Yellow Butter Cake & Chocolate Fudge Frosting

A yellow butter cake – with a twist that keeps it soft! Includes a delicious chocolate fudge frosting recipe. Perfect for any birthday, party, or special occasion!

Yellow Butter Cake & Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Few combinations are better than Yellow Butter Cake & Chocolate Fudge Frosting! The thing is, and I think I’ve mentioned it in a different recipe, that I don’t actually prefer to make butter cakes. My favorite cakes are usually oil based, or more oil than butter. But butter cakes are all the rage and I do occasionally like to enjoy them. So here’s my take on an improved Yellow Butter Cake & a Chocolate Fudge Frosting recipe.

Cake and layers

When it comes to making cakes and frostings you’ll often hear or read that you should “cream” one or several ingredients together. The creaming process allows for more air and fluffiness in your cake. In this recipe, you will be using a reverse creaming method. This will ensure tenderness and evenness to the crumb of your cake.

To reverse cream, you want to mix all of your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in a large bowl. Mix your buttermilk, eggs, egg yolk, extract, and oil into a medium bowl and set aside.

In the bowl with the dry ingredients, add in your room temperature butter a few tablespoons at a time and mix thoroughly before adding more. The final mixture should look like wet sand. Add the liquid in two halves. Add the batter to your cake pans and bake. This recipe will bake either 3 6 inch pans or 2 8 inch pans.

Reverse Cream Batter

The chocolate fudge frosting recipe is half buttercream and half room temperature ganache. It’s silky and just sweet enough with a rich chocolate flavor.

Frosting

Make each and whip together for the final fudge frosting! Use some milk to adjust the consistency of your frosting. I made mine a little thicker, with less milk because I needed to cake to sit through a 40 minute Texas summer car ride!

Layer cake

Frost and stack your cake once the cake layers cool fully.

Add sprinkles or any decorations to spruce up the cake!

Yellow Butter Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting

Yellow Butter Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting

A yellow butter cake – with a twist! Includes a delicious chocolate fudge frosting recipe. Perfect for any birthday, party, or special occasion!
Prep Time25 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12 -16 people
Calories: 350kcal

Equipment

  • 3, 6-inch round cake pans or 2, 8-inch round cake pans

Ingredients

Yellow Butter Cake

  • 1⅓ Cup All Purpose Flour
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • tsp Baking Powder
  • tsp Kosher Salt
  • ½ Cup Unsalted Butter, room temp, cubed
  • 1 Cup Buttermilk
  • 2 Eggs, large
  • 1 Egg Yolk
  • tsp Vanilla Extract, or bean paste
  • ¼ Cup Vegetable Oil

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

  • ¼ Cup Unsalted Butter, softened
  • ¼+⅛ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • Tbsp Milk maybe more or less
  • Cup Powdered Sugar maybe more or less
  • tsp Kosher Salt
  • ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 4 ounces Semi Sweet Chocolate
  • 4 ounces Heavy Cream

Instructions

Yellow Butter Cake

  • Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking pans with parchment and nonstick spray
  • In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
  • In a separate bowl, thoroughly whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and vegetable oil.
  • In the bowl with the dry ingredients, toss in the butter a few cubes at a time while beating thoroughly. Once all the butter is incorporated it should look like damp sand.
  • Gradually add in the liquid until the batter is fluffy and fully incorporated.
  • Split the batter evenly between your baking tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean.
  • Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan and let cool fully before frosting.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

  • Warm the heavy cream until medium heat and pour over roughly chopped semi sweet chocolate. Let sit for a while and then mix until glossy. This is the process of making chocolate ganache. Let cool in the fridge.
  • Beat the softened butter until fluffy.
  • Add in the cocoa powder, half of the powdered sugar, and kosher salt and mix until fully combined.
  • Add in half of the milk, the vanilla extract and the rest of the powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.
  • Once the ganache is cool, add it into the frosting and beat until fully combined.
  • At this stage, add more powdered sugar or milk depending on the consistency of frosting you want.
  • Frost the cake to your desired thickness and enjoy!
  • I recommend letting the cake sit with the frosting for at least an hour before serving.

2 Bite S’mores Cups

Made with puff pastry, ganache, and marshmallows. These 2 Bite S’mores Cups have the perfect balance between semi sweet chocolate and browned and baked marshmallows. Can be made before a party and served crunchy and gooey!

Top Level 2 Bite S'mores Cups

S’mores are one of my most favorite desserts in the whole world. But I don’t always have access to a charcoal grill or a fire pit! I wanted to make a way I could eat s’mores more regularly and maybe even up the flavor of the treat. Enter 2 Bite S’mores Cups.

