Easy Chocolate Cake with the Most Delicious Cake Batter Buttercream
Get ready for an inside-out birthday cake! Milk chocolate cake layers with chocolate chip cookie dough filling and cake batter buttercream. This is such an easy chocolate cake with the most delicious cake batter buttercream!
This inside-out birthday cake was so fun to make to help celebrate the 100th birthday of Betty Crocker. While Westin’s 1st birthday cake was my first cake from scratch, I grew up learning to make cake with the help of Betty Crocker. In fact, my very first solo cake adventure was when I was 8-year-old! I’ll never forget frosting that chocolate 9″x13″ cake with Betty’s vanilla buttercream.
For this celebration cake, I used my milk chocolate cake layers and paired it with my chocolate chip cookie dough filling and a cake batter buttercream made with the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix.
WHAT IS CAKE BATTER BUTTERCREAM?
This cake batter buttercream recipe is a buttercream frosting flavored with a Betty Crocker yellow boxed cake mix but can be made with any flavor cake mix for a fun birthday buttercream for cakes or cupcakes.
HOW DO YOU MAKE CAKE BATTER BUTTERCREAM?
To make cake batter buttercream, you’ll first want to cook the cake mix to kill any bacteria from raw flour. You’ll also do this for the cookie dough filling. To do this, you’ll evenly spread the cake mix over a baking sheet and bake the cake mix for about 10 minutes at 300 degrees F. Keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn’t brown. Allow the cake mix to cool to room temperature before using in the buttercream.
When the cake mix is cooled, first beat the butter on medium-high until light and fluffy (about 2 to 3 minutes). With the mixer on slow, gradually add the cake mix, followed by the powdered sugar, and heavy cream. Once all of the ingredients are added, turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for an additional 3 to 5 minutes.
TIPS FOR MAKING BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
To get a light and fluffy homemade buttercream frosting, I have a detailed post: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BUTTERCREAM to give you in depth instruction for making your buttercream unreal! Here’s a quick overview.
- Sift your powdered sugar
- Use slightly cold butter and mix on its own for 2 to 3 minutes
- Use heavy whipping cream
- Beat for 5 minutes
- Stir by hand
HOW LONG DOES THIS BUTTERCREAM FROSTING LAST?
Like all buttercream recipes, this buttercream frosting holds up great in the freezer. While I prefer to make buttercream day of or the day before I assemble a cake, this frosting can last up to a few months in the freezer. Be sure to put it in an airtight container.
HOW TO MAKE MOIST CAKES FROM SCRATCH
I love this milk chocolate cake recipe from my Better Than Anything Cake. It’s not too rich and makes the perfect pairing to the cake batter frosting. Make sure to follow my go-tips for making moist cakes from scratch:
- Preheat oven 30 minutes before baking.
- Use room temperature ingredients.
- Spray your pan. Line with parchment paper.
- Beat butter and sugar on high for a few minutes.
- Turn mixer to LOW once you add dry ingredients.
- Don’t over bake your cake layer. When you insert a toothpick in the center of the cake it should come out with a few moist crumbs on it.
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MORE CAKES YOU’LL LOVE
- Confetti Cake
- Sprinkle Cookie Dough Cake
- Yellow Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
- Easy and Delicious Chocolate Sour Cream Cake
Chocolate Cake with Cake Batter Buttercream
Ingredients
FOR THE CHOCOLATE CAKE
- 3/4 cup (169.5 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 3/4 cups (350 g) granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs at room temperature
- 3 1/4 cups (373.75 g) cake flour
- 3/4 cup (75 g) dark cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 g) salt
- 2 cups (480 g) buttermilk at room temperature
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (21 g) white distilled vinegar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons (10 g) baking soda
- ½ cup (120 g) sour cream at room temperature
FOR THE COOKIE DOUGH FILLING
- 1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour cooked at 300 degrees F. for 10 minutes
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup (165 g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.1 g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) salt
- 1 cup (150 g) mini chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
FOR THE CAKE BATTER BUTTERCREAM
- 2 cups (452 g) unsalted butter slightly cold
- 5 cups (625 g) powdered sugar measured then sifted
- 2 cups (240 g) Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix cooked at 300 degrees F. for 10 minutes
- 1/4 cup (60 g) heavy whipping cream
- *This buttercream recipe makes enough to fill and cover your cake. If you want to add additional piping, you’ll want to make an extra ½ batch.
Instructions
FOR THE CHOCOLATE CAKE
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch round pans with nonstick spray, line the bottom with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for another minute.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to mix and scrape down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Once all of the eggs are added, continue to beat on medium-high speed for about two mintues, until the mixture gets lighter in color and bigger in volume.
