• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Curly Girl Kitchen
  • about
  • faqs
  • recipes
  • portfolio
  • work with me
  • contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

High Altitude Candy Cane Christmas Cake

November 29, 2022 by Heather Smoke Leave a Comment

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

If a cake could have its own theme song, this whimsical candy cane cake would dance to the soundtrack of Elf, as he traipses through the candy cane forest to find his dad in New York City. This is a high altitude peppermint cake recipe, with six layers of soft and moist vanilla bean cake, frosted with red and white striped peppermint buttercream. This festive Christmas cake is perfect for the holidays!

You might also love this gingerbread cake with mascarpone buttercream, buttercream Christmas tree cake tutorial, and a snowman Christmas cake.

Candy cane cake with red and white striped buttercream and decorated with candy canes and peppermints.

This site contains affiliate links.  As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  This means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links.  This in no way affects my opinion of those products and services.  All opinions expressed on this site are my own.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Step by Step Photos. If you’re intimidated by the red and white striped buttercream technique, I’ve included step-by-step photos today to help guide you through the cake decorating process.

High Altitude Tested. The vanilla peppermint cake recipe is high altitude tested, for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet.

Versatile Recipe. See the recipe variations section below for instructions on making a 4-layer cake instead of 6, or scaling this recipe up to a larger 8 inch cake. And if you don’t want to make the red and white cake layers inside, no problem! Red velvet cake would work well, and a chocolate cake with the peppermint striped buttercream would be fantastic. Who wouldn’t love a chocolate peppermint cake for a Christmas party?

Sparkling sugar on red and white striped buttercream.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Tools and Equipment

  • 6-inch Cake Pans. You’ll need six 6-inch cake pans for today’s recipe. You could also get away with using 3 pans and then splitting the layers. I use Fat Daddio’s aluminum cake pans to bake all of my cakes.
  • Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment. While you can mix up the vanilla cake batter with a bowl and whisk, you need a stand mixer to make buttercream.
  • Piping Bags + Couplers. You’ll need two 16-inch piping bags plus couplers for piping the red and white striped buttercream on your candy cane cake.
  • Piping Tips. I used tip #12, which is a medium sized round tip.
  • Cake Decorating Turntable. This is a necessary cake decorating tool, especially when doing a technique like striped buttercream. You’ll need to spin the cake as you smooth out the buttercream, and this is impossible to do without a turntable.
  • Bench Scraper. To smooth the sides of the cake and blend the stripes together.
Slice of candy cane cake.

Ingredients

Cake

  • Vanilla Cake. I used my trusted high altitude vanilla cake recipe, which I scaled down to 2/3 its size for today’s cake design. It’s easy to make, with a soft, fluffy moist texture and delicious vanilla flavor.
  • Food Coloring. If you’re doing the red and white cake layers, you’ll need “super red” gel food coloring and “bright white” food coloring, which helps to brighten the white layers so they don’t look ivory or yellow.

Buttercream

  • Perfect American Buttercream. You’ll need 4x my recipe for American buttercream. I recommend making it with half butter/half shortening for a white color.
  • Peppermint Extract. I flavored the buttercream with peppermint extract, which gives the cake plenty of peppermint flavor, without needing to add it to the cake batter, too. Do not use mint extract, which tastes like spearmint.

Decorating

  • Food Coloring. For the buttercream stripes, we’ll be using “super red” gel food coloring and “bright white” food coloring again.
  • Sugar. I scattered a combination of granulated sugar and coarse white sparkling sugar over the cake. The sugar makes it sparkle, and also helps to hide less-than-perfect stripes.
  • Candy. An assortment of candy canes in different sizes, peppermint sticks, peppermint candy and lollipops will look beautiful on top of the candy cane cake.
Peppermints and candy canes on top of a candy cane cake.

Instructions

Bake the cake.

  • Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of six 6-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
  • In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine well.
  • In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg white, buttermilk, melted butter, oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk until mostly combined and smooth, about 10-15 seconds. Don’t over-mix, since you’ll be mixing the batter again when you add the food coloring.
  • Divide the batter evenly between two bowls. Add the red food coloring to one bowl of batter, and the white food coloring to the other bowl. Stir the coloring into the batter until combined.
Step 1 for making red and white cake.
Step 2 for making red and white cake.
  • Divide the red cake batter between 3 cake pans, then divide the white cake batter between 3 cake pans.
  • Bake on the center oven rack for about 13-15 minutes, until the centers spring back when lightly touched. Since there’s a small amount of batter in each pan, the layers will be fairly thin.
Step 3 for making red and white cake.
Step 4 for making red and white cake.
  • Cool the cakes in the pans before assembling and frosting.

Make the buttercream.

  • In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening for 1 minute until smooth.
  • With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder, and the salt, mixing until combined but clumpy.
  • Add the vanilla and peppermint extracts. Increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, until very light and fluffy, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times. Turn the speed down to “stir” and mix for 1 more minute.
Swirls of American vanilla buttercream.

Crumb coat the cake.

  • Stack and fill the cooled cake layers with the buttercream, alternating the red and white cake layers as you assemble them.
  • Frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before you finish frosting and decorating the cake.
Red and white cake layers filled with buttercream.
Red and white cake layers with a buttercream crumb coat.

Color the buttercream red and white.

  • While the crumb coated cake is chilling, divide the remaining buttercream evenly between two bowls.
  • Use super red gel food coloring to tint one bowl of buttercream red. Even with a lot of food coloring, the red buttercream may have a coral or pink tint to it, but it will darken over the course of a few hours to a deeper red color.
  • If your white buttercream looks too ivory, you can stir in a few drops of bright white food coloring to whiten and brighten it.
  • Fit two piping bags with couplers and tips #12 (medium sized round tip). Fill one bag with white buttercream and one bag with red buttercream.
Piping bags filled with red and white buttercream.

Pipe the buttercream stripes.

  • Place your chilled, crumb coated cake on a cake decorating turntable.
  • Starting with the white buttercream, pipe a row of buttercream around the base of the cake. Then pipe a row of red buttercream right above the white. Continue to pipe rows of buttercream, alternating red and white as you work your way up the sides of the cake, ending on top.
  • Be sure to pipe the rows close together, trying to keep them as straight and even as possible, and without any gaps in between.
Step 1 for frosting a cake with red and white striped buttercream.
Step 2 for frosting a cake with red and white striped buttercream.
Step 3 for frosting a cake with red and white striped buttercream.
Step 4 for frosting a cake with red and white striped buttercream.
  • Take your bench scraper and slowly spin the turntable as you sweep the bench scraper around the sides of the cake. The goal here is not to remove too much frosting, but to smooth out the lines and blend the stripes together. The more evenly you piped your rows of buttercream, the more even and straight the stripes will look.
  • Scrape the excess frosting off the bench scraper into a bowl, and wipe the bench scraper clean before you go around the cake again. Repeat several times, until the sides and top of the cake is smooth.
Step 5 for frosting a cake with red and white striped buttercream.
Step 6 for frosting a cake with red and white striped buttercream.

Decorate with sugar and candy canes.

  • In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar and coarse white sparkling sugar. Toss the sugar all over the top and sides of the cake, before the frosting crusts over.
Bowl of sparkling sugar.
Red and white striped buttercream covered in sparkling sugar.
Sparkling sugar on a red and white striped buttercream cake.
  • Decorate your candy cane cake with candy canes in assorted sizes, peppermint candy, peppermint sticks and lollipops.
  • If you have any leftover red and white buttercream, you can use it to pipe swirls on top of the cake.
Candy cane cake with red and white striped buttercream and decorated with candy canes and peppermints.

Recipe Variations

  • All Red Cake Layers. Instead of the alternating red and white cake layers, I also really like the idea of all the cake being red. The cake would still be striped inside, since the red cake would alternate with the white buttercream.
  • Other Cake Flavors. You certainly don’t have to do a red and white cake inside, if you want to go another direction. A chocolate cake with the striped peppermint buttercream would be wonderful.
  • 4-Layer Cake. If you don’t want to assemble six layers of cake, use 1/2 my vanilla cake recipe and bake it in four 6-inch cake pans.
  • Standard 8-inch Cake. For a larger, 8-inch cake, use my full vanilla cake recipe. Increase the buttercream to 5x my American buttercream recipe. This cake size will yield 16 servings.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make this cake in advance?

