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Black and White Cake — Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Frosting
Rich, moist homemade chocolate cake with a creamy vanilla bean frosting with a touch of cream cheese. The perfect Black and White Cake!
It is my youngest daughter’s 13th birthday so I officially have a house full of teenagers. I always believe that everyone should have a cake (or their favorite treat) on their birthday and to actually blow out a candle. I am passionate about both birthdays and homemade cakes!
When creating this Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Frosting, I wanted the chocolate to be a nice contrast to the sweet vanilla frosting. The chocolate cake is my Love at First Chocolate Cake recipe and it is paired with a creamy vanilla bean frosting made with sweet cream butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla bean. I love the addition of cream cheese to add some tang to the frosting.
If you have ever tried Nothing Bundt Cake, they only use cream cheese frosting on all of their cakes. It is incredible and pairs so well with every single cake flavor.
I experimented with different ratios of butter and cream cheese to powdered sugar and I will include two options below in the recipe card. One will be a more traditional buttercream with the addition of one package of cream cheese frosting. The other will be a more traditional cream cheese frosting and will use two packages of cream cheese. You can choose which one you prefer but I will tell you this — you can’t go wrong with either one!
This chocolate cake is absolute perfection thanks to a combination of ingredients — oil, buttermilk, and hot boiling water. All of these helps to create a super moist cake that stays moist for days! I hope you love this chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting!
Tips for making the perfect Black and White Cake:
- Use a high-quality unsweetened cocoa powder. This is the star of the show so you want it to be good.
- Use a mixture of oil (canola, vegetable, coconut, etc), buttermilk, and hot water to make this chocolate black and white cake extra moist.
- Use cake flour, if at all possible. This creates a more tender texture in cakes. You may use all-purpose flour if cake flour isn’t available.
- Don’t overbake the cakes. You want to keep that moist, tender crumb so watch it carefully.
- When making the frosting, whip the butter and cream cheese for at least 5 minutes. Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature.
- Place the baked cakes (once they are removed from the pan) in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes before frosting. This helps to keep the cake from flaking off and creating a lot of crumbs.
If you LOVE cake, check out these popular cake recipes:
YELLOW Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Love at First Sight CHOCOLATE Cake
Some of my baking essentials:
8-inch cake pans
6-inch cake pans
9-inch cake pans
My favorite kitchen appliance — a KITCHENAID MIXER. You can find them HERE in all colors and sizes!
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Black and White Cake -- Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Frosting
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups Flour
- 1 3/4 cups Sugar
- 3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (high-quality)
- 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup Oil (canola, vegetable, coconut, etc)
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1 cup Hot Water
Vanilla Frosting: *
- 1 cup Butter (softened)
- (1) 8-ounce pkg. Cream Cheese (room temp, softened)
- 4 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Bean Paste
Cream Cheese Frosting: **
- 1/2 cup Butter (softened)
- (2) 8-ounce pkgs. Cream Cheese (room temp, softened)
- 4 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Bean Paste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. If you have a flour sifter, sift all dry ingredients.
- In a mixing bowl, beat oil, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla for 1 minute.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until combined. Pour in hot water and mix together. The batter will be liquidy but that's a good thing -- it will create a moist cake.
- Spray two 9-inch or three 8-inch or four 6-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Pour batter evenly into each pan. Bake at 20-27 minutes. Place toothpick or cake tester in the center of the cake to check if it comes out clean. After 5-10 minutes, carefully run a knife along the sides of the cake pans and invert onto cooling racks. Let cool before frosting.
Vanilla Frosting:
- In a large bowl, beat together butter and cream cheese for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl often. Add in powdered sugar and mix together and beat for 2-3 minutes. Stir in vanilla bean paste. Add milk, if needed.
- To frost the cake: I suggest placing the cake layers in the freezer for about 20 minutes before frosting. This helps to keep from too many crumbs coming off of the cake. Frost each layer with frosting. Top with chocolate shavings.
Notes
- choose either the vanilla frosting or the cream cheese frosting to use on the cake.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Moist and delicious! I ended up adding more vanilla bean paste than it called for.
Hi! I made this tonight and it was HEAVENLY. We ended up with a ton of leftover icing. Do you think it would freeze well?
How many cupcakes would this recipe make ?
I’m confused. In the vanilla icing it calls for beating the butter and cream cheese for 5 minutes. Is there cream cheese in the vanilla frosting? I’m looking for something like a buttercream frosting for a group of 10 year olds.
Thanks!
Absolutely stellar recipe!!! Making it again for my baby’s first birthday !!! Thank you so much for sharing !!!
Quick question – If I am making this the night before serving, how do you recommend we store it (countertop or fridge)? Thank you so much again!!!
Fandamntastic cake and icing! I made this tonight for my daughter’s 15th birthday as she wanted a classic chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. I didn’t change a thing (except I used brown sugar instead of white), and made the buttercream version of the frosting. My family loves good food, and to get us all on the same page about a five star rating for a dish or meal is rare but we all raved about your cake recipe tonight. The cake was super moist and pleasing, and the frosting is instantly addictive. This recipe deserves more attention. Thank you!
Hi Brian! Awww your comment made my day! I love to hear from fellow foodies. Happy Birthday to your daughter! My daughter is turning 14 in two days so we are right there with you. I am so happy she loved it and hope she had a great birthday. Thanks again for the kind comment! — Melissa
The chocolate cake is the best & I keep getting requests to make it. It comes out extremely moist & not too sweet. I use Hershey’s Special Dark Coco Powder.
I tried the “Vanilla” frosting for the 1st time. I found it very difficult to work with. Almost gummy texture & it didn’t hold its shape. I had to frost in layers freezing the cake for a bit each time. Also tried to decorate with it but it didn’t hold it’s shape that well. Did I do something wrong? I’m very amateur at cake baking. What started as a challenge from my (back then) 10 year old, to make a cake from scratch has turned into a hobby that I really want to get good at 😊
I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties with the frosting, Lillian! Frosting can be tricky to master.
A couple pointers for you would be to make sure that your butter and cream cheese isn’t too warm. If it’s melting or extremely warm, it has a hard time holding its shape. Too cold, and it doesn’t frost well. Experiment with temperatures to see what works best in your kitchen!
If that doesn’t work, see if your frosting will thicken up by adding just a little more powdered sugar. If that doesn’t work (or if it would make the frosting too sweet), you can try to add just a teaspoon of corn starch and see if that thickens it up.
Also, in between frosting layers I like to freeze my cake (not completely, just long enough for the buttercream to solidify) so that it’s easier to add the next layer of frosting without it getting too goopy.
I hope this is helpful!
Love the combo of vanilla and chocolate it is AMAZING!! Made this for my family party and it was gone in 5 minutes!
Amazing cake, so moist, perfect flavor….thank you! This one is a keeper for sure.
LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe! I made it with the buttercream icing and the addition of cream cheese was a MUST!!! Wondering if I am able to make this recipe as cupcakes or if the ingredients would need to be tweaked?
Chocolate cake is one of my favorites. This beauty looks so elegant. What a beautiful cake stand this cake is sitting on. I will make it this weekend, I have the time and all of the ingredients I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the lovely recipe. By the way we had your Broccoli Salad for dinner tonight, I can never make enough of this stuff, my boys love it so much and I do too. You need to come over and let me cook for you some day. I would be happy to do that. Thanks again for the great recipe.