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This Classic Yellow Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting is so easy and sure to be your new favorite! The layers are moist, buttery, and flavorful, and the creamy milk chocolate frosting basically melts in your mouth. The perfect birthday cake!
Yellow Cake Recipe
This is the kind of recipe you want in your back pocket for birthday parties, Summer picnics, and everyday celebrations. The cake itself is supremely moist, but to me the flavor is the star of the show. It’s perfectly sweet and buttery, with subtle hints of vanilla. And the creamy chocolate frosting only sweetens the situation. Because I’m a sucker for nostalgia, I love decorating this cake with colorful sprinkles. But fresh raspberries make an equalLY stunning garnish. So you definitely have options as far as decorating goes!
Yellow Cake
Tips and Tricks for Recipe Success:
- I tested this cake recipe in cupcake form and unfortunately did not love the results. However I found it worked perfectly when baked in a sheet pan! So if you’d like to do that, feel free! Just add about 7 to 10 minutes onto the bake time.
- Because we want the moistest cake possible, this recipe calls for cake flour. Cake flour is extra finely ground and gives the cupcakes their extra soft texture. In most grocery stores, you’ll probably find cake flour in the baking aisle. You can also buy it online here.
- When you measure your cake flour, be sure you’re not packing it into the measuring cup. Packed flour will yield dense and dry cake. I use the spoon and level method of measuring.
- Before you begin baking, make sure your butter, eggs, and milk have all come to room temperature. Cold ingredients do not bond!
- You’ll want to use quality chocolate for the frosting, such as Lindt. I don’t suggest using chocolate chips.
- And of course, be sure your cake is completely cooled before frosting!
If you’ve been searching for a Yellow Birthday Cake Recipe that’s moist, flavorful, and made with simple ingredients, you have to try this recipe!
More Cake Recipes:
- Best White Cake Recipe
- Lemon Raspberry Cake
- Yellow Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream Frosting
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake
Classic Yellow Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
For the Classic Yellow Cake:
- 2 and 1/2 cups cake flour
- 3 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/3 cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
For the Creamy Chocolate Frosting:
- 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 and 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted, more if needed
- 10 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled until tepid
Instructions
For the Classic Yellow Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and set them aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add in the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. Turn mixer off for a moment.
- In a glass measuring cup, combine the milk and lemon juice.
- With the mixer speed on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture in two additions, and mixing just until the flour is incorporated. Do not over mix here.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean, or with moist crumbs attached.
- Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 15 minutes.
- Invert the cake layers onto wire racks and cool completely.
For the Creamy Chocolate Frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-speed until completely smooth. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add in the confectioners' sugar, beating until all of the sugar is completely combined. Add in the chocolate and beat smooth. Once all of the ingredients have been incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat for a minute.
- Frost cake as desired.
Whole milk? Is it homogenized milk?
It’s full fat milk 🙂
Hi
This looks great. Do you have the measurements in grams by any chance?
Also are you using an electric fan oven?
Thank you.
I wish we had weights as well. That way, you don’t have to rely on subjective definitions about how to scoop flour. Baking is as much science as it is artistic.
Electric fan oven is Convection style here.
Can fat free milk he substituted?
I just used this recipe. It is pure perfection. Everyone is raving about my cake year for Thanksgiving 🙂 However, I couldn’t find cake flour so I ended up using all purpose instead. The cake still turned out super moist. This is a fail-proof recipe! Thank you for sharing this!
Do you know why cupcake recipes don’t always translate to cake recipes? Thank you for any help!
They bake in less time!
Reduce time by 5-10 minutes as long as the toothpick comes out clean after probing cupcakes.
Does this neee 5 eggs total? You wrote 3 eggs, then 2 eggs?
it’s says 3 whole eggs and then 2 egg YOLKS 🙂
IM planning to make this today can i replace the 2 egg yolk with 2 egg whites? Thank you
Wanted to know the use for lemon juice. Will it not alter the taste?
I’m wondering the same thing. I don’t want it to taste like lemon at all.
Lemon juice in the milk, turns it to Buttermilk l
Although I’m not 100% sure for this recipe, typically milk mixed with lemon juice or vinegar is a substitute for buttermilk.
