The Easiest Chocolate Birthday Cake
This is my go-to recipe for a quick birthday cake or for impressing friends when they come over. The cake strikes the perfect balance—it's not overly sweet, yet it boasts a bold chocolate flavor and a delightfully light texture. Perfect for any occasion that calls for a simple yet impressive dessert.
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Servings: 12
Equipment
- 2 mixing bowls
- 1 bowl to mix the chocolate and heavy cream
- 1 Whisk
- 1 spatula
- 1 cake pan 9 inch
- 1 electric mixer
Ingredients
For the cake
- 145 g vegetable oil plus more for pan
- 165 g all-purpose flour
- 250 g granulated sugar
- 8 g. baking powder
- 1 g. baking soda
- 4 g salt
- 50 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 large eggs
- 240 g milk
- 4 g vanilla extract
For the frosting
- 115 g. semisweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate bars max 60% cocoa
- 120 g heavy cream
- 115 g cream cheese room temperature
- 30 g powdered sugar
- 125 g butter unsalted, room temperature
- 3 g vanilla extract
- 2 g salt
Makes: 9inch round
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 165°, grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm round cake pan with vegetable oil and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Sift the cocoa powder into bowl, then whisk to combine. (You can stop here and package these dry ingredients in an airtight container to create a sort of DIY cake mix if you want!)
- In a different bowl, whisk the eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract until well combined and creamy, about 30 seconds.
- Heat the milk over medium heat until it comes just to a bare simmer. You may also use the microwave for this and heat in 30 second intervals.
- In the meantime, using a spatula, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. It will be thick and pasty, that’s okay!
- Whisk warmed milk into batter until lump-free and just combined; do not overmix.
- Transfer the batter to the pan and bake for 40-50 minutes (until a toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean).
- Once baked, transfer the cake to a wire rack and let it cool.
- Meanwhile, make the frosting: Fill a medium pot with 2-3cm water and bring to a bare simmer over medium heat. Combine the chocolate chips and heavy cream in a heatproof medium bowl, place over saucepan, and reduce the heat to low. Stir occasionally with a spatula until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is homogeneous and thick. Chill ganache until cool to the touch, about 25 minutes (you can mix with a spatula to encourage cooling). Alternately, mix chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 15-second bursts until melted.
- Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a large bowl until very smooth and no lumps remain. Beat in cooled chocolate ganache on medium speed, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until the frosting holds its peak and is well combined, about 1-2 minutes.
- Run a butter knife around edges of pan. Invert cooled cake onto a plate and peel off parchment. Invert again onto a platter.
- Top cake with frosting, s
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Notes
- Pre-mix batches of the dry ingredients and store them in airtight containers for up to three months so that you’re ready to celebrate at a moment's notice with your own DIY cake mix.
- In my cake i have decided to split the cake in two layers and and add some of the frosting in the middle as a filling.
- You can make this recipe even lighter by omitting the butter in the frosting. If you would like to go down that route then simply spread the frosting at the top of the cake. Omitting the butter lessens the frosting's structure, so definitely don't use it for stacking.