This chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting is a homemade classic. Rich, moist chocolate cake is stuffed with a cream cheese mixture and then coated with powdered sugar or a sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting and sprinkles.
Chocolate cake is my absolute favorite kind of cake. I love it with any frosting, but for me, it really shines when I combine it with cream cheese frosting. It's the perfect combo if you ask me.
Then, I always think of my grandma and her insisting on using colors in food whenever possible. She used to say that food should be colorful and sprinkles always do the trick.
She's why I LOVE sprinkles.
Chocolate Cake with Sprinkles
This colorful recipe was inspired by my funfetti cake and my other chocolate cake recipe on this site. This chocolate cake with sprinkles makes a great dessert after a dinner of hamburger steaks with onion gravy or salisbury steak with onion gravy.
Ingredients
This recipe only uses simple ingredients that you can easily find at your local grocery store.
For the Cake Release
- Melted butter
- Cocoa
For the Chocolate Cake
- Cocoa powder
- Bittersweet chocolate
- Boiling water
- Sour cream
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Salted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Eggs
- Espresso powder
- Powdered Sugar
For the Cream Cheese Filling
- Cream cheese
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Sugar
For the Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream cheese
- Butter
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Milk
- Sprinkles, if desired
See the recipe card at the end of the post for exact quantities.
Instructions
This recipe has several parts to it, but when you break them down, they're very easy to do. You'll have no problem putting this delicious cake together. First you need to preheat your oven.
Step 1: Coat the Pan with Cake Release
Combine melted butter and cocoa together until a paste of sorts forms. Next, using your pastry brush, paint butter mixture into every corner of the inside of your pan.
Step 2: Make the Chocolate Sour Cream Mixture
Using a heat resistant bowl, blend cocoa, chocolate, and espresso powder together, add boiling water and whisk until smooth. Allow mixture to cool to room temperature and then blend in the sour cream.
Step 3: Combine Dry Ingredients
In a seperate, large bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.
Step 4: Combine Remaining Wet Ingredients
Using your handheld or stand mixer, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium and add the eggs one at a time, mixing between each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed.
Step 5: Add the Chocolate Mixture and Flour
Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually combine the flour mixture and the sour cream-chocolate mixture, until just incorporated. Do not over mix. Scrape down the bowl and mix until well blended.
Step 6: Make the Cream Cheese Filling
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, egg, vanilla, and sugar and beat until smooth.
Step 7: Fill the Cake Pan
Pour approximately half the batter into your prepared pan. Next, add cream cheese mixture to the center of the cake batter. Be careful not to get any on the edges. Then, cover cream cheese mixture with remaining batter. Using a spatula or butter knife, smooth out cake batter as best you can.
Step 8: Bake
Bake on the lower-middle rack for 45 to 50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick or skewer inserted into the center comes out basically clean, with maybe a few crumbs attached.
Step 9: Cool
Allow cake to cool inside the baking pan for 10 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. Next, flip pan over onto a parchment covered wire rack and gently tap the top and sides of the pan until the cake releases and lands on the rack. Leave on rack to cool completely to room temperature, somewhere around 3 hours.
Step 10: Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
Combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla, milk, and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth.
Step 11: Frost the Cake
Pour the frosting over the cooled cake and gently shake or tip it from side to side, tap the bottom of the cake on the counter, allowing the frosting to drizzle down the sides. Cover with sprinkles and enjoy!
Hint: Be sure you coat every nook and cranny of your bundt pan with the cocoa mixture to ensure it releases easily.
Substitutions
Don't have the correct ingredients on hand or want to change something up? Here are some helpful tips for you to change this chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting.
- Cake Flour - Both all-purpose and cake flour work well in this recipe.
- Add Seasonal Sprinkles - pick colors that match the season or use chocolate sprinkles
- Greek Yogurt - You can use full-fat Greek yogurt if you don't have sour cream.
- Instant Coffee - If you don't have espresso powder, you can use instant coffee.
- Skip the Cream Cheese Frosting - serve cake dusted in powdered sugar instead
Variations
Want to personalize this chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting recipe? Here are some of my tried and true tips for changing up this recipe.
- Skip Cream Cheese Filling - omit it completely
- Nuts - Add your favorite nuts to top or inside the cake
- Chocolate Chips - my grandma used to always add a cup of chocolate chips to the batter for little pockets of chocolate, peanut butter or caramel goodess (depending on which kind of chips she had)
- Powdered Sugar - In lieu of frosting, you can dust your cake with powdered sugar
- Candies - use candies to decorate your frosted cake
- Vanilla Cake - Omit the chocolate and espresso, swap the boiling water for milk and reduce sugar by ½ to ¾ of a cup or just check out our recipe to make a vanilla cake instead.
- Berries and Cream - Strawberries and raspberries with some whipped cream are a great addition
- Heath or Skor Bits (Toffee) - added to top or inside of cake
- Make Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting - Add ¼ cup cocoa powder to this recipe if you prefer chocolate flavor
If you love recipes like this, you may also enjoy this chocolate fudge brownie bundt cake or Chocolate Loaf Cake. If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also like our Brown Butter Brownies or our red velvet swirl cake.
