Birthday Cake!

This is a classic 3 layer Birthday Cake recipe with soft, buttery vanilla cake layers and my favourite chocolate frosting which tastes like the best chocolate mousse you’ve ever had! A special celebration cake dedicated to Dozer, for the 13 birthdays I got to have with him, and the first without.

Birthday cake

This is the birthday cake I always dreamt of having as a kid, the one the Kate Miller’s and Tina Wallace’s of the world got to have at their birthdays. I’m talking the classic yellow vanilla cake with a chocolate frosting that’s brown enough to know that it’s going to taste really chocolatey, but not so dark it veers into grown-up territory.

As for me, Mum always made her Japanese strawberry shortcake, which I absolutely love now. But as a kid, I just wanted what everyone else had – chocolate frosting and sprinkles.

Anyway, it all worked out. I grew up to be a half-decent cook, so now my birthday cake can be whatever I want. And this is it!

What the vanilla cake and chocolate frosting taste like

This Birthday Cake is made with three layers of my classic Vanilla Cake frosted with My Favourite Chocolate Frosting which honestly does taste like chocolate mousse. It is way less sweet and butter-dense than buttercream, so you won’t feel ill after treating yourself to a large slice of this cake. Here’s a little more about both so you can decide if this is The Birthday Cake for you too.

1. about the vanilla sponge cake

I’ve used my beloved Vanilla Cake for this Birthday Cake because it has a soft, buttery crumb that is much plusher than typical yellow cakes. The real clincher is that it stays perfectly fresh for up to 4 days, making it ideal as a make-ahead cake for occasions like birthdays, when you’ve got plenty else to juggle. Present wrapping! Party food!

2. about my favourite chocolate frosting

This is a frosting I created chasing the perfect all-rounder, and I’ve been hiding it from you for a few years (sorry!). I describe it as a cross between buttercream and whipped ganache except it’s considerably less sweet and not as rich as either of these with less than one-third the sugar and 40% less fat than the equivalent volume of buttercream.

🤓 Baking experts – it is almost a dead ringer for crèmeux or an enriched chocolate crème pâtissière (pastry cream), except this is not custard based ie. no eggs.

It has a texture and flavour like chocolate mousse, just a little creamier, as you’d expect from a frosting. It has terrific chocolate flavour from using both melted chocolate and cocoa, and it’s the right brown colour (seriously, it’s a thing: too light suggests lack of chocolate flavour, very dark = grown up bittersweet chocolate).

It is completely smooth, feels indulgent and rich, but in a lighter way, so even a cupcake piled high with frosting doesn’t tip into too-much territory. For context, a typical 3-layer buttercream cake can take around 500g butter and 1 kg icing sugar …….. which is exactly why I keep coming back to this frosting instead, especially for multi-layer cakes!

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Ingredients for Birthday Cake

I’ve written the full recipe for both the cake and frosting in the recipe card below, but there’s also a separate post for each because I have a lot to say about both of them! Here’s the Vanilla Cake, and My Favourite Chocolate Frosting is a new post that I also published today.

1. the vanilla sponge cake

Here’s what you need to make the vanilla cake layers.

• Plain / all purpose flour – Just regular plain flour. Not cake flour (the crumb of the cake isn’t as velvety), not self-raising flour, not gluten-free flour.
• Fresh eggs – Whipped to aerate, these are key to make the cake extraordinarily light and fluffy. You don’t get an eggy flavour. The fresher the egg, the better it whips, the lighter the cake.
• Baking powder – This is the leavening agent to make the cake rise. Do not substitute with baking soda (bi-carb), it doesn’t rise as well.
• Milk, full fat – just plain cow milk. Low fat works as well but rises marginally less. Do not substitute with non dairy milk or buttermilk.
• Sugar – It’s best to use caster / superfine sugar if you can because the finer grains dissolve better in the eggs. But regular / granulated sugar works just fine too – you may just end up with some little brown spots on the base (it’s not a big deal).
• Oil – just 1 tablespoon adds a noticeable hint of extra moistness, especially on Day 4, without weighing down the cake in the slightest. 
• Vanilla extract  – The best you can afford. Imitation will work just fine, but the flavour isn’t as pure or real. Don’t waste your money on vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste – it’s not worth it for cakes (in my opinion).

