Comments on: best birthday cake

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:18:35 +0000

Absoutely a lovely cake, moist and delicious! I think I’ve found my “go to” yellow cake now. I used the Creamy Milk Chocolate Frosting on the Cook’s Illustrated site and wowza, is this good! I even had a thin slice this morning at 6 AM because I was thinking about it and could not resist:-) Thank you for this recipe.

By: Marti

Marti — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:09:49 +0000

I made this for my husband’s birthday and he was very impressed, which is saying something because he is the baker in the family, not me. We had never settled on a really good yellow cake and at last we have found it. Your site is now my favorite!

By: Deborah Greene

Deborah Greene — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:59:40 +0000

This was absolutely delicious. Two beautiful, tall cake layers that had a wonderful buttery, vanilla & moist flavor. I topped with a dark chocolate frosting from Cooks Illustrated and filled the center with a peanut butter cream filling…out of this world! Got rave reviews on this cake…thanks for a great recipe, it’s my new go to yellow cake!

By: Michaela

Michaela — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:24:23 +0000

I made this last night in a bundt pan. 300 degrees for about an hour and ten minutes. It seems to have turned out well. I also used the alt frosting recipe and probably could have halved it for the bundt since I still have about half left.

By: Lauri

Lauri — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:06:11 +0000

Just thought I’d note that I needed 12 cupcakes this weekend so I made 1/2 this recipe and the amount was perfect. As if anyone ever needs ONLY 12 cupcakes, jeesh! I would have made 24 but I already had two 9×13 layers for my son’s Buzz Lightyear Rocketship cake and that was PLENTY! But I needed some cupcakes for the rocket burners, baked in silver foil and turned on their side with red and orange spiky frosting… perfect! :-)

By: Sharon

Sharon — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:18:34 +0000

I’ve used this wonderful recipe many times in the past for cakes. Made 1/4 of the recipe today and got 8 perfect cupcakes. Baked at 350 for 20 minutes. I’m frosting them with whipped cream.

By: Gretch

Gretch — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:33:52 +0000

I love everything about this cake – it was easy to make, smelled good baking, rose nice and high – good crumb, moist, flavorful. I made it for my own birthday yesterday (I remembered this cake from its gorgeous photo) and had at it. The only thing I wish I would have thought of was making it into cupcakes. Next time for sure.
Frosting was magic. Mine was nearly thick enough to use right off the bat. If anything, I had a little too much frosting, but I liked the little zing of the sourcream and the deep chocolate flavor. And I will say, it’s pretty good for breakfast, too! Thanks Deb!

By: Kaitlin

Kaitlin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:53:06 +0000

Made this tonight, and so far, super impressed with the results. We haven’t iced them yet, but definitely a wonderful cake recipe to fall back on. Made half the batter, for 12 cupcakes, and added an extra egg yolk (so, 2 eggs, plus one yolk), and made it a bit richer, and not as cornbread tastey.

By: Mandy

Mandy — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:49:32 +0000

I also felt that this cake, while very good, reminded me of cornbread. I had some extra batter, so made a cupcake out of that (always like to taste things before serving them!) and decided to go with a sweeter frosting to counter that flavor. That helped, and the people I served this to enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite the birthday cakes I remember from my childhood. I wonder if maybe I was just off somehow? Maybe my flour measurements weren’t precise enough?

By: Carey

Carey — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:54:13 +0000

Thank you so much for this fantastic recipe! I used it last night to make cupcakes for my 6 year olds Birthday school treat!
And what a treat, your recipe made a generous 24- 30 cakes!! Just what I needed.
Thank you again for a place to go when I need a sweet recipe!
Carey