Equipment
You'll only need a few basic pieces of kitchen equipment to make this recipe.
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Stand or hand mixer
- Spatula
- Whisk
- Bundt pan
- Parchment paper
- Wire rack
- Large Bowl
- Microwave safe small bowl
- Heat safe medium bowl
- Pastry Brush
Storage
Store this cake in an air-tight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Tips
With so many moving parts, this cake can seem daunting, but it's easy to make. I have some tips here to make it even easier on you.
- Be sure to coat every nook and cranny of your bundt pan with the cocoa mixture to make sure the cake releases easily.
- Bake until a wooden toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out basically clean with maybe a few crumbs attached
- After you invert your cake on the rack, tap the top and sides all over firmly to help the cake release.
- Be sure your cake has fully cooled so the frosting can adhere to it sufficiently.
- Always make sure your sour cream, cream cheese, butter, and eggs are at room temperature so they combine easily and completely.
FAQ
Do you have questions about this chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting? Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about cream cheese frosted chocolate cake
This cake will last for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or up to 1 month in the freezer.
Open-air freeze the cake. Then, wrap it in a double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil and freeze it for up to a month.
After a month, the texture of the frosting will begin to change. Cream cheese can only stand up to being frozen for about a month before it begins to change.
Just place it in the refrigerator overnight.
Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Video
More Chocolate Cake Recipes
Do you like chocolate cake and cupcakes? Here some recipes you may also like to try.
- Naked Chocolate Cake
- Caramel Chocolate Poke Cake
- ChocolateChip Pound Cake
- Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes
Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ready to get cooking? Remember that you can print this recipe if you would like.
Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- bundt or cake pan 12 cup size
- large wooden toothpicks or skewers
- handheld or stand mixer
- small bowl microwave safe
- medium bowl heat safe
Ingredients
Cake Release
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter melted
- 1 ½ tablespoons cocoa powder
Cake
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder optional
- ¾ cup water boiling
- 1 cup sour cream room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 ½ sticks, room temperature
- 2 cups light brown sugar packed
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs room temperature
- powdered or icing sugar for dusting bottom of baked cake
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese softened or ½ brick
- ¼ cup butter or ½ stick
- 2 cups powdered or icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon milk
Easy Cream Cheese Filling Recipe
- 1 brick (8 oz) cream cheese softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Options
- powdered or icing sugar for dusting
- seasonal sprinkles or candies on top of frosting on top of frosting
Instructions
- Get out and measure your ingredients.
- Using your small mirowave safe bowl combine melted butter and cocoa until resembles a sort of paste. Grb your pastry brush and make sure to coat every inch of the inside of your baking pan. If butter begins to harden microwave bowl for 15 seconds or butter softens.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and adjust your oven rack to lower-middle position.
- Using your heat resistant bowl and add cocoa, chocolate, and espresso powder together.
- Carefully pour boiling water all over top of the mixture.
- Using your whisk, stir until blended and smooth.
- Allow mixture to cool to room temperature and whisk in sour cream.
- Keep whisking until blended.
- In a seperate, large bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.
- Whisk until blended.
- Using your handheld or stand mixer beat butter, sugar, and vanilla together on medium high speed.
- Beat until fluffy, around 3 minutes.
- Reduce speed to medium and gradually add eggs, one at a time, blending after each for about a minute, scraping down bowl sides as necessary until totally blended.
- Batter might look like it is seperating. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and add about half of the flour mixture.
- Add about half of chocolate/sour cream mixture too.
- Blend until just incorporated. Less than 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl as necessary, and add remaining flour mixture, followed by remaining chocolate/sour cream mixture. Blend until just combined. Do not over mix.
Easy Cream Cheese Filling Recipe
- In a medium bowl add cream cheese, egg, vanilla and sugar.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat until smooth.
Making the Cake
- Add approximately half of your batter to yorr prepared pan.
- Next, add cream cheese filling mixture, if using, in the center of the pan, carefully avoiding the edges and center of the pan.
- Last, dump remaining batter into pan on top of the cream cheese filling. Using a spatula smooth top of cake as good as you can.
- Bake until wooden toothpick or skewer inserted into center of the cake comes out basically clean, with maybe a few crumbs attached, between 45 and 50 minutes. Allow cake to cool in pan for 10 minutes and dust with powdered sugar.
- Flip cake on top of parchment covered rack to come completely to room temperature, approximately 3 long hours.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- Combine cream cheese, butter, vanilla, milk and powdered sugar.
- Beat until smooth.
- Pour frosting over the cake and gently shake from side to side to make the icing drizzle down the sides.
- Cover with sprinkles. Slice and serve. Enjoy every bite!
Powdered Sugar
- Dust with confectioners' sugar.
- Slice and serve. Enjoy! Every bite.
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