This classic yellow cake with fudge frosting is like taking a page out of your childhood. The cake is rich, tender and delicate, then it’s topped with a ton of creamy fudge frosting.
Some of my best memories are coming home from school and seeing that my Mom had made a cake. It was always the classic yellow cake with fudge frosting. Usually it was during the summer when we’d been playing outside or swimming all day. I don’t know about you, but swimming always made me insanely hungry. So when I’d get home and see that cake on the counter…well let’s just say it didn’t last til the end of the day.
Now my mom was an excellent cook, but as far as cakes go, she usually just used a box cake mix. Hey, I was totally okay with that, since she made her fudge frosting from scratch. And when your Mom makes something for you, it’s made with love and that just makes everything taste good, right? 
So I wanted to create a scratch version of her cake and this process has really made me nostalgic. 
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LET’S TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE INGREDIENTS IN THIS CLASSIC YELLOW CAKE:
This cake recipe does use cake flour. Theoretically you can use all purpose flour with a few changes. You can go to this link to get some common substitutions: Printable Baking Measurement & Substitution Cheat Sheet Post
I really like using the cake flour though because it really makes a difference in the cake texture…it just makes it very delicate and soft, so if you can get it, use cake flour for this one. 
The next ingredient you’ll want to know about is buttermilk. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can always substitute that if you need to.
You can find that sub on the link above as well. I would really like to twist your arm though about using full fat buttermilk. It really adds flavor and a lot of moisture to the cake. No, you don’t have to drink it….ewwww….but putting it in your cake makes it so delicious. 
Okay once that deliciously delicate cake is baked, you’ll want to cover the whole thing in creamy fudge frosting.
The recipe for the fudge frosting will make a lot. I do NOT like to skimp on frosting…no way. I want to make sure I’ve got plenty for the filling, the top and the sides. You’ll have a nice thick layer on your cake and you might have some extra to sneak off to your bedroom and enjoy all by yourself. 
Oh and if you really want to feel like a kid again, add some sprinkles!
Ok, let’s get to the recipe!
**By the way, this recipe was developed and tested using volume measurements (cups etc.). I do this because most people are used to measuring, instead of weighing. You may use the metric converter button to see the weight (gram) measurements. Those numbers are estimates on weight. Your results may vary a bit if you use the weight measurements.
Classic Yellow Cake with Fudge Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
- ¼ cup oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup butter room temp.
- 1 ¾ cup sugar
- 2 whole eggs
- 2 egg yolks
For the Fudge Frosting:
- 2 cups butter room temp
- 1 ½ cups cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ cup corn syrup
- 6 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 4 tbsp cream or milk may need to use up to 6 tbsp
- Optional: sprinkles
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease and flour two 8″ round cake pans.
- In a bowl, add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk and set aside.
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Whisk well and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer set on medium/high for several minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the whole eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium just until combined after each addition.
- Then add in the egg yolks and mix on medium just until combined.
- Now you will alternate adding in your dry and liquid mixtures. Add in a third of the dry mixture and mix on medium just until combined. Add in half of the liquid mixture and mix on medium just until combined. Add in another third of the dry mixture and mix on medium just until combined. Add in the other half of the liquid and mix on medium just until combined, then finally the last third of the flour mixture and mix only until combined.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again on medium just for about 10 seconds. Be really careful not to over-mix your batter.
- Pour into two greased and floured 8″ round pans and spread evenly.
- Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes.
- You can test with a toothpick. There should be some light crumbs on the toothpick, but nothing liquid.
- Cool cake layers in their pans, on a cooling rack, for about 15 minutes. Then turn out of the pans and directly onto the racks and cool completely before adding fudge frosting.
For the Fudge Frosting:
- Melt the butter in a saucepan on low to medium.
- Add in the cocoa and stir over low/medium heat for a couple minutes and mix with a whisk to make sure all the chunks are gone. You don’t need to boil it. Just melt it all together on low.
- Take off heat and stir in vanilla extract and corn syrup.
- Let sit and cool until it's room temperature.