Is frosting made with baking chocolate or maybe a bar or so of Godiva?
Thanks
Do you think using melted chocolate vs cocoa powder makes the frosting more creamy?
This yellow cake was sooo good!! It lasted 3 days in the fridge and even then, it tasted fresh! I didn’t care for the frosting too much. Too dark for me. But the cake is totally worth making! Thank you for your recipes!
Great recipe and so simple. Added a little earl grey tea for additional flavour and used buttermilk Icing with almond essence. It was a hit.
Btw, 25mins baking time was too short. Baked mine for 45- 50mins at 180°C.
DO you have the ingredients in weight please? Thank you!!
Hi, I tried the recipe. My icing came out very light like a mocha color. I used Lindt dark chocolate. What did I do wrong?
Can I half all ingredients to make one pan only?
Is the milk/lemon mixture a buttermilk substitute or are milk/lemon the preferred ingredients for this recipe? I always follow your recipes exactly, so I was just curious.
Can I use buttermilk instead of milk and lemon?
Hey can we substitute the eggs and if yes then with what
I don’t have an egg substitution for this recipe.
I just have 1 9inch pan. Can i pour all the batter in there and bake it?
I want to use a 13×9 baking dish. What would the baking time be?
Was this answered? I’d like to do the same.
I’ve never made this as a sheet cake so I cannot say for sure! My best bet would be to start checking at 30 minutes.
We share a birthday! Happy birthday to you!
I made this recipe yesterday. It’s amazing but I used an 8 inch pan and it came out in a thick texture. Any tips to having the moist look?
Can you use buttermilk instead of milk and lemon juice?
I’m sure that will work fine!
Not sure you’re following your recipe comments anymore 🙂 But I’d like to add another questions asking whether buttermilk can be substituted for whole milk + lemon — and if so, what amount? This is for my Mom’s 91st birthday coming right up – thanks!
Hi Susan. While it won’t be exactly the same, I think it would be a fine substitute. Wishing your mom a very happy birthday and blessed year ahead!
Just returning to let you know I made the cake this weekend–after seeing your reply above–and went ahead and used lemon juice and whole milk. The cake was the best I have ever had. More importantly, my mother more than adored it–said it was beyond what she could have hoped for–and it tasted like cakes her grandmother made, but…even better(!). She said the cake was among the best 3 cakes she’s had in her life. I would agree. What was so astonishing was how fluffy it was–but also so, so, glisteningly moist and full bodied. How is that even possible? I can’t imagine making another yellow cake ever! Thanks again and thanks for your kind wishes for my Mom!
Sorry to post again but six or seven people have asked already — but no reply from bakerbynature — and clearly more people than post here would probably love to know! My Mom’s 91st birthday is next week and I would like to make your cake for her but need to know whether lemon+whole milk is essential or whether buttermilk can be used instead–and if so, what is the measurement? Thanks!
HI Susan. Did you see my response to your previous question above? I hope the cake went well no matter what recipe you used.
hi again! Yes indeed–thank you! This cake is heads and shoulders above any cake I have made–and among the best cakes I’ve ever tasted. I may have used a scoatch too much Swiss buttercream with it (which was itself astoundingly delicious) because the cake itself was so fabulous I almost wished for more–you could almost have this cake with nothing on it–it’s that good. Know that my mother still has stars in her eyes about this cake and only her wedding cake, made by her aunt, matched it–it really was the highlight of what was already a super fun and memorable 91st birthday. Thanks again!
WOW!! I just finished baking this recipe and it is so good! I tasted the batter and I just knew it was gonna be a great cake. The texture is fluffy and moist like I remember yellow boxed cake mix being when I was little but with soooo much more flavor.
I’m full disclosure, I did substitute the milk and lemon with buttermilk since I had some I needed to use up. I divided the batter into two tall 8 inch pans and baked for about 32 minutes.
Thanks for the recipe!
I love your recipes, but it would be so nice to have the weights of the ingredients included in the recipe so it would be possible to use a kitchen scale rather than measuring cups. I find it much easier and more accurate. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes!
Hi I am going to make the frosting for this cake today and I am wondering what type of chocolate to use. Melting or a bar. Thanks!
Hi! I suggest a high-quality chocolate bar like Ghiradelli or Lindt.