You will never want to celebrate your birthday without this Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe! Imagine soft, moist chocolate cake covered with creamy, chocolate frosting.
The Heart and Soul of the Best Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe
My husband is responsible for the recipe behind this Chocolate Birthday Cake. It’s his favorite birthday cake and I’ve been making it for more than 15 years for him.
Cuisine Inspiration: A classic American treat, this Chocolate Birthday Layer Cake is pure joy in every slice.
Primary Cooking Method: Baking transforms the chocolatey batter into moist, delightful layers, complemented by creamy American frosting.
Dietary Info: This is a rich and indulgent treat, so it’s perfect for those looking to indulge.
Key Flavor: Chocolate reigns supreme, delivering a rich and satisfying taste in every bite.
Skill Level: Ideal for those with some baking experience, as creating even layers and the perfect frosting consistency will make this cake shine.
Sweet Highlights:
- Rich Layers: Dive into moist, chocolatey goodness with every slice.
- Creamy Frosting: The chocolate American frosting is smooth, velvety, and downright irresistible.
- Celebration Ready: Perfect for birthdays and special occasions, this cake knows how to party.
- Get Creative: Add your own twist with sprinkles, shavings, or a caramel drizzle.
- Prep Ahead: Bake the layers ahead of time and freeze them for party-ready perfection.
I was raised to think that food was the way to a man’s heart, and I think this cake might be the ticket. It is my auntie Rose’s chocolate cake recipe, and it is quite delicious. It is everything a chocolate layer cake should be:
- Filled with chocolate flavor
- Incredibly fudgy
- The perfect texture
- Insanely moist
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- Large Eggs: The foundation of our cake structure, they’re bringing the fluff and holding it all together.
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetness central! This is what’s making our cake indulgently sweet.
- Cocoa Powder: Hello chocolatey goodness! This is where the deep, rich chocolate flavor kicks in.
- Instant Coffee Powder: A little secret weapon to enhance and intensify the chocolate flavor.
- Salt: Just a pinch to balance the sweetness and elevate the flavors.
- Hot Water: This is going to mix with our cocoa to create a chocolatey oasis.
- All-Purpose Flour: The backbone of our cake, giving it structure and softness.
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder: These guys are the lift providers, ensuring our cake rises to the occasion.
- Vegetable Oil: Bringing in the moisture, for a cake that’s tender and ready to party.
- Buttermilk: Tangy and fabulous, it’s here for moisture and a delicate crumb.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: A splash of sweet, aromatic goodness to round out the flavors.
For the Frosting:
- Unsalted Butter: Soft and creamy, it’s the base of our frosting masterpiece.
- Confectioner’s Sugar: Powdered perfection, making our frosting sweet and smooth.
- Cocoa Powder: Back at it again with more chocolate love.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Just like in the cake, we’re here for that sweet aroma and flavor.
- Milk: A dash for consistency, making our frosting spreadable and silky.
How to Make Chocolate Birthday Cake
For the Cake:
- Get Set: Preheat that oven to a cozy 350 degrees and show your 9-inch round pans some love with a good spray of non-stick magic.
- Whisk It Up: Eggs and sugar in the stand mixer? Yes, please! Let them dance together on high for a sweet 2-3 minutes.
- Choco Mix: In a separate bowl, mix cocoa, instant coffee, and a dash of salt with hot water. Pour this chocolatey dream into the egg and sugar fiesta happening in your mixer.
- Dry Ingredients, Incoming: Slowly welcome flour, baking soda, and baking powder to the party. Follow it up with the oil, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Mix until just right – the batter will be on the thin side, and that’s totally cool.
- Bake it Beautiful: Divide that batter evenly between the pans and bake for 22-25 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready when a toothpick comes out clean. Give it 10 minutes of rest before moving them out of the pans to cool off completely.
For the Frosting:
- Butter, Sugar, and Everything Nice: Into the mixer they go! Butter, confectioner’s sugar, and cocoa powder. Mix until it’s smoother than a jazz tune.
- Vanilla and Milk Magic: Add a splash of vanilla and enough milk to make it fluffy and fabulous.
- Layer and Love: Frost each layer with care, then show the whole cake some frosting love.
The secret to making an outstanding homemade chocolate frosting is to make it fluffy. The key to fluffy frosting is to continue to mix the ingredients (butter, confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder, milk and vanilla extract) on a high speed. This will ensure your chocolate frosting is fluffy.
How to Decorate Your Birthday Cake
Now that you have your chocolate cake and chocolate frosting done, your chocolate birthday cake is not complete without sprinkles, candles and other birthday cake toppers.
If you don’t know what a topper is, a birthday cake topper is any decoration to go on top of a cake. Some other examples of cake toppers are:
- Sparklers
- Edible prints with cartoon and comic book characters
- Flowers
Whatever topper you decide, your cake is complete. Get ready to surprise the birthday boy or girl!
