Layered Peppermint Cheesecake

This was so disappointing and an embarrassment to serve on Christmas.

Hope you didn't miss the last sentence of Step 1. The water is suppose to be in a "separate" pan, into which the pan with the cake mix is placed. (Sometimes called a water bath). Once cooked, the pan with the cake in it is remove from the larger pan with just the water in it.

That happened to us as well...had to pitch the entire batch and start over. Did you hand fold in your chocolate..we tried mixing it in and it totally fell apart. Started over. Whipped the creme exactly 2 min. stopped and folded in the white choc. after it had cooled but not to cold. It worked!! A beauty for your table, and I think taste really good. Your comment was posted in 2011 sure you have mastered it by now..lol

I have made this cake for the past 5 years for Christmas. My friends, family, and co-workers all love this dessert. The peppermint is not overwhelming, in fact it's perfect.

What is he nutritional value for this?

I did not like. Too much sour cream! But the frosting was fabulous!!

I have made this cake four times now and every time it is a hit. Don't let the length of the recipe scare you off. I made according to directions and it has turned out great every time. I also use parchment paper to line my pans and cross 2 long strips under the round piece to help lift out the cake. A knife around the edge is a must. Make sure you have 8" pans. With 9" pans you will not have enough batter. F roasting is the fussiest, but well worth it. Comes out like a light fluffy mousse.

I'm in the process of making this cake. I just took out the peppermint cheesecake layers out of the oven and it look raw. Hopefully it'll thicken. But my question is do I remove the water from the pan. It doesn't say but makes no sense to freeze the water in the pan along with the batter. PLEASE RESPOND ASAP because it just came out of the oven and it's cooling right now.

I JUST finished making this cake so here are my thoughts. First, it calls for box cake mix, which is yuch and chemical tasting to me. DO try your own scratch cake. It needs to be dense, cause the cheesecake will be heavy. Also, these was not enough mix to make 3 layers. Second, the cheesecake part was easy to make, and I certainly would keep that recipe and make it with a chocolate cookie crumb crust, for a stand alone cheesecake. Mine didnt come out quite as pink, so you may want to add a tinch of food color. Third, the whipped cream frosting was YUM. I was a little worried about it coming together, but it worked out fine. Nice and light as opposed to buttercream, which I am rather bored with. And it made more than enough to frost. So, I rate it a B, and thats only cause of that disgusting cake mix! If I do this again, I will make it from scratch and give myself an A!

Please help! I am planning to make this cake for a party soon. Just realized that boxed cake mixes are no longer made in the 18.25 oz. variety. I've looked everywhere and all I can find is a mix a little over 16 oz. Does this change up the ingredients for the sour cream cake? Has anyone else had this problem?

This cake tastes amazing.However, I'm just not sure if the time and effort pays off in the end. The cheese cake part was my favorite part of the entire cake. I found the sour cream part of the cake tasty, but not sure if it was much better than a regular box cake. I found the icing difficult to deal with. Mine came out more like whipped cream than icing, which made it hard to make pretty. I think I would recommend putting the icing in the freezer or fridge for a bit before spreading on the cake. I think next time I will use the cake recipe for white cake that's in this month's SL and add in a layer of the cheese cake. Potential Pitfalls Make sure you realize you have to make 3 sour cream cakes Line your cake pans with parchment paper Make sure you are buying the right size box cake - apparently there is more than one size Cool off your frosting before you apply

OMG This cheesecake is so good. It is really not that hard to make either. My whole family loved it and it is so pretty, cut and uncut.

I made this last Christmas and I'm ready to make it again. I enjoy baking, but I'm not usually into extravagant cakes like this. It was very easy, just time consuming. The presentation was beautiful especially with the peppermint plate. Oh and it tasted great!

Oh my goodness. This was AMAZING! I will definitely make it again. It is incredibly rich, but oh so delicious! It was time consuming to make, especially since I only had 2 cake pans, but it was definitely worth the time and effort!

In fairness, I used this recipe only as a starting point. But, I made the peppermint cheesecake layers closely as written. I only omitted cooking it in a water bath because I did not have pans to put the cake pans in to provide a water bath. I also used 9 inch cake pans because that is what I have. They took longer to cook than the recipe called for. I sandwiched the cheesecake layers between chocolate cake layers that I coated in ganache to help stick. I whipped the remaining ganache to frost the entire cake with. This was absolutely the best cake I have ever eaten - much less made. It was declared so by all the people eating it. Now trying to find something for Valentine's day that lives up to it.

I made this cake for my 2 sisters-in-laws birthdays. I served it tonight and it was a huge hit. It was so delicious! It is a little time consuming to make but well worth it. I did add a box of Jello instant white chocolate pudding to the cake mix just to make sure it would be moist. I made the peppermint plate also and I decorated the top of the cake with real red tipped white carnations. I used black and white polka dot candles to make it look more like a birthday instead of Christmas. I will definitely make this cake again.

I made this cake for our Christmas Holiday. It was fabulous and My husband now wants this cake made for His Birthday the end of January. My only drawback was the frosting seemed difficult to get the right consistancy. Took me three tries and by the last time I just threw in the towel and made it a Drizzel effect on the cake. No one but my mom and I knew it should be different. It was still very good.