2. for my favourite chocolate frosting

The details on ingredients are an abridged version of what I’ve included in the standalone My Favourite Chocolate Frosting post. So if there’s any ingredient you’re unsure about or have more questions about, pop over to My Favourite Chocolate Frosting for more information.

• Dark chocolate – Use dark chocolate chips or melts (buttons) from the baking aisle (US: semi-sweet chocolate chips). If using a block, chop it up into small pieces.Other chocolate – Bittersweet/70% cocoa chocolate also works, though the frosting will be slightly darker and have a deeper chocolate flavour. Milk and white chocolate are not suitable for this frosting (they are too soft so the frosting will be looser).
• Thickened cream / heavy cream – Use thickened cream / heavy cream or any whipping cream with 35 – 40% fat (check the label) like this Dairy Farmers one. This frosting will not work with cream less than 35% fat like low-fat cream, or cream that can’t be whipped (like dolloping cream, pouring cream). 🇦🇺 Australia – here are the thickened cream brands I use.
• Dutch processed cocoa powder – This has a richer chocolate flavour and is darker than regular cocoa powder. It’s fine to substitute with regular unsweetened cocoa power instead. The frosting will be a little paler, but I feel like that might appeal to some people. 🙂
• Unsalted butter – At room temperature, so it can be whipped.
• Soft icing sugar (powdered sugar) – This is used to add a little sweetness to the frosting. 🇦🇺 Australia, use soft icing sugar, not pure icing sugar (that one’s for things like royal icing, which sets hard).
• Cream cheese – This is used to create a volume and stability in the frosting as well as a lovely creamy texture. Unlike cream cheese frosting, this frosting does not taste tangy at all, that is not the purpose of cream cheese here.Use block cream cheese, not the spreadable kind that comes in tubs (it’s too soft). If spreadable is all you can get, just be aware that the frosting will be a little softer so while fine for spreading, it’s not as stable for piping tall swirls. You can thicken the frosting using extra icing sugar – just beat it in at the end.

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How to make this Birthday Cake

Make the cake first. Then by the time they have fully cooled, the frosting will also be ready. From start to finish, including cooling time, this will take 3 1/2 hours to make (active time around 1 hour, give or take depending on how fast you can frost cake!).

1. to make the vanilla cake

Once you start making the cake batter, don’t stop until it’s in the oven else the delicate egg bubbles will deflate and your cake won’t rise as well as it should.

1. Whip the eggs and sugar – Beat the eggs with sugar for a whole 7 minutes until thick and glossy, it changes from yellow to white, and tripled in volume (just over double depth in the bowl). The aeration created during this step is key for a soft, fluffy crumb.

2. Gradually add flour – Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Then add into egg mixture in 3 goes, mixing for just 5 seconds on Speed 1 in between. This should make the flour just incorporated – don’t worry if there are some bits not mixed in.
3. Hot melted butter in milk – Use a microwave or stove to heat milk with the butter until it melts. Do this during step 1.

4. Mix some batter into hot milk – Pour the hot milk into a bowl and also add the oil and vanilla (I use the used flour bowl). Then whisk about 1 1/2 cups of the cake batter from Step 2 into the hot milk, whisking well until fully combined. This makes it easier for the hot milk to blend into the batter which helps preserve the bubbles in the batter.ℹ️ We are also tempering the hot milk so it doesn’t cook the egg in the cake batter (tempering = bringing two mixtures to a similar temperature so they combine smoothly without scrambling the eggs).
5. Slowly pour milk mixture into the cake batter over 20 seconds on Speed 1. Scrape down sides of bowls, then mix for 10 seconds on Speed 1 – the batter should now be smooth.

