Mint to Be or Not to Be

I had planned on making Mix & Match Mama's Candy Cane Bundt Cake for Christmas. Except when I went grocery shopping, after 3 different stores, I had yet to find peppermint extract. But no problem, since every store had mint extract and it would be an easy substitute.

Turns out no. Just google "Mint vs. Peppermint extract" if you don't believe me. For a short answer, mint extract includes spearmint, which isn't really the flavor I was going for. But I figured if I cut the extract, and added peppermint pieces, I could salvage the recipe. It wasn't perfect, and there was still a hint of spearmint, but overall, it worked. Of course, my very next shopping trip after Christmas I did find peppermint extract, which I made sure to stock up on for next time. But in case you're like me and you only have mint, here's a cake that I hope will also work for you.

Peppermint Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
10 peppermints
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups water
4 eggs
1 box white cake mix
2 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
For the Frosting
4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted.
10 peppermints

Directions
For the Cake
1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Crush 10 peppermints and set aside.
2. Mix the vegetable oil, water, and eggs together.
3. Add in the cake mix and puddings and mix until combined.
4. Pour out half of your cake mix and set aside. In one half, mix in the extracts and food coloring until a single color. (I didn't do a great job at cutting in half, and wound up with a ton more pink in my cake than white. But even if it's off, it's not a huge deal.)
5. Stir in your crushed up peppermints.
6. Stir the white chocolate chips into your white half.
7. Add the red cake mix into a prepped bundt cake pan.
8. Add the white cake mix on top.
9. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Let cool for 10 minutes. Then invert onto a serving platter to finish cooling.

For the Frosting
11. Cream together the butter, powdered sugar, and melted white chocolate.
12. Crush the second 10 peppermints. Reserving the largest pieces for the top of the cake, mix the rest into the frosting.
13. Spread frosting onto cooled cake topping with the reserved peppermint chunks.

While this could have been a complete pinterest fail, I think I managed to rescue a "Spearmint Cake" with a few small substitutions. Although I think if I make this again, I'll definitely make sure to buy the right type of extract!

Have you ever tried to make a substitution in a recipe and had it turn out not quite the way you had planned?

Peppermint Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
10 peppermints
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups water
4 eggs
1 box white cake mix
2 small boxes of instant vanilla pudding
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring
1/4 white chocolate chips
For the Frosting
4 cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted.
10 peppermints

Directions
For the Cake
1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Crush 10 peppermints and set aside.
2. Mix the vegetable oil, water, and eggs together.
3. Add in the cake mix and puddings and mix until combined.
4. Pour out half of your cake mix and set aside. In one half, mix in the extracts and food coloring until a single color.
5. Stir in your crushed up peppermints.
6. Stir the white chocolate chips into your white half.
7. Add the red cake mix into a prepped bundt cake pan.
8. Add the white cake mix on top.
9. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Let cool for 10 minutes. Then invert onto a serving platter to finish cooling.
For the Frosting
11. Cream together the butter, powdered sugar, and melted white chocolate.
12. Crush the second 10 peppermints. Reserving the largest pieces for the top of the cake, mix the rest into the frosting.