Breezy's Chocolate Chocolate Birthday Cake

One fine evening, I was chatting with our pal Breezy and she mentioned her birthday was fast approaching. 

Ahhhh, birthdays.

Right?!  

When you’re eight or so, fan-tab-u-lous!!  Nothing much better than a birthday and a cake or a pie and a party and woo hoo!  When you’re ahem, older, ehhh, let’s not talk about it, ok?

But Breezy mentioned birthdays weren’t a big deal in her household growing up, that she rarely got a cake or a party or any hoopla whatsoever or anything at all, if ever.  That tugged at my wee little heart strings.  “That sucks,” I proffered lamely. 

So I said, “Hey.  Breezy.  Lemme make you a birthday cake this year.”  She looked at me all screwy like I had aliens spurting out of my ears or something.  “C’mon, lemme make you a cake, it’ll be fun.”  So she hesitantly relented, stinky doubting side eye and all.

“What kind of cake do you want?”  Chocolate and chocolate, she replied.

We saw her a week later and I mentioned that I was deeply entrenched in birthday cake recipes, sifting, sorting, seeking the perfect combo.  Again, I got that wide-eyed aliens out my ears look staring back at me.

“I didn’t think you meant it,” she chortled.  Whaaaaaat?!  Of course I meant it, you big dope.  I don’t throw baking things for people around lightly, ya know.  Sheesh.  C’mon man.

And truly, it took me a while to settle on a chocolate cake and a chocolate frosting recipe.

I love to bake, see.  But I won’t lie, I also stress over what to bake, finding that perfect recipe.  I am far from trained too, merely self (and mom and grandma) taught, lucky with good genes. 

Point being, well, two points being….1.  I’m not the best recipe reader.  I can’t look at a recipe and say hey, this science works, bingo, winner.  But I think that’s most people, and that’s a-okay.  You don’t have to be a Recipe Decipher-ist to be a great baker.  Nope, not in the least.

Point 2.  I’ve gotten to a juncture in my baking life where my recipe picking intuition leans stronger than my recipe doubt.  Don’t know how, dunno why, can’t explain it, it happened, and I will not question the Baking Juju Gods.  I don’t wanna mess with that stuff, no way.  It too can happen for you as well, you gotta trust me.  

But absolutely do not get me wrong here.  I’m not a snob, nor a baking snob, nor an all around holier-than-thou jerk boasting about fancy pants intuitions.  I have plenty o’ baking fails under my belt, recent ones too.  Like life, baking is a learning process, one that’s ongoing, one that evolves and grows.  And a skill that is attainable by anyone. For reals. 

Which brings me to:  it’s not too terribly often I bake a layer cake.  Years of chasing the wrong recipes burned me, cake fail after cake fail, so I’ve tended to shy away from layer cakes.

But now I’ve made this massive promise to Breezy and I cannot let her down.  Especially after all the stink eye floating around.  And too we’ve got this spiffy baking blog, I can’t let you all down either.

No worries, these are definite five star’ers, just like Breezy!  She’s rolling her eyes right now.  But these two recipes built me up a bit, gave me a slice of layer cake confidence.  Nice, right?  Good pun too, right?  hahaha 

The lucky birthday girl was quite excited for her cake, anxiously texting “when will you be here,” after which she plowed headlong into the cake with reckless knife-wielding birthday abandon.  As one should with cake on their birthday.  Or cake in general. 

As such and hence, this was a birthday gift that gave bountifully.  Thanks Breezy!

Wowza.

Hey Mike, babe, what do you think of this here cake?

“I’m mad.”

What??

Adroitly, “yeah.  I’m mad.”

Wait.  Whaa….  Whyyy …. How are you mad?

“I’m mad because I’m jealous.  That cake is frickin’ good (shaky finger pointing at it all mad) — why have you not made this for me?!?,” and off he stormed like that one kid at every party, that cranky party pooper who’s mad it’s not his birthday.  Alas, Mike’s life is sooo hard.  

This chocolate cake recipe comes courtesy of Women’s Day Desserts,* a stellar book, and the whackadoo frosting recipe via Food and Wine.

Despite the shockingly easy cake instructions, shockingly I tell you, I was still nail biting over its outcome.  Mainly because the method is quite unorthodox to be honest. 

Dump it all, yes all, yep, seriously all, into a mixer bowl.

But, turns out this is just as simple as one a’ those box mixes at the store, if not simpler, but infinitely better.  Bonus!, you know what’s in it!

I say whip it, whip it good.

And you’ll end up with a delicately light cake, rich in chocolaty chocolateness, and a nice soft fluffy crumb. Yesss.  If you prefer a more moist, dense cake like a boxed mix, this is not it but, but, you should really give this cake a whirl, you will so not be disappointed. And besides, did I mention that it’s easier than a boxed mix?!

Um yeah, I’m headed into the kitchen after I post this to rebake this cake.

