tinned caramel mixed with 1 Tablespoon whipping cream, to swirl
• 3 bars peppermint crisp chocolates, roughly chopped
• mini tennis biscuits, to decorate

METHOD

1. Beat the butter first: To make the icing beat the butter for about a minute until pale and fluffy.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix: Then add in the mascarpone, tinned caramel and whipping cream and whip for about a minute until everything is combined and the whipping cream is stiff. Be careful not to whip for too long, or you could overbeat the ingredients and it will go from silky smooth to grainy and split.
3. Prepare the peppermint crisp chocolates: Chop up the peppermint crisp chocolates, reserving one for the garnish at the end. Fold the remaining two into the caramel mixture.
4. Add the caramel mixture onto the cake: Now is the time that the collar you have made for the cake, with the additional layer of baking paper, is important. Ensure it comes up over the sides of the tin. Then add the caramel mixture onto the cake and smooth out.
5. Prepare the caramel swirl: Simply heat the tablespoon of caramel and cream in the microwave for 15 seconds, before mixing to combine. Then dollop in between the caramel mixture and swirl with a sharp knife.
6. Add on the peppermint crisp chocolate: The one chocolate which we reserved for garnish can now be sprinkled on the top. Then place the cake in the fridge to set for 30 minutes, before removing from the tin, slicing and serving.
7. Garnish with mini tennis biscuits: If you want, just before serving, you can add on mini-tennis biscuits to complete the look of this delicious peppermint crisp marble traybake.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com