This chocolate birthday cake is simple to make, tastes delicious and is perfect for decorating for a special celebration.
I hate getting questions that I can’t give a helpful answer to, so over the past few weeks I’ve been a busy bee trying to perfect my chocolate cake recipe. Now this couldn’t be just any old chocolate cake, it had to be perfect for a birthday which meant it…
I get a lot of comments on my all-in-one vanilla sponge birthday cake and the ones that always makes me smile the most are when people say that they never bake and the simplicity of the recipe has given them the confidence to do more in future. I wanted this chocolate cake to be that simple to make… a cake even the novice-est of cooks can make.
This cake is so simple… chuck it all in and mix it up. The only piece of culinary skill you need is a bit of grating!
2) Must be suitable for decorating
When I make birthday cakes for my boys I love to go to town on the decoration (you can see some on my cakes in my cake gallery). In order for the cake to work as a decorated cake it can’t dome too much on top or sink in the middle and it must be sturdy enough to be carved into various shapes for decorating without crumbling.
3) Be chocolatey
This is actually the big reason I’ve not been able to recommend chocolate cake recipes until now. All the cakes I’d made in the past with the right texture (see point 2) used just cocoa powder and they simply weren’t chocolatey enough. To give this cake some extra chocolate-iness it includes lots of actual chocolate grated into the cake mix alongside the cocoa powder.
Photographing this cake caused a lot of confusion in my house as I decided it needed to be decorated just like a birthday cake with lots of colourful fondant. Josh (who’s 3) kept asking whose birthday it was and then started getting all excited about Father Christmas coming (because apparently, he delivers presents for birthdays too). I probably didn’t help matters by deciding to light the candles – a completely unnecessary step as I really only wanted to photograph the inside of the cake after they’d been blown out – we had fun doing it together though 🙂
Chocolate Birthday Cake
INGREDIENTS
- 200 g self-raising flour
- 40 g cocoa powder
- 230 g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 230 g soft margarine - you can also use softened unsalted butter too
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 100 g milk chocolate - choose something from the baking aisle in the supermarket as it will cope well with the heat in the oven without going grainy.
- 2 tsp milk
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
- Line your tins (2x 20cm sandwich tins) with liners or greaseproof paper.
- Grate the milk chocolate (100g).
- Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl (200g self-raising flour, 40g cocoa powder, 230g caster sugar, 4 large eggs, 230g soft margarine, ¼ tsp vanilla extract, 2 tsp milk and the grated chocolate) mix on a low speed until fully combined.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and spread it out so it’s pretty even (it doesn’t have to be perfect as it’ll even out in the oven, but roughly flat is good).
- Put the tins in the oven and cook for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes put a skewer in the middle and check if it comes out clean. If it does it’s done, if not pop it back in for a couple more minutes and check again.
- Once cooked, remove the cakes from the oven and leave them to cool in the tins for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, remove the cakes from their tins and pop them onto a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Nut-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are easily available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
Sue says
I tried this once and it did not rise at all and was very stodgy so I tried it again but added baking powder and it rose but then collapsed in the middle and fell apart when I took it out of the tin. Complete waste of time.
Charlotte Oates says
I’m sorry to hear that the cake didn’t rise well for you. How old was the flour you used? Sometimes the raising agent in the flour can lose it’s power if it’s older.
I always recommend not adding additional baking powder to this recipe because, as you’ve described, it tends to rise too much in the oven and then collapses in the middle.
Lynn says
Hi I’ve make this cake so many time love it,how long will it stay fresh as I am making it 3 days before my husbands birthday
Charlotte Oates says
It is usually good to eat for about a week after baking.
Jay says
What did you put in the middle
Charlotte Oates says
Chocolate buttercream.
Sana says
Hello Charlotte love your chocolate recipe, but just wanted to know if you have a raisin sponge cake recipe, as I have tried many other raisin cake recipes none of them cake out good.
Charlotte Oates says
I don’t have a specific raisin cake recipe. However, you could try switching the white chocolate for raisins in my white chocolate cake (the cake sponge is designed to suspend the white chocolate chips rather than them sinking to thew bottom). It’s not something I’ve tried with raisins but it should work. I’d recommend soaking the raisins for a few hours before adding them to the cake to keep them moist during baking. You could just go for water or making things more interesting with tea or maybe even some rum.
OXH says
Made this cake yesterday. It was sooo dry even though I did respect the quantities and cooking time/temp. If I knew, I would have poured syrup over it. On the up side, it did raise pretty flat which is great for fondant decoration. Sadly I did not enjoy the taste of it and neither did the kids.
Pam Shute says
I have made this recipe many times for my families birthdays in the last six months it has kept me busy in lockdown! It is excellent, moist and so easy to make. I have do ne the vanilla and chocolate one.
Diane says
Hi Charlotte, do you know if I can substitute the flour to gluten free self raising flour, and keep all other ingredients the same? Would I need to add more liquid to keep it more moist?
Many thanks
Charlotte Oates says
It’s not something I have tried. However, I have received comments from others who have who have said that it works well with gluten-free flour.
Margaret petrie says
I’ve used gluten free flour and works amazing. Found melting the chocolate works best no need for extra moisture
Ian says
I have made this about 3 times now with variations on the icing and filling. Every time someone tries it, they ask for one for their birthday too!
Great recipe!!
Joanna says
Hi, I am planning on making cake tonight and icing tomorrow with fondant.
I don’t have any cake boxes or airtight containers. Could I just use clingfilm?
Charlotte Oates says
Wrapped in clingfilm is fine.
Elizabeth says
How do I cover a sponge cake with fondant icing?
Charlotte Oates says
I don’t have a guide on here, but you may find this video helpful.
Sonia says
Hi I’m planning on making this for my son’s birthday. I wanted to ask if I could make it the day before and keep in fridge. Would it still be OK for the next day? Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
It’ll be absolutely fine. Make sure you allow it to come up to room temperature for a little while before eating it as it tastes best that way.