- Transfer to a mixing bowl and add in three cups of the confectioner’s sugar.
- Add in several tablespoons of milk or cream and mix well with an electric mixer on medium.
- Add in the other three cups of confectioner’s sugar and mix well on medium.
- Check your consistency. If it’s too thick, add in milk a tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition to get it to a smooth consistency.
- Spread onto cooled cake.
- Optional: Add some colorful sprinkles for fun.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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I hope you like this one and I hope it reminds you of your childhood as much as it reminds me of mine.
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Shy
Hi! Any idea how I can make this for 3 8×2 cake pans instead of 2?
Kara Jane
Hi there! Yes, you can make a recipe and a half and it should be the perfect amount.
Lauren Jones
Hi I tried to make this and the icing came out way too oily and then clumped up. Tasted delicious but unusable as far as icing. Any idea where I went wrong?
Kara Jane
Hi Lauren, that’s interesting. Did you add all six cups of confectioner’s sugar? You add the first three in the beginning, then the last three later in the recipe. If only three cups were added, it would probably be too oily to use and won’t look right. That’s the only thing I can think of…that maybe not all of the confectioners sugar was added. Also make sure to let the butter and cocoa powder mixture cool completely to room temp before using it. I hope this helps!
Julia
I also got a really oily frosting and I followed the recipe to a T. I put it in the fridge hoping that might solidify it some but as soon as it’s room temp it starts to separate again. It still tasted good and I ended up using it for a filling and then did a batch of my buttercream frosting for the outside.
Kara Jane
Hi Julia, that is a mystery. Did you add in the full 6 cups of the confectioner’s sugar? That’s all I could think of that may have caused it. I tested this one out several times and I didn’t have an issue, but I may need to go back and retest it to see what’s going on. Thanks for letting me know!
Julia
Yes, I put in all 6 cups of confectioner’s sugar. I think I found the problem. The recipe instructions say to let the butter and cocoa mix cool for 10 mins. It doesn’t say cool to room temp like you suggested above to Lauren. I will make sure to give it plenty of time to cool next time.
Kara Jane
Oh that’s a good catch! I’ll go back and update the recipe card instructions. Thank you!
Julia
I’m happy to help and will definitely be making the recipe again!
Donna
Because I read the comments before I made this, I made sure I went exactly by the directions. I let the chocolate completely cool before adding the confectioners sugar and milk and I added all of the sugar. It was greasy and the milk separated out. I thought maybe the milk should have been room temp before adding and let it sit for a while before mixing back up. Still greasy and the milk still separated out.
Kara Jane
Hi Donna, hmmm…I’m not sure what’s causing that. Thank you for telling me though. I will definitely go back and do some more testing to try and figure out what’s happening with the frosting.
Donna
Did you ever figure out what was going in with the frosting?
Kara Jane
I’m so sorry. I haven’t had time to retest it out. I’ve gotten a little behind on writing new posts and with everything else going on, I just haven’t had the time yet. I do have it on my list of things to do though.
Donna
Hmm, it appears you’ve added an ingredient. Corn syrup was not an ingredient in the original posting.
Kara Jane
Hi Donna, I haven’t changed this recipe, but if you don’t have corn syrup, you can omit it.
Shelley Thomas
I made your moist white cake recipe and it was perfect so I decided to try your yellow cake recipe and it was also perfect! Yes It did remind me of my childhood because it was the texture that I was searching for. I now have my go to recipe for a white and yellow cake. Thank you so much! I am so glad I found this website. The only thing I would change is to use 2 9″ pans because the batter was a little too much for an 8″ pan.
Kara Jane
Hey Shelley! I’m so glad you have two go-to cake recipes now! This made my day! 🙂
Shelley Thomas
I forgot to say that I used my own frosting recipe that I like for both the white and the yellow cake.
Tara
Great recipe! Mine came out a very nice texture, just a little too much salt for my taste. I’ll do half the salt next time and I’m sure it will be perfect! Thanks for a great cake! 🙂
Kara Jane
Oh that’s great! Thanks for the great review!