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Yellow Cake with Fudge Icing

That right from the box yellow cake perfection with classic Duncan Hines inspired fudge icing, but you made it at home so GO YOU! P.S. Listing the brands because these are my tried and true kitchen favorites, they are not required. The only thing that is required is the King Arthur Flour because in my experience, it is the most amazing home baker flour on the market.

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword birthday cake, yellow cake
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

For the Cake

  • 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour sifted
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp Clabber Girl baking powder
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 TBSP Nielsen Massey Vanilla Extract
  • 1/2 cup organic whole milk
  • 2 TBSP unsalted butter cut into pats
  • 1/6 cup organic canola oil

For the Chocolate Fudge Icing

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup Belgian cocoa powder sifted (I like Cocoa Metro)
  • 3+ cups powdered sugar sifted
  • 1/3 + cups whole milk
  • 3/4 TBSP Nielsen Massey Vanilla Extract
  • 1 pinch kosher salt

Instructions

For the Birthday Cake

  1. Preheat oven to 325°F with a rack in the center of the oven. If using the little spring form pans, spray with baking pam to keep the cakes from sticking.

  2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

  3. In a large stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until light gold colored and thickened. Should take about 2 minutes at medium high speed. DO NOT OVER BEAT.

  4. Turn the speed down low and slowly add the dry mixture. Mix just enough to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then mix again briefly.

  5. In a saucepan over medium heat, simmer the milk. Remove pan from heat and add butter and oil, stirring until butter has melted.

  6. Slowly mix the hot milk-butter-oil mixture into the batter, stirring on low speed until everything is well combined.

  7. Divide the batter between the mini spring form pans so that it comes to 3/4's of the way to the top. If there is extra batter, fill a ramekin or a cupcake mold with the batter and enjoy later.

  8. Bake for approximately 25-28 minutes. You want the top of the cakes to be golden honey in color and when a toothpick is inserted for it to come out clean.

  9. Once cooked, remove from oven, set on a cooling rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing from springform pans.

  10. Remove from springform pans and let cool completely (about 30 minutes) before frosting.

For the Chocolate Icing

  1. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until lumps are dissolved, will be a thick and tacky mass.

  3. Alternate adding 1/4 of the milk and 1/4 of the powdered sugar until all of the milk is added and most of the powdered sugar. The consistency needs to be like thick pancake batter and stick to the back of a spoon. Once consistency is reached, remove from heat.

  4. Stir in the vanilla extract.

  5. When the frosting is still warm, frost your completely cool cakes. If stacking your cakes, put a dollop of frosting on the bottom of the base layer to help the cake stick to your surface to frost.

  6. If the frosting starts to harden as you work, plop it over the oven for a moment to reheat it.

  7. Moving quickly, frost your cake and decorate to your liking. Since the cakes are completely cool once you assemble your cake, no need to wait anytime to eat it.

Recipe Notes

As I said above, this recipe does not need the exact brands I use, they're just listed because they are the brands I love to use in my kitchen and I always find that the quality is one that I can continuously trust.