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.
Kerry says
Baked this cake along with your chocolate buttercream for my brothers birthday and it was great! Definitely going to be my go-to chocolate cake from now on.
Sarah says
I love this cake and usually do it in one 23cm tin, but I will be making it into a unicorn cake this time so wanted a bit more height, and was thinking of doing three layers using 20cm tins instead.
I was just wondering how deep each tin should be when doing separate layers?
I have three sandwich tins but two of them are only 3cm deep which doesn’t seem deep enough to me – and I don’t want to find that out just as I’m pouring the mix into the pans, or as they are baking!
Charlotte Oates says
The tins I use are 4.5cm deep. I think 3cm would be too shallow and there’s a risk the cakes would overflow.
Sarah says
Ok that’s what I was thinking too – thank you.
On a related note – if I were to bake two of the three layers at once, would the remaining mix for the third layer be ok to just sit while they baked, before I could put it in the oven? I don’t think I’m going to be able to find enough tins (or oven space) to do three at once!
Charlotte Oates says
I always recommend baking cake mixture as soon as it’s made as sometimes leaving it sitting for a while can affect how the cake rises when it is eventually baked.
Penny says
I made this in 6in tins that were only 2.5 cm deep. I used the recipe as above and they came out perfectly. If split evenly you might be ok using your tins. 🙂 I also used dark chocolate rather than milk. Yummy!!
Joanna says
Hi,
This is my go to recipe for all my children’s birthday cakes and it has always gone down very well! I’ve been asked to make a doll cake for a friend and the doll cake tin (Wilton 8” diameter 5” deep) states to use 5.5- 6 cups of batter.
Firstly, do you think this recipe would work for this shape cake and can you advise what quantities I should use? And for how long should it be baked?
Many thanks,
Jo
Charlotte Oates says
I wouldn’t recommend baking this cake in a tin that deep for two reasons:
1) It can sometimes sink in the middle when baked in a deeper tin
2) The additional cooking time needed to bake it through can mean that it goes dry around the edges and dry chocolate cake really loses its flavour compared to when it’s lovely and moist (made in a shallow tin).
Siobhan says
Hi I need to make a gluten free chocolate cake but could only get gluten free plain flour. Can I use this instead of the self raising? If so how do I adjust the recipe?
Charlotte Oates says
The instructions in the how to make self-raising flour post should also work for gluten-free flour.
How To Make Self-Raising Flour From Plain Flour
Lyndsey says
Absolutely delicious. For me the best chocolate cake I’ve ever tasted, thank you so much for the time you’ve put into creating this recipe. I covered mine with a fondant icing for my son’s birthday cake and it went down a storm. Finally found a “go to” chocolate cake recipe!
Shelley says
Replaced the flour for gluten free and it worked perfectly for my daughter’s 21’st thanks so much for a great recipe. Lots of lovely comments on the day. Topped the cake with a mix of your white and milk chocolate buttercream.
Dani D says
Love this cake recipe..it’s my go to recipe for chocolate cake! Comes out perfect every time.
Rachel says
Thank you Charlotte, I love this recipe! Do you know if it can be frozen?
Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
Yes it can, either just the sponges, or the decorated cake.
Siobhan says
How much soft sugar paste icing will it take to cover the cake?
Charlotte Oates says
You can find my calculator here:
How Much Fondant Do I Need To Cover My Cake?
The cake is usually around 8 cm high and 20cm in diameter (unless you’ve use my calculator to make a different size)
K Williams says
Delicious!
Helen says
Hi Charlotte,
Excellent chocolate cake with a real chocolate taste, but not too intense – had great comments when I made it.
However, despite S.R. flour being fresh, it certainly did not rise to the size in your picture, each layer being barely an inch thick. Usually find the conventional oven works best for cakes, but maybe I should have used the fan oven. Have you tried it in both?
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve only tried in a fan oven so I’m not sure what the difference would be, but I would expect them to be similar.
Louise Harrison says
I’ve made this recipe many times both as birthday cakes and cupcakes. Great results everytime. Thank you Charlotte.
Frankie says
I made this cake for my sons 3rd birthday, everyone loved it. I’ve been asked to make a load of cupcakes for my nieces christening and I would like to use the recipe, I have all my fingers and toes crossed that the cupcakes come out just as nice.
Charlotte Oates says
They should do. If you’ve not already given it a try, then you can find the recipe for the cupcake version of this cake here.
Eniola Dere says
I made this cake for my son’s birthday and it was fantastic. Great recipe.
Judith Piggott says
I love this cake but have been asked to make it for someone gluto free by using spelt and baking powder..do you have any advice? Especially how much baking powder? Thsnks
Charlotte Oates says
Spelt flour contains gluten, although at lower levels than regular flour. If you want this to be gluten-free you’ll need to opt for a different flour. This cake should work fine with a commercial gluten-free self-raising flour.