This homemade chocolate birthday cake with frosting recipe tastes like a better version of a box mix cake! It’s super easy to make and there wasn’t a piece leftover. It’s great for an easy birthday cake or any time you’re craving a good old fashioned slice of chocolate cake with frosting, nothing too fussy or too fancy.
Last year I made a banana cake with Greek yogurt frosting for my son Ben’s birthday. This year, I had just had the twins (all three of my kids share a birthday) so it was a month later when we had some family members over for a low-key pizza party for his birthday (we literally ordered pizza, I made a cake, and we called it a day -it was glorious!)
My husband asked if I wanted him to pick up a cake, and I just couldn’t NOT make a cake for him. I wanted to make one, because I remember my mom making a cake for all of our birthdays (I have 3 sisters) so it was something special and a tradition I wanted to carry on.
I looked and I wasn’t finding anything simple, until I found this Barefoot Contessa recipe. I made a few adjustments to make it a little easier (like I didn’t sift the flour and it came out great, but feel free to sift away!)
For cake decorations I just took a few of Ben’s toy dinosaurs and put them on top of the cake and sprinkled some crushed oreos for dirt and put two candles in and called it a day. I LOVED how simple the decorations for a kids cake this was (sticking small toys on top of the cake for decorations) – I’m totally going to do this method for all birthdays going forward!
The cake was GONE, I’m talking not one slice left! It’s so good and I’ll be making this easy homemade chocolate birthday cake with frosting for all birthdays in the future!
Other recipes you might enjoy:
- Chocolate Turtle Chex Mix Recipe
- 5 Ingredient Dessert – Chocolate Cake for Two
- Caramel Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies Recipe
Homemade Chocolate Birthday Cake with Frosting
Ingredients
- For the cake:
- Butter for greasing the pan (or cooking spray)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cups cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk shaken (I didn't have any buttermilk so I made some by combining 1 cup milk with juice from half a lemon and letting it sit for 5 minutes)
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup coffee brewed coffee
- For the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 16 ounces about 2 cups confectioners sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 3 to 4 tablespoons milk as needed
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate melted and cooled
- Optional toppings for dinosaur decorations: toy dinosaurs and crushed oreos 5-6
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter/spray with cooking spray one 9x13 pan and set aside.
- Combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined (or use a hand mixer).
- In another bowl, using a whisk combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla.
- With the mixer on low, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 32-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool in pan for 30 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack and completely cool before frosting.
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Combine butter, vanilla and salt in a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat until the butter is fluffy, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- Add the confectioners' sugar ½ cup at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition. When all the sugar is mixed in, stir in the cocoa powder.
- Add the milk and melted chocolate and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice, until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Use the frosting immediately or refrigerate it, wrapped in plastic, for up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature and re-whip before using.
Nutrition
Melanie says
Love this! My grandma only made one kind of birthday cake for everyone. Chocolate with chocolate icing ( the kind that gets hard..not creamy buttercream frosting) with chopped walnuts on top.
Sweetphi says
That’s so sweet your grandma made the same kind of cake for everyone – that’s going to be me, with this cake 🙂
Kim Henrichs says
Making this over the weekend for a Monday office party!
Sweetphi says
I hope everyone loved it!!
Stephanie J Schmeling says
I can’t wait to make this cake for a friend. I have made the banana muffins & they were yummy 😊
Sweetphi says
You definitely have a lucky friend, this cake is so good!! So glad you love the banana muffins!
CATHERINE says
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had any cake I haven’t liked! German chocolate, coconut or spice cakes are probably my favorites, but chocolate or vanilla never fail to please. Love this recipe here. And what a great birthday treat for your little cutie!
That Amazon card would be great, really been wanting to get a silicone cake pan that will fit in my instant pot and my air fryer! 😊
VICTORIA HARRAH says
MMM…chocolate! DUH! lol…
My favorite cake is mom’s old fashioned yellow cake with chocolate frosting (with a big glass of milk)!! I’m pretty sure she uses a box mix but her cake is always the best!!
Alice says
I love a good old peach or pineapple upside down cake! If you line the pan with parchment, you can decrease the amount of butter and brown sugar by up to one half, without worrying that all the fruit will stick to the pan, and it is still rich and delish!
Leann G says
I am such a cake snob and usually only like homemade cakes or cakes from certain from-scratch bakeries, however, sometimes it’s hard to beat a rainbow chip cake mix with the rainbow chip icing out of the can. It’s a quick fix when I’m hungry for cake (always!) and don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen.
Sweetphi says
Totally agree with you Leann, I’m a cake snob, but every once in a while I love a box mix cake!
Mary W says
I love a good, rich Coconut Cream cake with 3 layers and lots of custard filling between the layers. Dusting with toasted fresh coconut takes it over the top!
Sweetphi says
Sounds like such an amazing cake!
Susan Craig says
My Mom used to make German Chocolate cakes for my birthday. That is a wonderful, old-fashioned cake you don’t see often these days.
Sweetphi says
Oh I agree, you definitely don’t see that cake every day, love it too!
Cassie says
Chocolate cake with a peanut butter filling, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, is definitely my favorite!
Sweetphi says
Sounds so good!
Wendy Burrow says
Your recipe sounds so wonderful. I LOVE cake so much that I have a hard time deciding which to choose as a favorite! For my husband’s 50th birthday, I am pretty sure I made 3 cakes for the party…and my favorite was called 14 Karat Gold Cake with Honey Fudge frosting!
