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 with Chocolate Fudge Frosting
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.