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.
Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 Large Eggs
- ⅔ cup Whole Milk or Buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 ¼ cups Flour
- 1 ½ cups Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Butter softened, cut into cubes
- 2 Tablespoons Oil
- ⅓ cup Vanilla Pudding Mix instant
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 ½ cups Butter softened
- 1 cup Cocoa
- 5 cups Powdered Sugar
- ⅓ 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 ½ 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.
Happy Baking, my friends! xo
Lisa
Hello Modern Honey have you made this with cake flour I know that it is a finer mill, and what would be the measurements for the cake flour if so, and would that mess up the recipe or would that make it more moist and softer.
Thank you ???? so very much,
Lizz
Hi, I would like to know the answer to your question as well. I am not sure why Modern Honey hasn't answered it; perhaps it is because she doesn't know? (Hard to believe she hasn't seen the questions as it was posted at least three times, and I see that she does respond to some of the questions). In any event, I plan to try the recipe with all purpose flour. I think that the addition of the oil and pudding mix will soften the crumb.
Liz
I made this recipe yesterday with (2) 8" round pans and it came out nicely! Made with whole milk, and the texture was more dense than fluffy. One pan needed 24 minutes in oven and the other needed 26 minutes. I reduced the powdered sugar in the frosting by an entire cup and felt it was perfect! I used maybe 1/6 cup of whole milk in frosting. Excellent recipe, family loved it!
Noelle Degregorio
This cake is phenomenal! It is now my go to cake! I love all of your recipes. Whenever I am looking for a new recipe, I come here! Thank you so much!
Susan M.
Hi Melissa,
I made this cake recently for a friend's 40th birthday and it was fantastic! I make layer cakes fairly often, and this is absolutely hands-down the best recipe I've ever made. It was light and moist, absolutely perfect. I baked in two 9" pans for the full 22 minutes, plus another minute or so.
I think the vanilla pudding mix really adds to the flavor - my friend said the cake tasted like a donut, and she loves donuts (who doesn't?).
The frosting was also perfect. Not too sweet, and just the right amount. I am now planning to make this for my own birthday!
Thank you for a wonderful recipe!
Kylie
Hi there! Can the batter be cooked as thin layers to make a tiny layer cake?
Morgan
Absolutely loved this recipe! It was a hit at my sons birthday party! I did add 1/4 cup of brewed coffee and Dutch chocolate milk instead of whole milk to icing recipe and it was perfect!
Sue
Hi! This cake sounds delicious!! I am planning to try this recipe for my daughter's birthday in June and was wondering if it's possible to convert this to a sheet cake using 9x13" pans. Any tips?
Ms. TC Bowen
I made this cake about 6 months ago and it was a hit. But now I need it to serve at least 30 people on Saturday May 4th. Could I make this in square pangplans or a rectangle? What would you recommend?
Shawna
WOW! After many years of trying many good - very good yellow cake recipes in search of a keeper Ah-MAZING recipe... my search is over :). Thank you! This is one amazing yellow cake recipe.
I love your recipes and as a member of another baking group, my one suggestion for your recipes is to please label the flour as cake flour or all purpose flour, and also specify if you use the paddle attachment or whisk attachment for the mixer. I usually can find this information scrolling through your comment section, or guess, but it’s always so nice when a recipe specifies it for you so you can take the guessing game out of it. Cheers!
Laura Gray
Hi, I am planning on making this cake for my cousins birthday on March 2. I was thinking about adding strawberry puree/jam to each buttercream layer any thoughts? Also, I know you like to use cake flour, is there any reason for not using it in this recipe? Is all purpose flour best with this cake? Thanks
Bob Kenny
WOW! I am not much of a baker and I did have some trouble when I turned the cooled layers out of the 3 8” pans. Not completely cooked in the center but I was able to salvage by cutting the cakes in half and stacking 5 layers high. One was not salvaged but I ate the outside of it.
The frosting was perfection and I struggled to apply it smoothly but I did great. Everyone loved it. Worth the mess I made in my kitchen but it will be better next time.
Thank you for the amazing recipes.
Judith Baum
I made this recipe twice because I liked the butter, oil and buttermilk. I was confused by the mixing method, have never mixed the butter with the dry ingredients. No info on how big or how many cubes to use. I use butter that comes in 2 sticks to a cup, each stick is a half cup. Can this recipe be mixed by creaming butter and sugar adding eggs, then alternate flour and buttermilk?
Tory
I just realized, I'm not sure if I bought instant pudding mix! Its European Gourmet Bakery brand and it just says 'organic cooked pudding and pie filling mix". Help! Will it work the same way still??? TIA!
Sierra
How tall does each cake generally come out if you use two 9' pans to bake the cake ? Does the cake double in size, I ask because mine seems to not have risen that much. What would I have done in the process of making this cake to have it not have risen properly?
The frosting is fabulous by the way and after my boyfriend's birthday tommorow I will let you know how the cake taste.
LoriSTL
My husband specifically asked for yellow cake with chocolate icing for his birthday. I hate grocery store cakes so I'm opting to try and make it myself. Your reviews rave about the flavor so I'm using your recipe. I'll follow to the letter and hope he's so impressed that he'll want to msg you himself to thank you. Because all ovens don't heat the same, I haven't had great success with baking. Hopefully, my attempt will give novice bakers the courage to try. I'll text again soon and give you my results. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Kristin
My boyfriend requested a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday, and he consented to letting me make it from scratch instead of from a box mix, so I had to find a great recipe. This recipe was PERFECT! His mom and sister ended up coming over to eat with us, and everyone loved it! I halved the recipe since it’s only the two of us and had no problems doing that. I used whole milk and regular all-purpose flour. I did use the vanilla pudding mix. I cut out about a cup of sugar from the frosting (after halving it), and everyone thought it was perfectly sweet. Thank you!
Julia Ruger
I baked your cake last night for my step-sons's birthday party tonight. (Knowing the frosting will soak in like you said and make it moist. 1st off, I followed your recipe to the T, I only greased and did not flour the cake pans. (Two -9inch rounds). I ended up baking them a full 23 minutes checking first at 16 minutes. I cooled for 10 mins in pans only because that is what all the other cakes I bake suggest. (you don't really specify.) They totally fell apart!!! Thank goodness I have learned as a baker, it doesn't have to look perfect to taste good. I managed to piece it together with frosting! (Delicious by the way!) So, my question to you is should I have floured the pans as well as greased? Or do you think it was because I opened the oven and checked it at 16 mins., 20 mins, then 23 mins.? I will let you know how everyone likes it!!
Sarah
I used regular vanilla pudding instead of instant. Oops. Will the flavor be compromised? It looks beautiful.
Andi
Do you add the pudding mix or do you make, cool and add made pudding?
Kelsey
Will this frosting recipe develop a "crust" if left uncovered? Surprisingly, im asking because my husband actually loves when frosting develops that thin little layer of crust after drying out a bit haha...his birthday is coming up and his favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting!
Modern Honey
Hi Kelsey! That's a first! I haven't heard of someone loving the crusty frosting but that's awesome. It will crust over when exposed to the dry air. Bake the cake the day before, frost it, and let it sit out overnight. I hope he has a great birthday! P.S. My husband loves this cake too!
Kelsey
Yay thank you!
Tracy
1/3 cup instant pudding for this recipe....is that the small box?