This is one of my top favorite yellow cake recipes. It uses the two-stage method, which is where you mix the dry ingredients first, coat with fat, then add the eggs and liquid in two stages. It also goes by the name "reverse creaming method", but there's no real creaming involved.
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The cake is adapted from one in Cook's Illustrated. I've been making it for years with different frostings and am loyal to none. The cake in this photo just has a basic cocoa powder frosting similar to the recipe from the Hershey's cocoa can, and I probably should have made 1 ½ times for photo purposes. That cake so tall and thick that there's a high ratio of cake to frosting.
Two Stage Method
While I'm not loyal to one particular frosting, I really do like this cake and how it calls for the two stage method. It always produces cake with a moist fine crumb, and the cake never comes out too dense. I do tend to get air holes with this one, so I try to tap the cake pans before baking to help with that, but that aside it's a very moist cake.
Yellow Cake Flavoring and Color
Adding a little yellow cake flavoring enhances not only flavor, adds some yellow color. Depending on how yellow your butter is (Land o' Lakes tends to be lighter in color), whether or not you use buttermilk or powder and how much yellow flavoring you use, your cake may be a lighter or darker shade of yellow. Here's an older picture. I made this cake with a full teaspoon of the cake batter flavor and used actual buttermilk, whereas in the more recent photo above I only used ½ teaspoon of cake batter flavor and buttermilk powder. I think the cake is better when made with actual buttermilk
Stand Mixer
There are a lot of good yellow cake recipes that you can make with just a bowl and a spoon, but this is not one of them. You need some sort of electric mixer, but preferably a stand mixer with a paddle and a whisk attachment. Stand mixers come in all price ranges now. I held off buying one for years thinking I could get by with a handheld, but when I finally did get a stand mixer, my baking improved tenfold. Whatever model you buy, make sure you get yourself two bowls. That was another mistake I made -- thinking it would be fine to have just one.
Yellow Cake Tips
- Use cake flour. Cake flour weighs about 4 oz/114 grams per cup and all-purpose flour weighs 125 to 140 grams, so if you use 3 cups of all-purpose flour you'll be using way too much flour. Plus cake flour has less protein so you can beat it more without toughening up the gluten strands. That, and it's usually bleached so you get a softer cake.
- Cake Batter Flavor is a fun addition. It makes the batter yellow and adds that little something.
- Egg yolks add a bit of color and give the crumb a softer less crumbly texture.
- Butter is expensive, so if you want to conserve butter you can make the cake with a stick of butter (114 grams) and a half cup (96 grams) shortening.
- Buttermilk adds flavor and moisture, but you can substitute "homemade buttermilk" by mixing milk with lemon juice. You can also use powdered buttermilk. If using powdered buttermilk, mix the powder with the dry ingredients and use the equivalent water.
Recipe
Yellow Cake With Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract or use 2 teaspoons vanilla and a half teaspoon of yellow cake batter flavor
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk, room temperature (280 grams)
- 3 cups cake flour (335 grams)
- 2 cups granulated sugar (395 grams)
- 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened or you can use half shortening and half butter (230 grams) If using shortening, use 114 grams of butter and 96 grams shortening
Chocolate Frosting
- 1 stick salted butter, softened (114 grams)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, plus a pinch more as needed
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (320 grams)
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder, sifted
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease and flour two 9x2-inch round pans.
- Whisk the eggs, yolks, extracts and ¼ cup of the milk in a medium size bowl.
- In a stand mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Attach the paddle to the mixer and mix the flour mixture on low until everything is evenly combined.
- Add softened butter (and shortening if you are using the combo) to the flour mixture and beat on a low speed with the paddle until the butter coats flour.
- With the mixer still going on a fairly low speed, drizzle in the 1 cup of milk.
- Increase the mixer speed to medium and gradually add the egg mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl. Once the egg mixture is fully incorporated, bump up the mixer speed to medium high and beat for 30 seconds or until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the pans (about 700 grams in each pan) and spread evenly.
- To disperse the air bubble somewhat (and prevent big ones) you can tap the cake pans gently on the counter. The goal is not to let out air, but just to distribute the air more evenly through the batter.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until cakes spring back when touched. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan, then invert and let cool completely.
Chocolate Frosting
- Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, beat the stick of butter until creamy.
- Add 1 cup of the confectioners' sugar and the salt and beat until creamy, then add remaining sugar and about half the milk, beating and scraping side of the bowl as needed, until sugar is incorporated but mixture is still lumpy.
- Add the cocoa powder and mix on low, then add remaining milk, all the while mixing and scraping the bowl. Add the vanilla. Beat until smooth and fluffy.
- Frost the cake!
Anna says
Thanks for making it and leaving a comment! This is my favorite yellow cake.
Ger - BK says
Thank you for sharing this lovely recipe; what a great cake it made. The yellow cake was tender and delicious, with a great crumb. The chocolate frosting was perfect, just the way we like it; rich, silky and velvety. BK
Anna says
Heidi, thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review. Can't wait to see your photos!
Heidi says
Hi Anna,
I made this yellow cake today. I didn't use your icing recipe though - I made a simple chocolate icing made with butter, shortening, cocoa, whole milk, vanilla and a bit of salt. As for the cake, I didn't have that particular extract you called for so I used vanilla extract and butter extract. I made 1.5 recipes because I wanted to make a 9 inch triple layer cake. 1.5 recipes made the perfect amount of batter for that. The cake is delicious and I especially like that it has a very fine velvety crumb. I sifted my cake flour (with the baking powder & salt) before I added the butter. I think the sifting helped make the fine crumb. Oh, and I used half butter and half shortening like you suggested. This is probably the best from scratch yellow cake I've made before. I've made many that have a much coarser crumb - which I don't like. I will try and post my results on my blog soon. I took some pics but haven't made an effort to download them yet. My blog is VERY out of date. I bake constantly but just never make the effort to post the results! I don't know how you find the time to keep yours so updated. I'm always checking your blog to read about your latest creations!
T. Martin says
I wish virtual reality were an accessible possiblity so I could reach through the computer and have that slice of cake...
Anna says
Kim, yellow cake can be boring, but this one is not -- especially with the frosting. I should add that I use natural as opposed to Dutch for this one.
Karen, you've given me an idea. I might try to make this one as a marble cake.
Christine from Cook the Story says
A classic favorite can't be beat! This looks really good!
Karen Schmidt-Dill says
Hmmm, sounds pretty good. Guess I had burnt out on yellow cakes and chocolate frosting. Box mix cake and butter cream chocolate just seems so ordinary. BUT, new flavor, made from scratch WITH buttermilk, and then frosting with sourcream in.... Shoot, I should have looked at this one 2 days ago. LOL Made cupcakes for a funeral at my church for MONDAY. One batch was pineapple and white cake mix, no eggs, oil, water. The other batch was Joy of Baking Choc. Marble Loaf Cake/bread. (House sure smelled good!)
Kim F says
Gosh, yellow cake and chocolate frosting!!!! This used to be my very favorite cake/frosting combination! I have not had it so many years, I kind of forgot all about it. Might just have to make this... cupcakes would be perfect!
Anna says
Hi Mela,
It's great as cupcakes!
Mela says
Hi Anna, thanks for posting this Yellow Cake, looks like a keeper to me. I'll try to find the McCormick Vanilla Butter and Nut Extract in our groceries, I hope they have it. The Chocolate Frosting is my husband's favorite! Do you think, the cake recipe will also be good to make into cupcakes? Thanks.