Easy Chocolate Birthday Cake
I love this recipe for birthday cakes as it's firm enough to hold up to being smeared with icing yet SO chocolatey and delicious! Adapted from King Arthur Baking Company.
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.