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.
Sinead says
Hi, I my cake tins are 22cm / 10 inch. Could you please advice what measurements I need?
Thanks
Sinead
Charlotte Oates says
If you have a look below the recipe there’s a link to a calculator which will tell you the quantities you need for a different tin size.
Louise says
Hi Can I make this cake today for a birthday in 3 days time? Would you recommend freezing it and decorating it the day before?
Charlotte Oates says
It’ll be fun, just make sure you store it in an airtight container until you’re ready to decorate it.
Jessica says
I’m gonna make this cake for my son’s birthday next week, how many layers do you think I need to bake to get a 10cm high cake?
Charlotte Oates says
I would go for three layers. It may end up a little taller than 10cm, but I think two layers would be too short.
Debra Hallowes says
Hi I made your chocolate birthday cake , used the calculator as I used a 23cm tins but my cakes haven’t risen where did I go wrony
Charlotte Oates says
Hoe old was your self-raising flour? If it has been sat in the cupboard for a long time it can lose some of it’s raising powers.
Charlotte says
Hi. I’ve just made this recipe and the cakes have come out really flat? Any suggestions as to what could have caused it?
Charlotte Oates says
By flat so you mean the top surface was flat and not slightly domed as some cakes are? or do you mean the cake was thin and didn’t rise?
If it’s the first, then that’s how the cake is designed to be. I like my sponges to be as level as possible so that the top of my cake looks smooth when I decorate it.
If it’s the second then how tall were the sponges? Mine usually rise to about 3cm each (so not a huge amount, but definitely not flat. They should look as they do in the pictures). If yours are shorter than that it sounds as though the raising agents in you self-raising flour weren’t working as they should be. Was it a new bag of flour? Older flours can lose their raising powers over time.
Charlotte says
Hi. Sorry, yes, I meant flat. They were about 1 inch and quite heavy and dense. The flour was in date but had been open for a while?
Charlotte Oates says
It does sadly sounds as though the raising agents weren’t doing what they should have. If you were to give it another try with the same flour I’d suggest adding 1 and extra tsp of baking powder into the mixture to give it a bit of extra lift.
Zoe Knight says
I am not a natural baker and I’m not a massive fan of cooking, but- I wanted to make my son’s 1st birthday cake. His 1st birthday is Friday, so I decided to make this ‘trail run’ cake last week (just incase I failed, and had to go buy one) this cake did not disappoint at all! I was super impressed with myself at how good a job I did.
My family commented oh how delicious the cake tasted, soft, moist and not too sweet. The cake lasted less than 24 hours in my house- that’s how delicious it was!
I am definitely making this cake again tomorrow ready for my son’s birthday. Might even mix it up and do half vanilla and half chocolate.
Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe x
EMMa says
Great chocolate cake recipe, I’ve also used the lemon sponge recipe and both have turned out as light sponges that receive rave reviews and demands for cake every week at the office keep coming!
Recipe was easy to follow
Suzanne says
Never baked before lockdown but the last couple of months I have tried your recipes and they’re easy and delicious, my favourite being the lemon cupcakes with the lemon centre. It’s my daughters 20th birthday next week so I’m making her a chocolate cake, she prefers buttercream to fondant icing so would this birthday cake work or would you suggest your easy chocolate cake?
Charlotte Oates says
They’re both very similar, so whichever you like the look of (or whichever flour you can get as the birthday cake uses self-raising and the easy chocolate cake uses plain).
Emma says
Does this cake freeze well?
Charlotte Oates says
It does, wrap the sponges in clingfilm before freezing to protect them and defrost them thoroughly before decorating.
Jann says
Very tasty, simple recipe. Everyone loved It!
Nicola says
Hi Charlotte, I’m making my sons birthday cake using your recipe. Just doing a practice run today ready for next week.
How long does the cake last? If i make it on monday would you ice it then too or ice on the actual day of his birthday?
Thank you x
Charlotte Oates says
I normally bake two days before, and decorate the day before. I find the cake is still good to eat about 5 days after the party.
Leeann Lavery says
Hi I am going to do a 20cm vanilla cake 3 layers then a 10cm chocolate 2 layers on top will this need to be supported?
Thanks for help
Charlotte Oates says
I would use some dowels of straws in the bottom layer to add a bit of extra support.
Stacey Patterson says
Hello I see you have chocolate buttercream inside the cake do you have a recipe please.
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, there’s a link to it just below the recipe in the notes section.
debbie stirland says
Hi How do you top the cake with anything before putting the fondant on
Charlotte Oates says
I usually use a thin layer of chocolate buttercream. This helps the fondant to stick and add flavour to the cake.
Laura Fearon says
I only have medium eggs should I use 5?
Charlotte Oates says
Using 5 medium eggs will give you a bit too much egg, but it should still work OK. Alternatively, you could weigh out your eggs until you have about 233g (it’ll be about 4.7 medium eggs).
Zoë says
This is the best chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever found. It’s a fail safe that tastes fantastic and is loved by all!
The size converter works perfectly too!
Stacey says
So simple and tastes great! It’s never failed to please!
Amy says
Hi Charlotte, love this cake recipe and have used it multiple times for my family’s birthday cakes. Is it possible to melt the chocolate instead of grating it (i make it as 3 layers so grating 150g of chocolate takes so long) or will it ruin the cake?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes, I’ve tried it and it’s fine. Make sure you allow the chocolate to cool to room temperature before mixing it into the other ingredients.
Amanda says
Thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and easy to make – using sandwich tins it took about 5mins longer which was fine. thank you ☺️
Is there a way to upload a photo for you to see?
Charlotte Oates says
Unfortunately I don’t have a way for you to upload a photo on here, but you can email it to me charlotte@charlotteslivelykitchen.com or message me on Instagram, Facebook (@charlotteslivelykitchen) or Twitter (@charlotteslk)