Happy Birthday to you, and you, and you over there, and your brother, and your brother’s son, and your sister’s cousin. And your neighbor that just turned 30. And your favorite blogger who turns 35 (huh!?) this year (that’s me). And your fiancé, Happy Birthday to that human, too.
I made us a go-to, vanilla buttermilk cake with the very best chocolate buttercream frosting. (Proof that it’s the best chocolate buttercream provided here). We’ve got 360 days and likely a mega amount of birthdays to celebrate with friends and family.
This cake is super versatile. It makes for a happy and humble single layer 9×13-inch cake, or a 2 layer 9-inch cake, or about 2 dozen cupcakes!
There are three secrets to a great birthday cake:
- Make it homemade. Not fancy-homemade. Just homemade. A single layer buttermilk cake in a glass baking dish? That’s lovely.
- Sprinkles. It’s a party. Even if people ‘hate’ their birthdays, they don’t hate cake and they don’t hate sprinkles. If they do… just get them a kitten and a puppy and throw confetti in the air and run away quickly.
- Always serve birthday cake with a greeting card. ‘I’m not a card person’ is a thing people say but a birthday is not a birthday without a proper, folded paper well-wishing.
Happy Birthday to you and yours, us and ours, them and theirs.
Simple, fool-proof (not that any of us are fools), buttermilk cake. Flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Butter creamed with sugar and eggs. Vanilla extract and buttermilk. It’s so easy. If you put on some really good music, this is as painless and far more delicious than mixing together a boxed cake mix.
Fluffy butter creamed with sugar.
Eggs are added, beating for 1 minute between each egg addition.
The creamy yolks will make the cake golden yellow.
Dry ingredients whisked with leavening and salt is added to the egg and butter mixture.
It’s about to be cake!
Into the cake pans. A single layer 9×13-inch sheet cake or two round cake pans will do!
Baked to golden.
While the cake bakes, I make The Best Chocolate Buttercream. It’s creamy and fluffy and exactly what you want on top of a birthday treat.
Cooled, tender cake. Fluffy chocolate frosting. Birthday letters. Sprinkles. You’re so thoughtful. I hope people tell you that often.
You’ve done it – a perfectly perfect birthday cake
Top withRainbow birthday candles and a festive sprinkle blend and it’s a very happy birthday indeed!
PrintEverybody’s Birthday Cake
A perfectly classic yellow birthday cake with creamy chocolate buttercream frosting. Makes 1 9×13-inch sheet cake or 2 9-inch layers, or about 24 cupcakes. For a layer cakes and generously frosted cupcakes – double the frosting recipe below.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
For the Chocolate Buttercream
- (double the frosting recipe for a layer cake of generously frosted cupcakes)
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1/3 cup Rich Chocolate Ovaltine powder
Instructions
- To make the cake, place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9×13-inch cake pan or 2 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (you can also use a large bowl and electric hand beaters) cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition. Beat in vanilla extract.
- In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients all at once to the butter and egg mixture and beat on low until just combined. Add the buttermilk and beat on low for 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes more.
- Pour batter into prepared pan or pans. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until cooked through and the top springs back lightly when touch. Test the cake by inserted a skewer into the center of the cake. Cake is done when just a few crumbs are left on the skewer.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan completely before frosting. If making a layered round cake, remove the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely. Let cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, cream together butter, cocoa powder and salt. Butter mixture will be very thick. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add powdered sugar. Turn mixer on low and mix in powdered sugar while adding milk and vanilla extract. As the sugar incorporates, raise the speed of the mixer to beat the frosting. Beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
- In a 2 cup measuring glass, stir together heavy cream and Ovaltine. Turn mixer speed to medium and pour half of the cream mixture into frosting in a slow, steady stream. Stop the mister scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add remaining cream mixture or until you’ve reached your desired consistency. Beat until soft and creamy, about 1 minute.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer. Bring to room temperature before frosting cakes and cupcakes.
- Slather cake generously with frosting. Decorate and sing happy birthday!
Stacy
This cake is my two favourite things: delicious and easy! I made it while also doing some fall hot water bath canning 30lbs of green tomato relish and did not make any errors which is both a miracle and a testament to how easy this cake is to make. The best part was that all the cake eaters LOVED it – particularly the birthday boy. As another posted noted, I only made one batch of icing and found it covered my 8inch layer cake perfectly. Thanks for a great cake Joy, I will be returning to it often.
Hannah
This frosting is amaaaaazing. My partner doesn’t love chocolate and he couldn’t stop eating it. I halved the amount of sugar (I just added it to taste) and it was perfect. Thanks for another awesome recipe!
★★★★★
Diane
Hi Joy
Everybody loved Everybody’s Birthday Cake!
I added a thin layer of raspberry jam to a smaller amount of frosting between the cake layers.
The single frosting recipe was the right amount for complete cake coverage.
BTW: A couple of typos in the instructions of steps 3 (and and) & 9 (mister) but no big deal in terms of baking and enjoying a fantastic birthday cake!
★★★★★
Lisa
Haven’t yet tasted the cake, but wondering if 3 minutes mixing on medium was way too long.
I don’t know much about baking, but this was very curious to me as it really seemed I was beating the batter to death. And sure enough, my cakes were maybe 3/4″ of an inch high. Someone in the comments also mentioned about the butter to sugar ratio seeming off, wondering if that also had something to do with my flat cakes, keeping it from fully creaming and being more sand consistency. I have no idea. This recipe is successful for a lot of people. What did I do wrong if followed the recipe exactly?
joythebaker
Hhmmm Lisa… I’m so sorry to hear you struggled with this cake! That’s super frustrating I know. I don’t think the mixing time was off. You really do want to beat the eggs in well to help aerate the batter. Will check on the sugar now but please feel free to email me with any further problems. joy@joythebaker.com
Moira Martin
A lovely cake to make,icing yummy, made it for my grandson’s birthday.
Thank you.
★★★★★
Kathryn
People ask me why I would bake a cake on my birthday with the undertone of “shouldn’t someone be making cake for you?”
No. Know why?
Because this cake screams birthday cake, is always perfect and is delicious at any age.
Sara
It’s been a difficult week, and I just finished making this cake for a friend. Thank you, Joy, for bringing joy into the hard days with sweet recipes.
Elizabeth
I made this cake last weekend for my friend’s birthday! I totally agree about the frosting—it is sooo delicious. Sweet but not cloyingly so, with great layers of flavor from the Ovaltine. I will definitely use it for all my chocolate frosting needs. However, the cake was a little tough and flavorless. I was surprised that the cake recipe had so much mixing towards the end after the buttermilk is added. 3 minutes on medium just seems like to much beating, and I’m worried that the gluten was activated too much and resulted in a tough cake. The raw batter tasted delicious, but I didn’t taste as much flavor after it was baked. The frosting is so good that it almost doesn’t matter, but I just expected a more flavorful cake. Regardless, I love your work, Joy!
★★★★
Christine Fox
Can I use cultured buttermilk for this recipe?
joythebaker
Yes!
The Baking ChocolaTess
Love the recipe!
Thank You so much for sharing your blog with us. Keep sharing!
★★★★★
Jacob Lewis
Awesome post!
This one is the best cake recipes for any function. Thank you for sharing with us.
Heather
I just came to get the recipe to make this for my 2-year-old’s birthday (I made it last year for his first birthday, too), but now the recipe is gone? What happened???
Stephanie
I’m excited to try this cake for a birthday party next weekend, especially after reading all the comments. If I do the layered cake in two pans, do I bake for the same length of time? Also, would replacing the ovaltine with instant coffee be a bad idea? Thank you!