6. Pour into 3 x 20cm / 8″ cake pans lined with parchment/baking paper. 23cm/9″ pans will also work, the layers will just be 25% thinner.
7. Bake for 22 minutes at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced), or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

8. COOL upside down for level cakes (so you have neat, straight layers in a layer cake) on a cooling rack.
9. Fridge 30 minutes – Then cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before frosting. Cold cakes are firmer which makes them much easier to handle and frost cleanly without tearing or shedding crumbs.

2. to make MY FAVOURITE chocolate frosting

This is essentially made like ganache, with cocoa added for a chocolate flavour boost, then whipped with cream cheese to make it fluffy and creamy.

1. Bloom cocoa by mixing hot cream with the cocoa and setting aside for 5 minutes. The cocoa fully hydrates, deepening the chocolate flavour and smoothing out any graininess for a richer, more rounded taste.
2. Melt chocolate – Place the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave in bursts until smooth – 30 seconds on high, stir, then 20 second increments.

3. Chocolate paste – Whisk the bloomed cocoa into the melted chocolate until it’s lump free.
4. Cool for 15 minutes on the counter – it will thicken. Don’t worry if a skin forms on the surface, it will beat out in the next step.

5. Cream butter – In a separate large bowl, beat butter with a handheld mixer until soft and fluffy (about 1 1/2 minutes on high), then beat in the icing sugar. It will become sandy because of the small amount of butter we’re using. Beat it until there are no large lumps of butter (~ 30 seconds).
6. Cream cheese whip – Then add the cream cheese and beat until the sandy bits incorporate into the cream cheese and becomes a smooth mixture, about ~30 seconds on high. Stop beating once the mixture is smooth, don’t try to aerate at this stage (the cream cheese gets loose).

7. Beat in chocolate – Add all the cooled chocolate paste and beat until combined.
8. Refrigerate 2 hours – Cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours until properly fridge-cold (stick the beaters in the bowl). You can leave it in the fridge at this point for as long as you want, limited only by the expiration date of your cream.

9. Fluff frosting – Remove bowl from the fridge. The mixture should be fully cold and quite firm. Pour in the cold cream – this extra bit of cream helps aerate the frosting to create volume. Then beat on high for 1 1/2 minutes or until you have stiff peaks (ie upright Santa hats, not floppy elf hat). The frosting should be beautifully creamy like buttercream but also fluffy like whipped cream – better taste test to check!Note: The colour will be paler than the final colour after the frosting sets – it darkens by a few shades.

3. frosting

The recipe makes enough frosting to sandwich between the layers, frost the top and sides, plus leftover to pipe some decorations.

The vanilla cake recipe I use bakes up almost perfectly level, so there’s usually no need to trim. But if you end up with a slight dome and want perfectly even layers, go ahead and trim it.

1. Sandwich layers – Place a cake layer upside down on a serving platter or cake turntable (upside down = flat surface). Spread with just shy of 1 cup of frosting. Cover with another cake layer upside down, spread with another 1 cup of frosting, then place the final cake layer on, also upside down.
2. Sides and top – Transfer about 1 cup of frosting to a piping bag, then use the rest to frost the top and sides.

3. Pipe decorative swirls on the surface using a star-tip nozzle.
4. Sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles! What is a birthday without sprinkles?? 🎉

So there you have it. The Birthday Cake I dreamed of having as a kid, and as an adult it feels nostalgic and familiar, but special enough to make whoever it’s for feel like the centre of the world. The vanilla cake layers really are special in their own right, and when you put it together with that dreamy chocolate frosting, it is just absolutely heavenly!

But, enough about my dream birthday cake. Tell me what cake feels like a birthday to you! Share, share, everyone wants to know! – Nagi x

PS If you prefer chocolate rather than vanilla cake, use this recipe. 🙂