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 🙂
LOOKING FOR MORE DELICIOUS RECIPES?
Join the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to hear about new recipes first.
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
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.
nicolle jenkins says
Does this recipe not require baking powder? Bit nervous as the cake is for someone else xx many thanks
Charlotte Oates says
Nope. I originally tested it with baking powder and I found it rose too much in the oven and then collapsed when I removed it. The raising agents included in the self-raising flour should be fine to give the cake enough lift.
Lucy says
Delicious chocolate cake, the best I’ve tried over the years – I used it for my sons birthday cake. Thank you for sharing your recipe
Rafia says
Hi,
I tried out your recipe as I was searching for a good chocolate cake that goes well with fondant and I think I’ve finally found the one! This cake was so delicious, super moist and soft and spongy but at the same time dense and rich. The grated chocolate (only tedious part!) added depth and richness and went well with my SMBC filling. I used your calculator to make 2 7” x 3” rounds which I split and layered up. I made this 2 weeks in advance and froze it and it turned out fine. I also added some sugar syrup on each layer to help keep the cakes moist while decorating. Overall, really happy with this and will defo be my go-to recipe from now on. I am only just thinking to grate the chocolate in a food processor beforehand so I have it ready when baking.
Thanks so much for sharing this
Charlotte Oates says
If you really hate the grating then you can melt the chocolate instead (set it aside to cool before adding it to the cake mixture). I find that you get little bursts of chocolate-iness when you grate whereas the cake has a more even chocolate flavour with melted, but both taste good.