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Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
The BEST Yellow Cake Recipe with Milk Chocolate Frosting. 5-Star Rated Recipe!
I was one of those kids that were counting down the minutes at my birthday party until I could blow out the candles and eat my big ol birthday cake. I wanted a piece with a thick layer of homemade chocolate frosting.
This is literally the best yellow cake recipe. It is so flavorful, moist, and buttery! The homemade chocolate frosting is insanely rich and creamy and pairs perfectly with the homemade yellow cake.
It’s New Year’s Eve so let’s go out of 2016 with a huge yellow cake with chocolate buttercream because I see only green smoothies in my future….
If you read my last post about making a homemade yellow cake — Homemade Yellow Butter Cake, I went through many experiments to bring you these cake recipes. My pants just got tighter in an effort to bring you the perfect cake!
We had large cake testings to determine the winners of the unofficial homemade yellow cake recipe challenge.
The path to the Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting…
The recipe that I posted a few days ago is for a traditional yellow butter cake. I wanted to change it up a little and experiment with adding in some vanilla pudding mix. Since it is known to add a good amount of moisture to a cake, I was excited to see how it would affect the final product.
It not only made a denser, moister cake but also a flavorful one as well. It’s a small amount of pudding but was still a big difference-maker. This is truly THE BEST YELLOW CAKE EVER.
The chocolate buttercream recipe is one that I played with over the years and is now my go-to recipe. It has the perfect balance of rich chocolate, butter, and powdered sugar and isn’t over the top sweet. It truly is the greatest chocolate frosting. If you are a chocolate cake lover, you must try my Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake.
Add some colorful sprinkles to this Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting if you want to make kids really happy.
Here are my favorite baking pans — USA Bakeware Round Cake Pan 8 inch and USA Bakeware Round Cake Pan 9 inch.
A Wilton Angled Icing Spatula is the perfect tool to use to frost this cake.
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Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 Large Eggs
- 2/3 cup Whole Milk or Buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 1/4 cups Flour
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 3/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Butter softened, cut into cubes
- 2 Tablespoons Oil
- 1/3 cup Vanilla Pudding Mix instant
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups Butter softened
- 1 cup Cocoa
- 5 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1/3 cup Cream Half n Half or Milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla.
- In a standing mixer, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Beat the butter into the flour mixture, one cube at a time. Continue to beat until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Add the 1/2 of the egg-milk mixture and oil and beat the batter is light and fluffy. Add remaining egg-milk mixture and vanilla pudding and mix just until combined.
- Take a spatula and scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Spread into greased 8 or 9-inch cake pans and smooth tops with a spatula.
- Bake for 16-22 minutes, depending on the depth of pans. If the cake layers are thin, they will cook for less time than the thicker layers.
- Let cakes cool. Run a knife around edge of cake pan and flip over. Frost with milk chocolate frosting.
- To make Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- In mixing bowl, cream together butter, cocoa, powdered Sugar, and cream until light and fluffy. You may want to add more cream or milk depending on consistency. Once the cake has cooled and has been removed from pans, frost each layer with frosting.
- Top with chocolate shavings, chocolate chips, sprinkles, M & M's or whatever your heart desires.
Video
Notes
- This recipe makes two 9-inch cake layers or three 8-inch cake layers. If you use three 8-inch cake pans, the layers will be thinner and will cook for less time.
- This is one baked good that gets even better the next day, if covered.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Happy Baking, my friends! xo
Am I the only one that had an issue with this recipie?! The frosting is delicious, but the cake, OH MY. So dense and SO dry! I followed the recipie to the “T”…my only question was what kind of flour did you use? I used mostly cake flour, with a 1/4cup of AP. Help! I really wanted to love this cake but as is, it will definitely get tossed. I’ve made LOTS of cakes and have never had this issue in the past.
I have made this recipe MANY times and it has been my go-to birthday cake recipe for our family. I use all-purpose flour, as I feel cake flour makes a denser cake than we like. I don’t cook it quite as long as recommended, I just check it more frequently toward the end of cook time and adjust as needed. Always SO moist! Also, one thing I really recommend is using meringue powder (1-2 tbsp) in with dry ingredients. It helps it rise much higher and makes it a bit lighter. I hope all this helps!
If I make it again, I’ll try swapping out for just AP flour. Thanks for the input!
Yellow birthday cake with milk chocolate frosting is a classic delight! This recipe promises a sweet celebration for any occasion.
This is the best cake I have ever made! Cutting the butter into the dry ingredients makes a world of difference!
Thank you for this recipe. It’s one of the best yellow cakes I’ve baked. Love the chocolate icing!! The only chocolate icing I’ll ever make. It’s very thick and doesn’t run down the sides of the cake.
Hi Renee! I am so glad to hear that you loved the cake and thank you for making it. It is a family favorite too!
My hubby loves yellow cake with Choc icing. I despised it until now. Oh my goodness this is absolutely delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Thoughts on if this cake would pair well with a vanilla butter cream frosting? My daughter wants a yellow cake but a lighter frosting so we can color it light pink.
Question: do I make the vanilla pudding first and then add or do I just add the mix itself?
I add just the powder, not mixed as instructed on box. It is added alternately with milk mixture in cake recipe.
I have tried many, many yellow cake from scratch recipes & never found the “one”. Well—let me tell you. This is the “one”. I made it according to the directions, & it is out of this world delicious. It is much better if you put it in an airtight cake container & refrigerate it. Please do not omit the pudding, it is the secret ingredient that takes it to another level. This is the first time I’ve commented on a recipe, & I must say it is worth commenting on. Will be making this for family & church gatherings.
Can you convert this recipe into a chocolate cake?
I have used this recipe every year, love the texture.
The pudding mix makes it moist.
How can I convert it to a perfect chocolate cake?
Looks so beautiful!!! What kind of chocolate and how much did you use for the chocolate shavings to get that beautiful depth in your topping?