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    Home » Recipes » Cakes + Cupcakes

    Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting

    Published: Dec 31, 2016 · Modified: Jun 22, 2021 by Modern Honey · This post may contain affiliate links · 227 Comments

    136289 shares
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    Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting The BEST Yellow Cake Recipe with Milk Chocolate Frosting. 5-Star Rated Recipe! www.modernhoney.com #yellowcake #homemadecake #cake #yellowcakechocolatefrosting #baking

    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.

    Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting The BEST Yellow Cake Recipe with Milk Chocolate Frosting. 5-Star Rated Recipe! www.modernhoney.com #yellowcake #homemadecake #cake #yellowcakechocolatefrosting #baking

    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. 

    Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting The BEST Yellow Cake Recipe with Milk Chocolate Frosting. 5-Star Rated Recipe! www.modernhoney.com #yellowcake #homemadecake #cake #yellowcakechocolatefrosting #baking

    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....

    Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting by Modern Honey. Homemade Yellow Cake with Vanilla Pudding Mix to make it extra moist and flavorful. Rich chocolate buttercream is the perfect addition to this birthday cake.

    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.

    Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting by Modern Honey. Homemade Yellow Cake with Vanilla Pudding Mix to make it extra moist and flavorful. Rich chocolate buttercream is the perfect addition to this birthday cake.

    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.

    Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting by Modern Honey. Homemade Yellow Cake with Vanilla Pudding Mix to make it extra moist and flavorful. Rich chocolate buttercream is the perfect addition to this birthday cake.

    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.

    Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting by Modern Honey. Homemade Yellow Cake with Vanilla Pudding Mix to make it extra moist and flavorful. Rich chocolate buttercream is the perfect addition to this birthday cake.

    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 by Modern Honey. Homemade Yellow Cake with Vanilla Pudding Mix to make it extra moist and flavorful. Rich chocolate buttercream is the perfect addition to this birthday cake.

    Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting by Modern Honey. Homemade Yellow Cake with Vanilla Pudding Mix to make it extra moist and flavorful. Rich chocolate buttercream is the perfect addition to this birthday cake.

    Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting

    Melissa Stadler, Modern Honey
    Homemade Yellow Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting will be the cake everyone is begging for at the next birthday party.
    4.91 from 96 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Saved!
    Prep Time 15 mins
    Cook Time 20 mins
    Total Time 35 mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine American
    Servings 16

    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.
    Keyword yellow cake
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Happy Baking, my friends! xo

    Homemade Yellow Butter Birthday Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting. All the secrets and tips to make the perfect yellow butter cake plus the best ever recipe for chocolate buttercream frosting.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Heidi

      June 23, 2020 at 11:04 pm

      Hello! Is there a possible substitute for the vanilla pudding? 🙂

      Reply
    2. Abigail Wenderson

      September 03, 2020 at 6:51 am

      Wow, such a great recipe, looking forward to try this on weekend. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    3. Christopher

      September 25, 2020 at 8:59 am

      5 stars
      This is my favorite yellow cake by far! But does anyone else question the baking times? I used two 9 inch pans and it took closer to 30 minutes.

      Reply
      • Havanna Kean

        September 30, 2020 at 7:37 am

        Me too... The cake was still spongy. Did you add the whole small box of Jello?

        Reply
      • V. John Kennedy

        December 08, 2020 at 11:24 pm

        Hi, Yes, my baking time was similar- 30-35 minutes.

        Reply
      • Cassie

        October 09, 2022 at 7:34 am

        5 stars
        Yes, I have been making this cake for my son's birthday for years, and it's the best yellow cake recipe I've found. But the baking time is almost double!

        Reply
    4. Lara

      September 30, 2020 at 2:43 pm

      Are we supposed to use all-purpose flour or can we use cake flour? I'm excited to try this recipe. I've heard that using AP flour with the reverse creaming method results in a tough cake?

