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 🙂
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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.
Servanne says
Will this bake OK if you only use one (high sided) cake tin?
Charlotte Oates says
I find that people have mixed results using a deeper tin (it seems to depend on the tin and the oven). In some cases it’s perfect and in others it can dip a little in the middle after baking. I recommend always using sandwich tins to ensure a good result. If you do decide to to give it a try then it’ll need to bake for c. 50 minutes.
Alina Carrasco Toft says
Can this cake be frozen?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes.
You can either freeze the undecorated sponges or the finished cake.
If you’re freezing the sponges, I recommend wrapping them in clingfilm to protect them.
For the finished cake, either freeze it in an airtight container or pop it into the freezer on a dish for a couple of hours until the buttercream is firm and the wrap it in clingfilm. If you go for the second option, make sure you remove the clingfilm before you defrost the cake so it doesn’t stick to the buttercream.
Chloe says
This really is the best chocolate birthday cake! Thank you x
Caz says
This and the vanilla all in one are my go to birthday cake recipes. Easy and fantastic every time, so glad I found them
Emma Crilly says
Hi Charlotte
Ive just used this recipe without the chocolate as im making for someone who has a soya allergy is it ok to do this ? Also the buttercream i won’t be adding chocolate
Charlotte Oates says
The recipe will work well (as in it will still bake well). However, it is designed to take a lot of the chocolate flavour from the actual chocolate rather than the cocoa powder so you may find that it’s not as flavoursome as expected. I hope you still enjoy it.
Nathalie Bevan says
Hi, I presume you can just decorate all over with the chocolate buttercream recipe?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, that’s absolutely fine.
Deborah Mccabe says
Hi I baked the chocolate cake the sponge was a bit dry and could have been softer any tips would be grateful, thanks
Charlotte Oates says
It sounds as though it may have been a little overbaked. I’d suggested checking it a little earlier in future.
Suzy says
Thank you for this amazing recipe, it has never failed to impress all that try it!!
I’d like to know if this type of Chocolate Cake recipe could be paired with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and if it would compliment it? Thanks!
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve not tried that particular combination, but I would expect it to be delicious.