How to Store
Wrap your chocolate birthday masterpiece tightly in plastic wrap or place it in an airtight container to keep it fresh and fabulous for up to 3-4 days at room temperature. If you’ve got leftovers after the big bash (lucky you!), slide it into the fridge, and it’ll stay scrumptious for up to a week. Just a little tip: if you’re diving back in for another slice, let it sit out for a bit to get back to room temperature – it’ll taste just like it did on day one!
Amazing Chocolate Cake Recipes
- Want chocolate cake in cupcake form? These Perfect Chocolate Cupcakes are amazing!
- Want the best chocolate cake recipe that ever existed? This Chocolate Cake with a blackberry buttercream is decadent and insanely delicious.
- Love berries and chocolate like this recipe? Try my Raspberry Chocolate Cake!
- This Coca Cola Cake is necessary as well!
Chocolate Birthday Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
For the Frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter 3 sticks
- 6 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup milk
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 3 9 inch round pans with non-stick baking spray.
- Add eggs and sugar to bowl of your stand mixer and beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes.
- While mixture beats, add cocoa powder, instant coffee powder and salt to hot water. Add to eggs and sugar.
- Next slow down mixer and add flour, baking soda, and baking powder then add vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract to the mixer and beat until just combined. Batter will be sort of thin but this is normal.
- Evenly add cake batter to all three pans and bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to rest for 10 minutes before removing from pans to cool completely.
For the Frosting:
- Add butter, confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder to bowl of mixer and mix on high speed until smooth.
- Lastly add in vanilla extract and milk until frosting is fluffy and smooth.
- Frost each layer of cake with frosting then frost the entire cake and serve.
Tasneem Aslam says
best ever choclate cake recipe i have ever found; i tried it last night and it turn a yummies cake; thanks for such a wonderfull sharing Jocelyn 🙂
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Hooray I am so glad you enjoyed it!
Tina says
Two for two! I made your caramel cake last weekend. Then, I made this chocolate cake for my husband’s birthday this week. Both cakes were SO good, and devoured in just two days. I need to stop cutting the recipe in half and just made the entire cake! That’s it! I’m buying your cookbook!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Hooray thank you so much Tina! I am so glad you enjoyed the recipes. They are faves of mine too. I can’t wait to share the book with you!!
Meghan says
Congratulations, Jocelyn!!! How exciting! I know it will be a fantastic book! And this cake looks amazing!
Emily Smith @ The Best of this Life says
Such an elegant and classical chocolate cake! I love it. Congratulations on your new book, how exciting! And I love that you involving your readers in the process. One of my favourite cakes, growing-up, was a layered ice cream cake…it always made me smile ear to ear!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Thank you so much Emily! I really appreciate your kind words. I love ice cream cake too! And you can bet that you will see a couple in the book!
Jackie says
Hi Jocelyn
CONGRATULATIONS!!! on your first cookbook if it’s anything like your blog I know it is going to be a big seller. I would like to see a coconut cake recipe in your book with a deep coconut flavor with no 7 minute frosting. A lot of coconut cake recipes use a white or yellow cake batter with no coconut flavor to it at all use that 7 minute frosting and put coconut flakes on top of cake and call it a coconut cake. It’s just lacks in flavor. I’m not a food blogger, but I like to bake so if you want me to be a tester, I will volunteer.
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
What an awesome suggestion! Thank you so much Jackie! I will send you an email about testing if you are still interested and I love your suggestion for the traditional coconut cake! Thank you for all of your kind words too!
Jocelyn@Brucrewlife says
Yayayayayayay!!! I’m super duper excited for you, pretty girl!! 🙂 I can’t wait until your cookbook is out!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Hooray thanks so much my dear!
Dalila G. says
FABULOUS news, big congrats to you Jocelyn!! 🙂
I can’t wait to see your book.
WoW! Talk about a chocolaty-chocolate cake, I want a slice.
Chocolate cake is the one and only cake my hubs and son will accept on their birthdays.
If I don’t make their special chocolate cake for them on their special day they ask me to NOT bake them anything at all….LOL!!
So, chocolate cake is it for my two special guys.
Andrea @ Cooking with Mamma C says
Wow! Congratulations on your upcoming cookbook! I can’t wait to see it. Good for you, Jocelyn.
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Awww thanks so much Andrea! I really appreciate the love!
Ashley @ My Midwest Table says
Jocelyn! What awesome news! Congratulations on the book. I know the final product with all those amazing cake recipes will be simply amazing. And I love your idea to add stories. My favorite cookbooks are ones that are personal. 🙂
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
You are so sweet! Thank you so much Ashley! I can’t wait to share it!
Jenny B @ Honey and Birch says
Congratulations on your upcoming book – that’s so exciting! If you need any Chicago bloggers to test out your recipes (or taste-test….), I’m in!
Jocelyn (Grandbaby Cakes) says
Hooray thank you sooo much Jenny! I am so grateful for your help! I will send you an email with information.