Thin Mint Cake

I thought I would take a break from posting about mice and back pain (I can almost hear the sighs of relief) and post a recipe.  FYI - I think my back is on the mend and it's SO good to be able to do normal activities again!

On a side note, that same washing machine that nearly took me down is now in need of a repair - no, the irony is not lost on me even a little.

We all know it's the season of cookies - Girl Scout cookies!  And since we have a girl scout in our midst, we bought a case of thin mints (we're all about supporting each other ;) and decided to see where the chips may fall.  Or, as in this case, the cookies.

I was able to sell 10 boxes at work with the help of an enthusiastic supervisor.  So enthusiastic, I almost forgot to save a box for a birthday cake I was planning to prepare.

Here is the recipe - it is the Duncan Hines Pound Cake and it is the most delicious chocolate cake ever!*

After cooling the layers, I split them so we would have three layers of filling to work with.  I frosted the first layer and added the Thin Mints.....

Then, I placed the next cake layer over, unstuck it and took the picture I had forgotten to earlier ;)

Since someone and one of her daughters were snacking on a few random thin mints, there were not quite enough for three layers.  So we added mini chocolate chips to the middle layer instead!

This isn't the best shot, but it shows how the inside turned out.  I made the cake a day ahead of time and thought the cookies would soften more than they really did, but having the flavors meld together for 24 hours is really the way to go.  I would have added some creme de menthe to my icing, but didn't have it on hand, so I just colored the frosting green.  That, combined with the 2 layers of mint cookies really gave it just the correct ration of chocolate and mint :)

And the ganache.....everything is better with ganache on top!

In case I haven't posted it a dozen times, here is the buttercream recipe!

1 cup softened butter,
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
milk to think (start with 2 - 3 TBSP and go from there)
green food coloring

Ganache : Equal parts semi-sweet chocolate chips to equal parts heavy whipping cream.  I used 1 cup chocolate morsels and poured them over heavy whipping cream that is just under the boiling point.  Don't worry about the right temperature.  Just put the cream into a small saucepan and stir frequently - you will notice the steam rising and will see it begin to think about bubbling:)  Remove from the heat, add chocolate, let it sit about 3 minutes and them whisk smooth.

Start slowly pouring your ganache from the middle of the cake out and let it drizzle down the sides - so yummy!

A great final touch would be some Andes Mints bits or crumbled Thin Mints.  I had some reserved cookies that were being held captive in the vegetable crisper drawer that were somehow discovered.  To be fair, I was offered one as the offending party crunched away and declared food staging to be a completely unnecessary science.

And with that in mind, should you ever run out of Thin Mints, I believe a Keebler Grasshopper would be a fine substitute.

* If you type "Devil's Food Pound Cake" into the search box, it should bring up the recipe.  For some reason, I'm not able to get the link to that exact page!