Sweetphi says
I love cake too! That is so neat you made three cakes for your husbands birthday. I am going to google 14 karat cake right away, because oh my goodness does that sound good, and I’m so curious what it is – honey/fudge frosting sounds amazing!!
Wendy Burrow says
The cake and frosting recipes are from Real Food for Healthy Kids by Tracy Seaman and Tanya Wenman Steel.
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much!!
Sara Williams says
My all-time favorite cake is carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! So yummy!
Sweetphi says
Oh yum, a delicious classic
Linda Bick says
Yummy! I love adding coffee to a chocolate cake recipe! Can’t wait to try yours!
Sweetphi says
I think you’re going to absolutely love this recipe!
Cassandra D says
I like the dinosaurs with the added touch. This recipe looks great to make.
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much – it was such a fun/easy way to decorate the cake, I’m totally going to do little toys as decoration in the future!
Gloria Aman says
My favorite cake is Strawberry with Butter Cream Icing. I also like Lemon Glaze Cake too. Both so good..Thank you for sharing such terrific recipes. We also like Chocolate cake too!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for commenting Gloria! Strawberry cake with buttercream icing is actually my favorite cake too – I make a really good version with an almond buttercream if you’re ever interested: https://sweetphi.com/sour-cream-cake-almond-buttercream-strawberries/
Rebecca S. says
My favorite cake(s) are Angel Food Cake (which I make from scratch), a Hazelnut Torte, and The Fiddlehead Restaurant’s Chocolate Amaretto Cake from their cookbook. Though, honestly, I’m more of a fruit pie person myself!
Sweetphi says
Your favorite cakes sound amazing – especially the homemade angel food cake and hazelnut torte, and that chocolate armaretto cake I’m going to have to look up!
Annette says
Yum, cake! My favorite cake, and the one my mom made for my birthday for as long as I can remember, is Red Velvet. Not just any Red Velvet, but the kind that has no cocoa. It took her a long time to find a recipe I liked, because most have cocoa. While I love a good chocolate cake, this is more like a spice cake and the icing is made with milk that’s heated over the stove.
Sweetphi says
That cake sounds so good – and so amazing she found one without cocoa – so unique!
LISA BURKHART says
My favorite cake is a chocolate pound cake with whipped cream frosting..Yum!
Sweetphi says
Oh goodness – that sounds amazing! I make this double chocolate loaf – recipe here https://sweetphi.com/double-chocolate-loaf/ – and it’s sooo god, never thought of doing whipped cream frosting, but now I’m definitely craving some chocolate pound cake with whipped cream frosting!
Monica M says
With being gluten free, I would say my favorite cake is a flourless chocolate cake (a recipe my daughter found on pinterest a while back).
Sweetphi says
I love a good rich flourless chocolate cake myself, so happy to hear your daughter found a recipe for you 🙂
Melissa Storms says
This looks really good, I bet the coffee adds a lot of flavor. Great idea with the dinos and oreo dirt. I totally get what you mean about tradition. I usually make a cake at home for everyone’s birthday, my husband is a little more attached to that tradition than my teen is , lol.
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for your lovely comment. That’s so nice that you make a cake at home for everyone’s birthday, I’m sure its something your teen will look back on and love when they’re out of the house, I definitely did not appreciate it like I should have – because man, after everything going on, to make a cake takes effort lol!
HEIDI STAFFORD says
Looks wonderful! My favorite cake is my mother’s homemade Angel Food Cake with fresh strawberries and homemade whip cream❤️
Sweetphi says
Thank you – and your mother’s cake sounds amazing!
Citra says
Glad I found this Chocolate birthday recipe , it looks good! will be making it for my sister birthday in 2months (she loves chocolate). I wish you have more dessert recipe that includes berries because I tried your Blueberry Skillet Dump Cake and it was so good! Thank you for sharing the recipes, it become one of my favorites along with Berries Napoleon cake and fruit tart.
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for your lovely comment. I hope your sister loves this cake! And thank you so much for making the blueberry skillet dump cake, have you tried my cherry muffins? They’re so good. I’ll link to a few of my favorite recipes using berries:
https://sweetphi.com/sour-cherry-muffins/ (good with raspberries or other berries to)
https://sweetphi.com/gluten-free-lemon-cake-made-with-almond-flour/
https://sweetphi.com/5-ingredient-stovetop-blueberry-crisp/
https://sweetphi.com/best-muffins-ever-blueberry-cherry-muffins-made-with-greek-yogurt/
Jacqui says
The Barefoot Contessa cake is one of my sister’s favorites. I will show her your recipe for her next family birthday.
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much – I always love when people share my recipes, so thank you!
Erika Estrada says
My favorite cake is an almond vanilla cardamom cake with mascarpone whipped cream frosting! I’m gonna be making it for my birthday this month, same as last year, but may add some new twists!
Sweetphi says
That sounds super delicious!!
Shana says
I made the original Barefoot Contessa recipe for my husband’s birthday when we had just started dating because I wanted to impress him. The cake was a lot of work, but he loved it! Obviously, since we’ve been married for a couple years now. Props to you for making this with three young kids!
Sweetphi says
That’s so sweet that you made the recipe for your husband when you first started dating! And thank you for your kind words! I remember my mom making us cakes so I just thought I’d like my kids to remember me making cakes too 🙂 And oh my goodness is this cake good, isn’t it?