I used to think that I don’t like the combination of chocolate and mint until I tried some of my husband’s treats.
They were similar to the Andes mint chocolates and I fell in love with them.
Of course, almost immediately I had to think how the flavor could be translated into cake.
I started with my favorite moist chocolate cake.
For the filling, I colored my regular buttercream light green and infused it with creme de menthe flavoring. As an additional treat little chunks of Andes mints are added.
For the decoration, I wanted to try myself on a technique I had seen online. Some refer to it as teardrop piping, others as petal piping. Here is a teardrop piping tutorial of what I did.
So I quickly crumb coated the filled cake with chocolate buttercream. It doesn’t have to be neat since it is only the canvas for the piping to come.
For the piping, I prepared a spatula, piping bags with the buttercreams I wanted to use (chocolate, mocha, andes mint) and round piping tips.
I went for a more structured look by using different sized tips. One is Wilton #12 and the other a big round pastry tip I got from a restaurant supply store.
Piping the pattern is quite easy. Start at the bottom and pipe a simple dot.
With a spatula slightly press into the dot at about the three quarter mark and pull out horizontally.
Pipe the next dot into the feathered end of the previous and repeat.
It might take a little bit of practice to get the hang of the motions but then it’s straight forward.
Make sure to start and end always on the same side of the cake. The last dot in each row will look a little irregular so make this the back side.
After piping a few rows I realized that I could get the same effect without a spatula. After piping, the dot don’t lift the piping bag but use the tip for pulling out the dot.
Whether you use a spatula or the piping tip to form the teardrops make sure to clean them with a paper towel once in a while. Otherwise, your teardrops will start looking unclean and draggy.
