I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

Another Yellow Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting Recipe

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

I am particularly excited about this cake, because…. IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!

And I like my birthdays. A LOT.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

So, in celebration of my very favorite day of the year, I’m sharing my very favorite birthday cake: yellow cake with chocolate frosting and lots of sprinkles!

I’ve actually shared this cake before. Here.

But I’ve made some upgrades to the cake recipe, so that it’s moister, softer, and fluffier! And I couldn’t use the same chocolate frosting as before. That particular frosting was made to be EXTRA creamy. Which is amazing. But it doesn’t work quite as well on a stand-alone layer cake. I needed to make a chocolate buttercream that could hold it’s own for this cake.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

Let’s talk about this cake.

Hopefully, you guys know by now that I put the SIMPLICITY of a recipe at the top of my priority list before I post something new. It’s important to me that all of my recipes are completely do-able in a REAL LIFE chaotic, busy, never-enough-time, at-home setting.

In 99% of my recipes you will NOT find much chilling, softening, sifting, or anything else that is time consuming. With that being said, I hope you’ll trust me when I tell you something like this…

The ingredients that go into the batter of this cakeĀ must be brought to room temperature. I wish I was joking. But after umpteen hard and dry yellow cakes, I’ve finally conceded the fact that I have to let all the cold ingredients come to room temp before whisking up the batter.

If you plan it right, it’s really not a big deal. Set the stuff on the counter early morning or even the night before and you’re ready to go a few hours later. And great news– you can actually just melt the butter! So that’s one less cold ingredient you have to worry about.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

Just promise me you’ll wait for the ingredients to come to room temp. If you’re desperate for a quick cake, use a mix. I won’t judge you. But don’t rush this recipe!

I could not believe the difference it made to simply let the ingredients come to room temperature before mixing. The cake was moister, fluffier, and downright yummier than any other from-scratch yellow cake I’ve ever made before!

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

I took my favorite homemade yellow cake and made it better.

And that chocolate frosting is everything. I don’t know what it is about yellow cake and chocolate frosting, but I just don’t think it gets any better than that. The only thing I would dream of adding is a gigantic scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!

Enjoy šŸ™‚ And Happy Birthday to all the rest of you July birthdays out there!!

Yellow Birthday Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting Recipe

This is the perfect birthday cake recipe! Buttery golden yellow cake with creamy, fudgy chocolate frosting. And lots of sprinkles, of course!

This is the perfect birthday cake recipe! Buttery golden yellow cake with creamy, fudgy chocolate frosting.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’tĀ do birthday cakes.

I don’t make my husband’s birthday cakes. I don’t make my kids’ birthday cakes. And I don’t make my own birthday cakes. It’s a very firm personal policy that I established a few years back.

Why? It’s just too muchĀ unnecessary stress. And I can’t emphasize theĀ unnecessary part enough. I mean, between planning a party, buy and wrapping gifts, and setting up the whole DAY in general, whyyyyyyyyyyy go through the ordeal of making a cake too? After enough birthdays of ending up grouchy and tired in a sticky, messy kitchen, I decided to abandon the practice of birthday cake-making altogether. I’d rather spend the day in celebration and eat a delicious cake from one of my favorite bakeries.

If you ask me, there’s absolutely no shame in that (especially when I’m baking cakes nearly every other day of the year!).

But, back when I used to make birthday cakes for myself,Ā this is what I would make. A perfect, simple yellow cake with glorious fudgy frosting and a ridiculous amount of sprinkles! It’s everything that a birthday cake should be!

This is the perfect birthday cake recipe! Buttery golden yellow cake with creamy, fudgy chocolate frosting.

When I wasĀ in college, we’d make this cake on each roommate’s birthday. But we used a box cake and store-bought frosting and pink crystal sprinkles.

This is my grown up version of that.

Moist and tender, butter yellow cake made extra soft by using whole milk andĀ incorporating sour cream into the batter (is there anything not made better by sour cream??). It’s thick and puffy, and crazy delicious.

The coup de gras of this cake, however, is the chocolate frosting on top. I took my favorite chocolate fudge frosting and made one teensy-weensy, but oh-so-significant alteration… I omitted 3/4 cups of the powdered sugar from the recipe.

What does that mean?

It means that we’re taking outĀ just enough powdered sugar to make this frosting extra creamy by increasing the ratio of fat to dry ingredients. You wouldn’t want to frost a free-standing cake with this frosting, because it wouldn’t firmĀ up well enough to stay where you put it. But if you’re frosting a sheet cake? That’s a different story! It’s the perfect vessel for all that creamy, indulgent goodness.

This is the perfect birthday cake recipe! Buttery golden yellow cake with creamy, fudgy chocolate frosting.

This rich, indulgent, fudgy frosting is the perfect compliment to that buttery yellow cake underneath. The only thing that could make it any better?

SPRINKLES. And lots of them. So don’t forget to add plenty of those!

And hey– Happy Birthday šŸ™‚