  • Cake. You can bake and cool the cake, wrap each layer individually in plastic wrap, and freeze for up to 3-6 months. Let thaw to room temperature or just slightly chilled (but not frozen) before assembling your cake.
  • Buttercream. You can make the buttercream and store it in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3-6 months. Mix it again for several minutes if it seems dry from the freezer.
  • Assembled Cake. You can also freeze the fully assembled and frosted cake (without the candy decorations) in an airtight container or cake carrier for several weeks. Let thaw 24 hours in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before serving.

How should I store the leftover cake?

Keep leftover cake in an airtight container or cake carrier at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Slice of red and white cake.

You Might Also Like

Gingerbread cake topped with rosemary trees and a mini cookie house.
Gingerbread Cake
Buttercream Christmas tree cake with a star anise being placed on top.
Christmas Tree Cake
Cranberry cake with pink buttercream decorated with sugared cranberries and rosemary.
Cranberry Christmas Cake
A snowman cake sitting on a white cake stand surrounded by Christmas ornaments.
Snowman Cake

Favorite Products

Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!

Candy cane cake with red and white striped buttercream and decorated with candy canes and peppermints.

High Altitude Candy Cane Christmas Cake

Heather Smoke
A high altitude recipe for candy cane cake, with six layers of vanilla bean cake, frosted with red and white striped peppermint buttercream.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 hr
Cook Time 15 mins
Total Time 1 hr 15 mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings12

Equipment

  • Six 6-inch cake pans
  • Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
  • 2 16-inch Piping Bags + Couplers
  • 2 Piping Tips #12
  • Cake Decorating Turntable
  • Bench Scraper

Ingredients
 

Cake

  • 2 ⅓ cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 large egg white (save the extra yolk for another use)
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • ⅓ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
  • super red gel food coloring
  • bright white food coloring (optional)

Buttercream

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp meringue powder (optional)
  • ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • ¾ tsp peppermint (not mint) extract

Decorating

  • super red gel food coloring
  • 1 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 2 tbsp coarse white sparkling sugar
  • assorted candy canes, peppermint sticks, peppermint candy and lollipops

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Spray the bottoms of six 6-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
  • In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine well.
  • In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg white, buttermilk, melted butter, oil and vanilla extract until smooth.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk until mostly combined and smooth, about 10-15 seconds. Don't over-mix, since you'll be mixing the batter again when you add the food coloring.
  • Divide the batter evenly between two bowls. Add the red food coloring to one bowl of batter, and the white food coloring to the other bowl. Stir the coloring into the batter until combined.
  • Divide the red cake batter between 3 cake pans, then divide the white cake batter between 3 cake pans.
  • Bake on the center oven rack for about 13-15 minutes, until the centers spring back when lightly touched. Since there's a small amount of batter in each pan, the layers will be fairly thin.
  • Cool the cakes in the pans before assembling and frosting.
    Note: This cake also looks really nice with ALL of the cake batter colored red, so you'll have 6 red layers of cake alternating with white buttercream.

Buttercream

  • In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening for 1 minute until smooth. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder, and the salt, mixing until combined but clumpy. Add the vanilla and peppermint extracts. Increase speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes, until very light and fluffy, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 more minute.
  • Stack and fill the cooled cake layers with the buttercream, alternating the red and white cake layers as you assemble them. Frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before you finish frosting and decorating the cake.

