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.
Karen says
Hi made this yesterday but didn’t rise that much. Put skewer i. Which came out clear, but still seems a little moist. Should it be like this?
Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
It should be roughly the same height as the cakes in the pictures. If not then it doesn’t sound quite right. Was your flour a little on the old side? If it was then the raising agent may not have been as effective as it should be which would cause what you’ve described.
Ste says
Time for cooking is totally wrong for gas ovens had mine in 45 mins and still isn’t ready.
Charlotte Oates says
Can I check what temperature you’re using and whether you’re baking in sandwich tins or one deep tin? Also, are you using the original recipe, or have you used the calculator for a different size?
Thanks
Alison says
Thanks so much for this recipe. I have a quick question – I made it last night (3 x 23cm) based on the conversions, and have frozen it for use next week.
The batter was quite stiff though and definitely not runny, and once baked, the cakes were quite heavy. Do you think this sounds ok / how it should be? Wanted to check as if not I may do then again.
Thanks
Alison
Charlotte Oates says
The batter is soft, but not runny. Unfortunately I don’t have a video for this cake, but if you watch the one for my vanilla cake and see the consistency of the batter, the chocolate one should have been similar (maybe a tiny bit stiffer).
How much did your cakes rise? If they’re about 1.5-2x higher than when you put the batter in the tin then that sounds right. The are quite heavy (weight wise rather than taste wise 🙂 ) which makes them nice and sturdy for decorating.
Nicky says
Hello, Can you use gluten free flour to make this cake?
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t tried it, but I believe others have and it’s turned out fine.