Easy Sour Cream Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting is my family’s favorite dessert recipe. This cake is chocolatey, moist, and dangerously delicious!
Yes, yes, this cake starts with a short cut. I used a cake mix here…sue me.
My grandma used to make this cake, your grandma probably made this cake… it’s a whole thing in the world. I generally do love a completely from “scratch” recipe, but sometimes the magic cake mix fairies sprinkle their love dust on my brain and convince me to pull a little semi-homemade action.
When fairies come-a-calling…you know how it goes…
If the weekend had an official cake, you’re looking at it. Plus, let me just say that creamy chocolate frosting on top is super legit.
You basically doctor up a cake mix with a little sour cream, an extra egg, an eensy bit more sugar…
It gives it a slightly denser texture, but totally soft.
It bakes up like perfection. I almost always make this in a 9×13 pan, because when I’m short-cutting and using a cake mix I’m generally looking for simple decorating too.
But for all you over achievers out there this cake is 100% perfect for baking in 8- inch round pans and layering!
The secret to this chocolate frosting is evaporated milk. It makes the frosting SO creamy.
Just spread it all over your cooled cake…
Gorgeous and stunning and beautiful and pretty and sexy and on fleek and cute and attractive and foxy and hot and…and…and…
…simple, delicious and no fuss.
Shouldn’t all cake be like this?
PrintYellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: Serves 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This easy sour cream cake is made with creamy chocolate frosting is my family’s favorite dessert recipe. Made from yellow cake mix, this cake is chocolatey, moist, and dangerously delicious!
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 (15.25- ounce) yellow cake mix
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Frosting
- 6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup evaporated milk
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 9×13 pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment mix all the cake ingredients together on low speed for 30 seconds. Turn the speed up to medium and mix for 2 minutes, scraping the sides as necessary.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool completely.
Frosting
- In the bowl of your stand mixer mix the butter until smooth. Add in the cocoa powder, powdered sugar, vanilla and evaporated milk. Mix on low for 30 seconds and then turn the speed up to medium and mix for 1-2 minutes until it’s creamy and smooth.
- Spread the frosting on the cooled cake.
Notes
store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Keywords: sour cream cake, yellow cake mix recipes, yellow cake with chocolate frosting
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Helpful tip… out of sour cream?
This cake is amazing, plain and simple. I followed the recipe as close to exactly as possible. We had lower fat sour cream so I used that and we beat the cake by hand but other than that we did it as written. This cake is just plain delicious… flavorful with that hint of “hmm what’s that” (sour cream), moist, fluffy but still good structure. There’s also the hint of nostalgia. It tastes very similar to the simple but delicious cakes my grandma used to make. I never take the time to leave reviews. If you’re on the fence, make this cake!
Note: We used the Betty Crocker Supermoist Butter Recipe Yellow cake mix for where the recipe calls for yellow cake mix.
Thank you for this recipe!
★★★★★