Decorating

  • While the crumb coated cake is chilling, divide the remaining buttercream evenly between two bowls. Use super red gel food coloring to tint one bowl of buttercream red.
    Even with a lot of food coloring, the red buttercream may have a coral or pink tint to it, but it will darken over the course of a few hours to a deeper red color.
    If your white buttercream looks too ivory, you can stir in a few drops of bright white food coloring to whiten and brighten it.
  • Fit two piping bags with couplers and tips #12 (medium sized round tip). Fill one bag with white buttercream and one bag with red buttercream.
  • Place your chilled, crumb coated cake on a cake decorating turntable.
  • Starting with the white buttercream, pipe a row of buttercream around the base of the cake. Then pipe a row of red buttercream right above the white. Continue to pipe rows of buttercream, alternating red and white as you work your way up the sides of the cake, ending on top.
    Be sure to pipe the rows close together, trying to keep them as straight and even as possible, and without any gaps in between.
  • Take your bench scraper and slowly spin the turntable as you sweep the bench scraper around the sides of the cake. The goal here is not to remove too much frosting, but to smooth out the lines and blend the stripes together. The more evenly you piped your rows of buttercream, the more even and straight the stripes will look.
    Scrape the excess frosting off the bench scraper into a bowl, and wipe the bench scraper clean before you go around the cake again. Repeat several times, until the sides and top of the cake is smooth.
  • In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar and coarse white sparkling sugar. Toss the sugar all over the top and sides of the cake, before the frosting crusts over.
  • Decorate your cake with candy canes in assorted sizes, peppermint candy, peppermint sticks and lollipops.
  • If you have any leftover red and white buttercream, you can use it to pipe swirls on top of the cake.

Notes

Store the leftover cake in an airtight container or cake carrier at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Keyword Candy Cane, Christmas Cake, High Altitude, Peppermint, Red and White, Striped Buttercream
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/

Filed Under: Christmas and Thanksgiving, Christmas Cakes

Previous Post: « High Altitude One Layer Chocolate Chestnut Cake
Next Post: High Altitude Old Fashioned Iced Oatmeal Cookies »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Welcome

I'm Heather, and welcome to my Colorado kitchen, where you will find high-altitude tested recipes for beautifully photographed cakes, baked goods and sweets. I believe that the kitchen is the heart of a home, and everyone is welcome in mine. So stay a while, sip a cup of coffee, and bake something delicious with me!

A graphic on how to make perfect American buttercream.
A graphic on how to stack, fill, crumb coat and frost layer cakes.

Recipe Index

  • Breads, Biscuits, Muffins and Doughnuts
  • Breakfast
  • Brownies and Bars
  • Cakes
    • Buttercream
    • Cake Decorating
    • Classic Cake Flavors
    • Holiday Themed Cakes
  • Candy and Snacks
  • Cheesecakes
  • Christmas and Thanksgiving
    • Christmas Cakes
    • Christmas Cookies
  • Cookies
  • Crisps, Crumbles, Cobblers and Puddings
  • Cupcakes
  • Drinks
  • Halloween
  • How To Guides and Resources
  • Ice Cream and Frozen Treats
    • Frozen Custard
    • Ice Cream Sandwiches
    • No Churn Ice Cream
    • Popsicles
  • Jams and Sweet Sauces
  • Pies and Tarts
  • Savory
A graphic on how I improved my food photography with Foodtography School.
A graphic on how to make flaky pie dough.

Recent Posts

  • High Altitude Raspberry Vanilla Cake
  • High Altitude Baked Chocolate Espresso Donuts
  • High Altitude Heart Shaped Chocolate Bundt Cake
  • High Altitude Homemade Graham Crackers
  • High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes
  • High Altitude Red Velvet Cake Whoopie Pies
  • Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
  • High Altitude Chocolate Sheet Cake
  • Rose Petal Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies
  • Homemade Chocolate Fudge Pop Tarts

Archives

  • about
  • faqs
  • recipes
  • portfolio
  • work with me
  • contact

Footer

I'm Heather, and welcome to Curly Girl Kitchen, where you will find high-altitude tested recipes for beautifully photographed cakes and sweets. I believe that the kitchen is the heart of a home, and everyone is welcome in mine. So stay a while, sip a cup of coffee, and bake something sweet with me!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Privacy Policy

About

FAQs

Work With Me

Contact

Copyright © 2023 Curly Girl Kitchen on the Foodie Pro Theme