Chocolate birthday cake

Chocolate birthday cake

We used colourful candles rather than artificial sweets to brighten up this tasty birthday cake

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 12

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

Cook 25 mins

Freezable

Un-iced

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 18 x 28cm cake tin or tray. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl; beat together with electric hand beaters until light and fluffy. add the eggs a little at a time, beating well between each addition.
  2. Sieve the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl, then tip in any bran left in the sieve. Pour in the natural yogurt. Stir everything to a smooth mixture and spoon into the prepared tin. Bake for 20-25 mins until just firm and shrinking away from the sides of the tin. Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
  3. For the icing, sieve the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl, then pour in the butter and 2 tbsp just-boiled water. Stir together to a smooth, spreadable consistency. if it's too stiff, very carefully add a little more boiling water, drop by drop.
  4. Spread the icing over the top of the cake, using a palette knife dipped in hot water. Will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
  5. Melt the chocolates in three different bowls in the microwave on High for 1 min or over a pan of simmering water. Spoon the melted chocolates into three plastic disposable piping bags. Snip the ends off and pipe 12 simple shapes on top of the cake. Leave to set. Just before serving, cut the cake into 12 squares and push in the candles.
Try

Want some more inspiration?

Check out our chocolate cake collection for lots more tempting ideas.

Per serving

432 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 65g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 10g, fibre 3g, sugar 51g, salt 0.41 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, July 2007.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 141-150

  • Binder photo Isabella

    07 May 2012

    Isabella commented on this recipe

    I made this cake for mother's day and everybody enjoyed delicious! But I confess I had some doubts: the coverage needed much more water than the recipe demanded, the coverage was difficult to extend and much thicker than it seemed in the picture. Also did not find self raising wholemeal flour and had to use self raising white flour. Can you tell me how much I would have to use of baking powder in wholemeal flour? Oh, very well and resulted in a square 20x20cm.

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  • Binder photo Isabella

    07 May 2012

    Isabella rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo Julie Bahrain

    27 June 2012

    Julie Bahrain rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Not chocolately enough for us! I agree that as quite plain cake it would be suitable for young children. Made in a 7"x7" square tin so it was deep and I had to cook it for twice the amount of time. I found the icing needed a fair bit more water than specified. Overall a pleasant, easy to make cake but nothing spectacular.

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  • Binder photo SAMSON111

    01 July 2012

    SAMSON111 rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • Binder photo Abbie

    19 July 2012

    Abbie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    wonderful however i dont use golden caster sugar or wholemeal flour but i did a bakeoff at school using this recipe and i came 2nd and got 10 out of 10 for taste cant get better than that i think its the yogurt which makes it so delicious now going to be making it for my teacher as its last day of term

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  • Binder photo Minty_Chops

    02 September 2012

    Minty_Chops rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    as a bit of a disaster in the kitchen I find simple - idiot proof recipes hard to come by and was relieved to come accross this easy recipe to make my sons birthday cake this year. He was so pleased and surprised he asked if I had brought it! Thumbs up from me. Completely dummy proof :)

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  • Binder photo Julia

    01 November 2012

    Julia rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Great cake. My son has requested this cake for his birthday for the last 3 years! Always goes down a treat. The wholemeal flour gives a good texture.

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  • Binder photo Sir Humph

    10 December 2012

    Sir Humph commented on this recipe

    Gorgeous cake. Light and very tasty. Make it even more choctastic by chopping up a bar of dark choc (I used Green & Black's 85%) and adding that to the mix plus a couple of tablespoons of Cointreau. Yummmmmmmmmmm !

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  • Binder photo allyw97

    19 February 2013

    allyw97 commented on this recipe

    Could you use double cream instead of natural yogurt?

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  • Binder photo donna

    21 February 2013

    donna commented on this recipe

    I'm made this tonight, smelt lovely, followed recipe, cake has sunk in the middle, don't know what went wrong

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Serves 12

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 20 mins

Cook time

Cook 25 mins

Freezable

Un-iced

Make a wish

Ingredients

  • 140g butter , plus extra for the tin
  • 175g golden caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 225g self-raising wholemeal flour
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 250g natural yogurt

TO DECORATE

  • 300g golden icing sugar , sieved
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder , sieved
  • 1 tbsp butter , melted
  • 3-4 tbsp boiling water
  • 50g each white, plain and milk chocolate , broken into squares
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Per serving

432 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 65g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 10g, fibre 3g, sugar 51g, salt 0.41 g

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