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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.
Melissa,I made this recipe twice and it is now the most requested cake for everyone whose birthday I bake for. I brought it to a party last night and again, people loved it and asked for the recipe. It has pushed my Epicurious cocoa layer cake into second place, although that was the reigning queen of cakes until this recipe bumped it out of first place. Thank you for your
delicious recipe! Mel
This was by far one of the tastiest chocolate cakes I’ve ever made (and ever had)! I was a little concerned with the amount of sugar that went into the cake but it didn’t make it overpoweringly sweet like I thought it would be. My daughter and partner loved the cake and couldn’t get enough of it!