Southern Yellow Cake Recipe with Chocolate Frosting - Restless Chipotle (2024)

Whether you're celebrating a special occasion or simply craving a sweet treat, this delightful cake is the ultimate comfort food! It brings smiles to faces and fill hearts with happiness.

So grab your apron, preheat that oven, and let's get baking!

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❤️ Why you'll love it

• Just as quick as a box mix, but so much tastier
• Easy cake to make without any special baking skills, tools, or ingredients
• The chocolate icing is good enough to lick straight off of the spatula

This homemade yellow cake recipe has a buttery, tender crumb and tastes just like the classic treat you loved as a kid.

It's the perfect cake for special occasions, family birthday parties, and no occasion at all—cake makes any boring day feel like a celebration!

📖Variations

• Ditch the cake layers and opt for a yellow sheet cake! Pour all of the batter into a 13x9-inch pan. The baking time will be about the same.
• Switch up the style and make cupcakes by portioning the cake batter into a cupcake tin. Start checking for doneness after about 15 minutes.
• We love to add about one tablespoon of lemon or orange zest to the batter. It gives the vanilla cake a delicate, dreamy citrus flavor.
• It's subtle, but feel free to omit the almond extract if you don't like it. Just use a touch more vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste, instead.
• This recipe makes the perfect birthday cake. Stir some colorful sprinkles into the batter before baking and you'll have a homemade funfetti cake!
• The chocolate buttercream frosting is supreme—you have to try it! This classic yellow cake recipe is tasty with any frosting, so feel free to use whatever. Irish Cream Whipped Frosting would be great!

🥫 How to store leftovers

Homemade cakes don't have preservatives like store-bought yellow cake mix. This means your delicious dessert won't keep as long.

That shouldn't be an issue if your household is anything like mine.

Store the leftovers at room temperature. Keep them on a serving plate with a cover or sealed with plastic wrap.

Enjoy within two days.

Want your from-scratch cake to last a little longer?

Tightly wrap it (whole or slices) in one layer of plastic wrap, then one layer of aluminum foil. Freeze for one month, thawing at room temperature before digging in.

The homemade chocolate frosting makes enough for the whole cake. If you have some leftover, spoon it into an airtight container.

It'll keep for about a week. Use it on another cake, or dip sliced fruit and shortbread cookies into it!

💭 Things to know

Expert Tip: Use room temperature ingredients for best results! This ensures that your buttery cake comes out fluffy and perfectly moist.

• Line your pans with parchment paper cut into circles for a guarantee your cakes won't stick. You still need to butter and flour the parchment and the sides of the cake pans.
• Cream the butter and sugar until it's fluffy and lighter in color. It'll take about three or four minutes. Most home cooks stop too soon.
• When adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the wet ingredients, use the low speed of your electric mixer, or mix it all together by hand.
• Don't remove the cakes from the pans when they're piping hot. Instead, let the cakes cool for 5 minutes. They won't tear when you flip 'em out.
• Make sure the cake cools completely before you add frosting. Wire cooling racks speed up the process and prevent soggy layers.

👩‍🍳 FAQs

• Vintage Buttermilk Cake is called "white velvet" for good reason. It's so soft and tender and tastes fabulous with tangy cream cheese frosting.
• Topped with chocolate fudge frosting, this classic Vanilla Layer Cake is super moist and one of my easier recipes—even if you don't bake much!
• Want an even easier option? Strawberry Angel Food Cake is a no-bake treat, perfect for when you're craving a classic dessert but don't have time to spare.

🍽️ Serve with...

• Homemade Ice Cream—what's better than old-fashioned yellow cake served a la mode? Nothing, the answer is nothing!
• Boston Cream Poke Cake—make the yellow cake in a sheet pan and use it as a base for this unique and fun poke-style dessert!

📞 The last word

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

First published September 21, 2007. Last updated June 23, 2023.

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