I made this cake for a holiday party and it was pretty good. I made the mint cake plate as others have made and it is totally worth the little extra effort. Super easy to make and such a nice touch :) The problem I had with the cake is that the sour cream part of the cake seemed to overpower it a bit. I think a regular white cake mix would have been just fine. Also, the frosting didn't really do anything for me but I'm not crazy about white chocolate. I'm giving it 4 starts b/c it is such a wow dessert but there are definitely things I would change next time around....but I'm making a different peppermint chocolate layer cake (from GH) this weekend and will make the mint cake plate to go with it!

I made this cake for four different parties this year. It was delicious and festive, but I feel the magazine picture was deceptive in that the cheesecake layers were much thicker than in the picture and it made my first cake too high to serve. I had to scraped off half of each of the cheesecake layers to make it easier to serve. The third cake I made, I used 9" pans instead of the 8" ones and it was much more manageable. I also made the starlight mint "cake plate" and it was a hit! I will make this again, but please SL don't deceive us with wrong pictures!!

The Best Thing I have ever made!! You have to plan ahead but it was not hard. I did not watch melting the candy close enough for the platter. That goes faster than I expected. While it was still warm I just shaped it to the size. Then when it was hard I broke those pieces and sprinkled on top. I also took it out of the frig when the people came to show it off. Next time I would leave it in the frig until it is time to eat it.

Help...I am in the process of making this for the first time. Question...will this cake freeze with this type of frosting?

Worth the time and effort. Made it for Christmas and not only did it look beautiful but tasted great. Just the right amount of peppermint and cake and of course the whipped icing.

Let me start by saying I am NOT a baker. I only made this cake because my family bet me that I couldn't (think master of slice-n-bake...). I followed the recipe word for word and the cake turned out perfectly and tasted delicious. When I made the icing I made sure to wisk the chocolate frequently as it cooled to room temp and used a mixer on low speed to fold it in. I also made the peppermint plate shown in the magazine to serve it on (bag of peppermints on parchment paper melted in the oven on 300). Time consuming to make, but such a funny bet and hit with the family, I know it will become a tradition.

Sorry, but we just didn't care enough about this cake to make it again. Had so much trouble with the icing - the white chocolate got hard and wouldn't blend with the whipped cream. I tried twice and wasted all those ingredients. I ended up frosting it with a buttercream icing and putting crushed peppermints on top. The cheesecake layer needed something.

Time consuming, but so worth it!! Rave reviews from the toughest critics in my family. No problem with the frosting, just make sure it's cool enough and not too much then it won't fold in properly. Will definatly make this a Christmas eve tradition!

Made this to take to in laws for Christmas Eve because I try to outdo myself from the previous year!! The icing was a challenge though, as I never make "cooked" icing. I had to make it twice because it separated the first time, but I got it right the second time! :) Worthy of a special occasion becuase it is very time consuming when there's so much to do around the holidays. :)

Well, I made 4 half cakes (3 layers each) by using only one cheesecake layer and adding two additional cake layers, they all disappeared quickly and got great reviews. With the frosting, do as the recipe says and let the white chocolate mixture cool but not completely or it will not blend into the whipped cream. Fold the mixture in with a spatula, do not turn the mixer back on once you add the white chocolate! Great Recipe!!!

I am making this for Christmas and really looking forward to it, but when I tried to make the frosting tonight, it didn't turn out at all. As a matter of fact, it was completely lumpy and seperated altogether. Can anyone tell me what I might have done wrong? I'm thinking I may have overwhipped the whipping cream and vanilla, but it seemed fine until I mixed in the chocolate mixture which was very thick. Any help ?? I'd really appreciate any advice so I can make this turn out for Christmas. If my second try doesn't work, I'm cheating and using Cool Whip!

I made this and it tasted great, the cake and cheesecake layers were easy, I kept them all frozen until I was ready to make the frosting. We had problems with the frosting, I let the chocolate sit 30 minutes like the recipe said, but then it was too hard and we had trouble mixing it with the whipped cream, I will try to mix it in sooner next time, but overall a good recipe

Delicious! As stated, peppermint flavor was not overpowering. It is very pretty when cut. I did the peppermint plate. Very easy and worth the little bit of extra work.

Oh My! If you haven't made this yet...you should! I just made this beautiful cheesecake for our annual family Christmas party. When I saw this cake being made on our morning news station I knew it would have to make it's appearance at this great big event! I must say it was a hit and the cake plate came home empty! I loved it so much I even blogged about it.... http://holcombehappenings.blogspot.com/2011/12/southern-livings-layered-peppermint.html Thanks for sharing this recipe!

Cake was one of the best I've made in a long time. I did use a sour cream pound cake recipe for the cake layers because I personally do not like white cake layers. Recipe was easy to follow and the cake was just beautiful. Rave reviews from our dinner guests. I made 3 Christmas trees from sugar ice cream cones (trimmed 2 of the so that trees were different sizes) and frosted them and then sprinkled with crushed peppermint canes. So festive!

Really good not over powering flavor, a clean taste to it, just made it and took it to a friend gathering everyone were ranting & raving about it. Just follow the directions, the only thing different I did was I had a. 8x 3in tall cake pan instead of 2 8in pans and I sliced the cake into about 3 - 1 inch thick slices. Told them found recipe in Southern Living. Have fun

Made this cake for brunch after my grandson's baptism. It was fabulous, everyone loved it!!!!! Such a wonderful combination of cheesecake, cake and the frosting is just perfect. I made the cheesecake and cake layers the night before and then made the frosting in the morning and assembled the cake. The only thing I would do different is leave the completed cake in the frig longer so the cheesecake layers are more thawed out.