Soft and fudgey, this easy chocolate birthday cake is firm enough to support the most decadent frosting!
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Every day is somebody’s birthday.
That means that EVERY day is special…and that there are loads of people who need birthday cakes!
At our house birthdays have always been low-key family affairs.
When the kids were little, they drew cards and crafted gifts from whatever they found around the house.
Birthday party decorations were crepe paper and flowers from the yard with a homemade birthday cake and handwritten place cards.
To celebrate we sometimes took a picnic lunch down to the creek or had a family dinner with the birthday child’s favorite meal (often macaroni and cheese!)
Each child has their favorite cake (chocolate EVERYTHING for one, carrot cake with Red Hot candies for another), ice cream and color schemes.
It is absolutely worth training your kids in the kitchen!
Because now, as they’ve gotten older, they surprise us with a handmade birthday.
With fanciful cakes and homemade paper banners, with crocheted runners and pillows, with treasured, heartfelt notes that timidly tell us how much we mean to them.
A SUPER EASY chocolate BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR WHEN TIME IS SHORT
When time is short (when is it NOT?) we turn to this tried and true, delicious, super easy and adaptable handmade birthday cake recipe that I adapted from King Arthur Baking Company
You can even make a vegan chocolate cake by using coffee or a plant-based milk as the liquid. (The recipe contains no eggs.)
We’ve even octupled it for my daughter’s wedding cake!
I like that it’s fudgey and a bit dense–the perfect, non-fragile base for a festive birthday party cake.
Easy Chocolate Birthday Cake
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour I prefer King Arthur brand
- 1 cup sugar I use half granulated, half brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa Callebaut or Nestle's Dark are my favorites
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee optional
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract I like half vanilla, half almond
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1 cup liquid brewed coffee, milk, water, etc
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Lightly grease an 8″ square or 9″ round pan that’s at least 2″ deep. If you don’t have a 2″-deep pan in either of those sizes, use a 9″ square pan. (I use a 9″ round pan but don’t grease it–just put a nice parchment paper round in the bottom.)
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl.
- Whisk the vanilla, vinegar, oil, and coffee or milk in a separate bowl.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, stirring until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
- Let cool a bit in the pan, then run a knife around the edge to loosen and tump out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Frost with anything from cream cheese icing to whipped cream to a simple dusting of powdered sugar.
You can frost the cake with a decadent chocolate ganache, cream cheese icing or this amazing, no-fail whipped cream frosting from Two Sisters Crafting!
How does your family celebrate birthdays? Do you throw parties for 100 or serve dinner for 10 (or less)?
No matter how you celebrate, birthdays make every day special. Enjoy!