The recipe utilizes puff pastry and homemade chocolate ganache.

There’s a simple order to making this recipe, you want to make the ganache while the pastry sheets are thawing and then prep the pastry sheets while the ganache is resting.

Take the puff pastry out of the freezer and set aside to thaw. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and put into a bowl (if using a chocolate bar) or place the chocolate chips in a bowl. In a small saucepan warm up the heavy cream to a low simmer. Let it warm up thoroughly but don’t let it boil. Take off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let the mixture rest before you stir.

chocolate ganache
cream resting over the ganache

Cut the puff pastry into 3 x 3 squares and then flatten them out with either the palm of your hand or with a rolling pin. Spray mini cup cake tins with non stick spray and line each cup with the pastry pieces.

puff pastry 2 bite s'mores cups

Refrigerate your pastry cups while you finish the ganache. The ganache will start off chunky but with constant stirring, it will become silky and smooth. Don’t give up!

silky ganache

Put the ganache aside and bake the puff pastry in a 400 degree preheated oven for 14 – 15 minutes.

baked pastry

They’re going to puff up and lose a bit of their cup shape.

Use a 1 tbsp measuring cup to squish down the pastry so it retains its cup shape.

Fill the pastry with about 2 to 3 teaspoons of the ganache. From here there are few options. You can either use full size marshmallows or cut them in half. Or, you can use mini marshmallows. For these photos, I made some with full size marshmallows and some with them cut in half.

Full size marshmallows
half marshmallows

Whether or not you do full or half size, they’re going to puff like crazy as they bake. They only need to be in the 400 degree oven for about 3 minutes.

As soon as they come out of the oven they’re going to sink as they cool.

The photo below shows how the full size and half size look after cooling.

2 Bite S'mores Cups

Use a butter knife or offset spatula to help you remove the cups after they cool. It will be a little tricky and sticky but the cooking spray will help.

2 Bite S'mores Cups

2 Bite S’mores Cups can be made a day ahead of time and can be stored in an airtight container after fully cooling. They may need to be toasted right before eating if they pastry is a little soggy. Enjoy!

2 Bite S’mores Cups

Made with puff pastry, ganache, and marshmallows. These 2 Bite S'mores Cups have the perfect balance between semi sweet chocolate and browned and baked marshmallows. Can be made before a party and served crunchy and gooey!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 24 Cups
Calories: 125kcal

Equipment

  • mini cup cake tins

Ingredients

Chocolate Ganache

  • 4 ounces Semi Sweet Baking Chocolate bar or chips
  • 4 ounces Heavy Cream

S'mores Cups

  • 2 Sheets Puff Pastry
  • 24 Marshmallows regular sized, or a bag of mini marshmallows

Instructions

Chocolate Ganache

  • Heat up the heavy cream in a small sauce pan until warmed.
  • Pour the warm heavy cream over a bowl of chopped semi sweet chocolate or chips. Let sit for a few minutes.
  • After a few minutes, stir the mixture. It will go from a chunky thick mixture to a glossy silky mixture. Set aside while you prepare the puff pastry.

2 Bite S'mores Cup

  • Preheat the oven to 400°.
  • Unwrap the thawed puff pastry and cut 3 x 3 inch squares. Flatten the puff pastry with your hands or with a rolling pin. You'll want 24 of these squares.
  • Spray the mini cupcake tins with a non stick spray (this is very important) and don't wipe the spray off of the flat top of the pans.
  • Place each square of the puff pastry in a mini cupcake slot and tuck into the slot. It's okay for the edges of the pastry to stick out.
  • If you have two tins, place the first one in the fridge while you prep the second one. If you have one tin, place in the fridge for 10 minutes after it's prepped.
  • After they chill, bake the pastry cups for 15 minutes at 400°.
  • Remove them from the oven and let them cool in the pan for a few minutes.
  • Take a tablespoon measurer and squish down the center of the pastry. Be gentle, you don't want to break or crush the pastry.
  • Fill each cup with about 2 tespoons of the chocolate ganace.
  • If you want an overflowing, gooey s'mores cup then place one whole marshmallow standing on top of the ganache. You can cut the marshmallow in half if you want. (or use a spoonful of minimarshmallows)
  • Bake in the 400° oven for about 3 minutes. The marshmallow will rise a lot and then fall as they cool.
  • Let cool for at least 5 minutes before you try to remove them from the tins.
  • Take a butter knife of small offset spatula to help you scoop the cups out of tin. Be gentle!
  • Storage: place in an airtight container and enjoy within a day or two of baking. Refrigerate if you want to store longer and toast before you eat.
  • If you happen to have any ganache left over you can store it in the freezer until next use!