      Reply
    5. Lara

      October 03, 2020 at 7:42 pm

      4 stars
      Delicious cake! I baked the batter in three 6x2" pans and baked for almost 40 minutes and they rose up beautifully! I did feel the cake was kind of dense. I wish the instructions detailed how long to mix the flour-butter mixture with the first half of the wet ingredients. I didn't try the frosting, so can't comment on it!

      Reply
    6. Lindsey

      November 17, 2020 at 6:31 pm

      How do you store the cake? My icing turned out pretty runny. Would it help if I put it in the refrigerator?

      Reply
      • Nadine A Chuba

        December 15, 2020 at 7:52 pm

        Did you use butter or margarine? Too much liquid maybe. It's not a runny frosting. Mine was really thick. I had to add more cream in order to make it spreadable. Next time if too runny add more powdered sugar.

        Reply
    7. Andrea

      December 04, 2020 at 12:01 pm

      Do you add just the vanilla pudding mix powder itself or the prepared pudding? Thanks!

      Reply
      • Modern Honey

        December 04, 2020 at 3:54 pm

        Hi there! You just add the pudding mix powder straight from the box. 🙂

        Reply
    8. Nadine

      December 15, 2020 at 7:49 pm

      5 stars
      I baked for my husbands birthday. He loves yellow cake with chocolate frosting. This is a great easy recipe. I used Dutch cocoa powder which made the frosting so wonderful. I used 9-inch pans and cooking time was around 30 min. He loved the cake. Too bad we are getting over Covid and his taste buds aren't 100%. I'll be baking this again in the future.

      Reply
    9. Criss

      February 06, 2021 at 12:36 pm

      VERY DELICIOUS. THIS IS DEFINATELY A KEEPER. Thank you ModernHoney

      Reply
    10. Cathie A. Anderson

      March 03, 2021 at 8:05 pm

      Should vanilla be added to the frosting recipe? By the way, your recipes are my go-to's when I want to try something new. Needless to say, this has created quite a few favorites for me and my family - THANK YOU!

      Reply
    11. Aleks Jones

      March 07, 2021 at 8:54 am

      4 stars
      I found this recipe very tasty! The chocolate buttercream was silky, but I thought the cake was a little dense. If you prefer a moister cake, I would recommend using buttermilk instead of milk. Overall, pretty good!

      Reply
    12. Carolynn Van Namen

      April 14, 2021 at 6:12 am

      I’ve tried many other yellow cake recipes to no avail. This one is perfect! It’s moist and tasty, rose perfectly and the frosting was great. I used buttermilk in the cake and added a splash of vanilla to the frosting, along with 1/2 tsp of instant espresso powder. Kicked up the flavor intensely! Yes, took closer to 30 mins to bake. This will become my go-to recipe for yellow cake going forward. Thank you!

      Reply
    13. Monica

      October 10, 2021 at 8:17 pm

      5 stars
      This will be the third year my husband requests this cake for his birthday, Even the chocoholics of our family die for this cake! AND the cake really does get better after a day or two…. Thanks for your amazing recipe!

      Reply
    14. Pam

      October 25, 2021 at 7:05 am

      I just found this recipe and made it for my Mom’s birthday this past weekend. Everyone loved it! It is so moist and flavorful. This will definitely be my go to yellow cake.

      Reply
      • Francine Phillips

        November 06, 2021 at 6:44 am

        It took much longer to bake than recipe indicated. What was your baking time. I had 2 8 inch pans??

        Reply
    15. Didi M

      December 19, 2021 at 8:21 pm

      I was looking to use this for cupcakes. Have you done it before?

      Reply
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    Melissa Stadler Modern Honey

    Hi, I'm Melissa Stadler! I am an Award-Winning Recipe Creator. Cover of Food Network Magazine. Two-Time Pillsbury Bake-Off Finalist. I am passionate about sharing the best recipes so you have success in the kitchen!

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