The frosting on the other hand was nuts in its process. Once I started making it I realized I printed out a different one than I had planned but as I was halfway through, I opted to see it all the way. And boy am I glad I did as it’s one of the best frostings I’ve made. 

I’m way super extra picky about frosting recipes as the vast majority with four, five, six cups, the whole freaking bag of powdered sugar, ack ugh oh my teeth!!, far too sweet. Which is very odd for me to say as my blood is sugar. 

But yeah, no, bleech, cakes should be a perfect balance between the cake and the frosting which, in my humble opinion, is impossible with that much sugar.  More ≠ better.

Heating the cream with the sugar already seems backwards, then adding the butter and remaining ingredients to the warm liquid?  How’s this gonna work?!  Huh?  Weird! 

Cream and sugar heating top left, cream and sugar a’boil middle, melting in the remaining ingredients right…the mix cooling in an ice bath before whipping.

No doubt it’d be easier to use a hand mixer * here but if like me you are sans hand mixer, use ice packs or bags filled with ice packed up against the bowl as best you can when you whip the mix. 

Like magic though, the runny liquid turns creamy and rich, a luscious spreadable pillowy yet not ragingly sweet and soft frosting a few minutes later and you’re good to go!

Oh my.  Lookie at that oh my, frosting.  Slurp.

Flip a cake layer top down on a plate, slather on a thick blanket of frosting (if you don’t have an offset spatula,* no worries, but they are inexpensive and incredibly useful tools), seat the second cake top side up and finish swirling on the glorious frosting.

I know, this is getting worse by the moment, isn’t it?

Voila! One heck of a chocolate chocolate combo! Yuuummm-mee!  Waiting for text message from Mike “make this now please” in three, two, one…..

Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

Effortless Chocolate Cake

Yield

10 slices

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

30 Min

Total time

45 Min

A truly effortless chocolate cake that's sure to impress and become your reliable go-to!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons, 170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (297 g) granulated sugar
• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (63 g) cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) fine sea salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 g) vanilla
• 1 cup (227 ml) water, room temperature

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° (176° C). Grease and flour two 9" cake pans and set aside.
2. In a mixer bowl, add everything.
3. Beat the ingredients on low until everything is just blended then increase the speed to medium-high for about 3 minutes until everything is well combined and the batter is thick and rich.
4. Split the batter between the two cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a tester in the center comes out clean (a few crumbs is perfect).
5. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes on a cooling rack. After ten minutes, flip the cakes out onto the rack and cool completely before frosting.

Notes:

This cake recipe is adapted from Women's Day Desserts.*

It can likely be made gluten-free by using a cup for cup flour alternative though I have not personally tested it.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

376.66

Fat (grams)

16.02

Sat. Fat (grams)

9.07

Carbs (grams)

52.94

Fiber (grams)

1.88

Net carbs

51.06

Sugar (grams)

30.16

Protein (grams)

5.81

Sodium (milligrams)

280.95

Cholesterol (grams)

92.24

Please see the "info" section for nutrition details.

cake, chocolate cake

recipe

American

Created using The Recipes Generator

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Yield

12 servings (about 3 1/2 cups total)

Prep time

5 Min

Cook time

15 Min

Total time

20 Min

An infinitely better-than-the-tub dreamy, creamy, soft frosting that’s perfectly sweet.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups (303 ml) heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups (297 g) granulated sugar
• 6 ounces (128 g) unsweetened chocolate, from a bar is best
• 1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons, 141 g) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 g) vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

1. In a saucepan, add the cream and sugar, stir well to dissolve the sugar. Turn the heat to medium high heat and stir often until the cream begins to boil.
2. Turn the heat to low and simmer, giving an occasional stir, until there's a slight reduction in the liquid, about 6 minutes or so.
3. Pour the heated cream and sugar into a mixer bowl. Add the chocolate, butter, vanilla, and salt, stirring lightly until everything has melted. Set the mixer bowl in an ice bath to cool for a few minutes.
4. If you have a handheld electric mixer, use that while the mixer bowl is in the ice bath. If you are using a standing mixer, wrap ice packs or bags of ice around the bowl as best you can.
5. Beat the mix on medium until the frosting is fluffy, has thickened, and has a beautiful glossy shine. Frost the cake right away.

Notes:

Recipe adapted from Food and Wine.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

287.46

Fat (grams)

17.89

Sat. Fat (grams)

11.25

Carbs (grams)

29.81

Fiber (grams)

2.35

Net carbs

27.46

Sugar (grams)

25.92

Protein (grams)

2.79

Sodium (milligrams)

21.97

Cholesterol (grams)

32.63

Please see the "info" section for nutrition details.

frosting, chocolate frosting

recipe

American

Created using The Recipes Generator

*The Women’s Day Desserts book, offset spatulas, and hand mixers are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.