Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Vanilla Birthday Cake
Makes one (9-inch cake).
This is a showstopper dessert — a classic vanilla birthday cake with chocolate frosting. If there’s one ingredient I recommend buying for this, it’s cake flour. It has less protein and therefore less gluten than all-purpose flour, so it makes for an airy, light cake. Though all-purpose flour works well too, it will be a bit denser.
Two pieces of equipment that are helpful for this recipe are 2 (9-inch) cake pans and a small off-set spatula. If you don’t have them, you can use a 9 x 13-inch baking dish (and make a rectangular sheet cake instead or a layer cake). And if you don’t have an off-set spatula, a butter knife works for frosting, too.
Ingredients:
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces, plus more to butter the pan
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour (or all-purpose)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Chocolate frosting, softened at room temperature (recipe below)
Colorful sprinkles or nonpareils
Steps:
1. Arrange a racks in the center of the oven and heat it to 350°F.
2. Trace the bottom of 2 (9-inch) cake pans onto parchment paper, and cut out the circles with scissors. Rub the inside of the cake pans generously with butter. Place the paper circles on the bottom of the pans and butter the paper; set aside.
3. Make the batter: In a 2-cup or larger liquid measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla; set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
5. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar. Using an electric or stand mixer, start at low speed to combine, then gradually increase to high speed. Beat on high until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. One at a time, beat in the eggs and egg yolks. Beat the batter at high speed until it’s almost doubled in size and very light and fluffy, another 3 minutes, stopping once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
6. With the mixer on low, gently beat in one-third of the flour mixture until almost combined, then add half of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat with the remaining flour and buttermilk until everything is combined and no lumps remain.
7. Divide the cake batter equally among the 2 cake pans. Bake in the oven, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking, until golden brown, the cakes pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes.
8. Let cook for 5 minutes on a trivet or cooling rack. Run a table knife along the inside edges of each cake pan. Turn the pans over onto a cooling rack, and lift the pans up. Remove the parchment paper, and let the cakes completely cool before frosting them.
9 Assemble the cake: Once cakes are cooled, transfer one cake, top-side up, to a large plate. Use an offset spatula to spread frosting onto the top of the first layer of cake. Place the second layer of cake, bottom-side up, on top of the first.
10. Using an offset spatula or a butter knife, apply a thin layer of frosting all over the cake, making sure to cover the whole cake. Chill the cake for 30 minutes, keeping the frosting out at room temperature.
11. Remove the cake from the fridge and, give it another coat of frosting (saving some frosting for decorations), creating swirls, lines or smooth edges. Use a pastry bag, if you choose, to pipe out different designs. Top with sprinkles or nonpareils. Loosely adapted from Alison Roman for “The New York Times.”
NOTE: If you don’t have buttermilk, you can combine 1 cup whole milk with 2 1/2 tablespoons
of distilled white vinegar, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. Let sit for 5 minutes to curdle, then
proceed with the recipe.
Chocolate Frosting
Makes enough frosting to frost and decorate one (2-layer) 9-inch cake.
Ingredients:
12 ounces (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) sour cream, at room temperature
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Steps:
1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl at 20-second intervals until melted, stirring between each 20 seconds, or melt it using a double boiler (a bowl set over a pot of barely simmering water on the stove, but not touching the water), stirring often until melted.
2. Let the chocolate cool to room temperature, then whisk in the room-temperature sour cream, 1/4 cup at a time, until combined; set aside.
3. In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the softened butter, confectioner’s sugar, and salt on the lowest speed. Once combined, gradually increase the speed to high and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. On low speed, add the vanilla and then slowly add in the chocolate mixture until smooth. Increase the speed to high and beat until very fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Loosely adapted from Alison Roman for “The New York Times.”