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The BEST Yellow Cake Recipe with Milk Chocolate Frosting. 5-Star Rated Recipe! This golden, tender yellow cake is topped with a thick layer of creamy chocolate frosting. Thanks to a secret ingredient — this homemade yellow cake bakes up moist, fluffy, and full of flavor every time. If you are celebrating a birthday, make sure to request this Yellow Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting!
Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
I was one of those kids who 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….
The path to the Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting…
We had large cake testings to determine the winners of the unofficial homemade yellow cake recipe challenge.
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!
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.
Best Yellow Cake Ingredients:
This homemade birthday cake calls for a mix of both butter and a touch of oil, dry pudding mix, and buttermilk which makes it so moist and tender. It is the best birthday cake ever! Here’s what you need to make it….
- Eggs
- Whole Milk or Buttermilk
- Vanilla Extract
- Flour (All-purpose or cake flour)
- Sugar
- Baking Powder
- Oil
- Salt
- Butter
- Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix (DRY)
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- Butter
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
- Powdered Sugar
- Heavy Cream, Half-n-Half, or Milk
Why add dry pudding mix?
Dry pudding mix is my secret weapon for a yellow cake that’s ultra-moist, tender, and flavorful. The pudding mix does a few magical things:
- Moisture boost: It helps the cake retain moisture, preventing dryness.
- Texture enhancer: It adds a soft, plush crumb, almost bakery-style.
- Flavor depth: Vanilla pudding mix intensifies the buttery, sweet flavor of a yellow cake.
It’s an old-school trick that works like a charm every single time.
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.
How to make the Best Yellow Cake:
I will share all of the tips and tricks for making an easy homemade cake recipe that will get rave reviews! Here are some step-by-step photos and instructions. See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for amounts and instructions.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.
- 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.
Here are my favorite baking pans — USA Bakeware Round Cake Pan 8 inch and USA Bakeware Round Cake Pan 9 inch.
is the perfect tool to use to frost this cake.
Add some colorful sprinkles to this Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting if you want to make kids really happy.
Baking Tips!
Room temperature ingredients: Make sure eggs and milk are at room temperature for better mixing and lift.
Don’t overbake: Yellow cake dries out quickly if left in the oven too long. Begin checking a few minutes early.
Rotate pans: If baking multiple layers, rotate them halfway through to ensure even baking.
Level your layers: Use a serrated knife to trim domed tops if stacking layers—your frosting will look smoother.
Popular Cake Recipes:
I love making homemade cakes and have shared so many recipes through the years on Modern Honey. Here are some of the most popular cake recipes…
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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 (DRY) instant
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups Butter softened
- 1 cup Cocoa Powder
- 5 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1/3 cup Heavy Cream (or 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
Pudding questions:
There are 2 sizes of boxes. Do you just use 1/3 cup in either case?
Have you tried just using the whole box?
There is a sugar-free instant pudding, which actually weighs less and has less “material” in it. How much of that would you use?
Does this cake freeze well/ do good after freezing?
HI Jess! I recommend to freeze in slices and wrap tightly in plastic wrap and foil to prevent freezer burn! After freezing, if you let it sit out for 30 minutes at room temp it should taste great!
I have made this a few times because sometime you just want a good old fashioned yellow cake with chocolate icing. This does not disappoint. I will make it again and again.
Thank you so much for making this recipe!
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Hi Erin! I like to use salted butter in this recipe. I hope you love it!
Give me a big glass of cold milk and I could eat this entire cake. It is SOOOO good!!!
My fiancé requests this specific cake now for every special occasion! It is a 1000/10 level recipe!
I am so glad he loves it Raegan! Thank you so much for using my recipe.
Looks delicious!
I would like to know what type of flour is best to use.