- With the mixer on low speed, add ⅓ of the flour mixture, followed by 1 cup of the buttermilk. Continue with another ⅓ of the flour, the second half of the buttermilk and then the remaining flour mixture. Stir until combined.
- In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda. The mixture will bubble. Add the mixture to the cake batter and stir on low until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for another 20 seconds.
- Fold in the sour cream until no streaks remain.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans (21 ounces in each of the 8-inch pans). Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs on it. Allow to cool in pans for 15 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.
FOR THE COOKIE DOUGH FILLING
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar. Beat on medium speed for about one minute.
- Add the vanilla, flour and salt. Continue to mix until combined.
- Stir in chocolate chips and sprinkles.
FOR THE CAKE BATTER BUTTERCREAM
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high until it's light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add the cooked (and cooled) cake mix and powdered sugar, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the heavy cream. Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat the buttercream for about 3 to 5 minutes.
FOR ASSEMBLY
- Place the first cake layer top side up, in the center of the cake board. Gently spread about a cup of buttercream over the cake layer. Next, spread half of the cookie dough over the buttercream.
- Repeat for second cake layer.
- Place the final cake layer, top side down, on the second layer of filling.
- Apply a thin layer of buttercream around the cake. Freeze the cake for 10 to 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
- Once the crumb coat is set, continue frosting the cake with the remaining buttercream. Decorate with sprinkles.
I want to make this cake for my sons birthday. I am ordering specialty sprinkles. About how many cups of sprinkles do you feel you need to cover the cake? Thanks!
I would get a lot to be safe! At least 10 cups.
This was delicious!!! I used salted butter and milk chocolate cocoa powder, mainly because that’s what I had on hand, and then only used 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough filling because it looked like an ample amount, especially with the sprinkles added in too. I also made my own cake flour using all purpose flour and arrowroot (normally you’d use cornstarch, but I only had arrowroot on hand). Other than that, I followed everything else exactly and it came out great! It’s super rich and moist and I couldn’t believe that I’d made it from scratch. Thank you for this awesome recipe!!! We had a lot of leftovers, but we just sliced the pieces, wrapped them in plastic and then in foil and placed them in a ziploc bag in the freezer to enjoy for the rest of the month. Just put the slices in the fridge overnight and then eat them straight from the fridge the next day. SO GOOD!!!!!
Killed it!
I made this cake and it tuned out delicious. I initially did not give it enough time to come to room temperature and it did not slice well due to the hardened cookie dough layer, so I would suggest being aware of that and allowing it to fully come to room temp before serving.
In the cake assembly directions it says to “spread” the cookie dough layer. Mine was entirely too stiff to spread with an offset spatula so I made layers with my hands and placed it on top of the buttercream layer. Because it was stiff and not “wet” I added an additional smearing of buttercream to ensure the cake layers on top would adhere. Should the cookie dough layer have been a consistency to spread with a spatula or was my consistency right?
I just made this and my cookie dough consistency is really crumbly. Is that how yours was?
It shouldn’t be crumbly! You can add some extra milk.
Hi You said you can add some “extra milk” to the cookie dough layer – Am I missing something – was there supposed to be milk in that layer to make it less crumbly? Mine was not smooth or spreadable at all..
So sorry about that. No there’s not milk in the recipe, so I should take out “extra.” This dough isn’t meant to be spreadable like my other fillings. You kind of have to shape it into a disk before you add it between layers.
When you say cook the yellow cake mix in the buttercream do you just dump the 2 cups cake mix in a baking dish and cook for 10 mins or do you mix it with the other ingredients and cook for 10 mins? What’s the purpose to cooking the mix? Thank you! I love learning from you!
Cooking the mix kills the bacteria. Cook it before adding to the other stuff.
Hi! Do you cook just the cake mix on its own, dry? Or do you add the ingredients it says to on the box.
Just cook it the mix on it’s own. It kills any bacteria.
Would this cake batter buttercream work to be colored? How well does in cleanly cover a cake if I was planning to use it as the buttercream on a smoothed cake base with pipped decorations?
Yes you can color it
I made this cake for my birthday and it was great! Despite all the frosting, cake and cookie dough this cake was not overly sweet (a concern I had at first). When making the cookie dough mine turned out to be more of a crumble but sprinkling that between layers worked perfectly. I used king authors gf yellow cake mix in the frosting and bobs red mill 1 to 1 gf flour in the cookie dough and in the cake by using it to create gf cake flour which turned out well. No one could tell that the cake was gluten free!
Do you think it would make a difference to use white cake mix rather than yellow?
Yellow has a more classic taste!
How do I make the sprinkles go on so even all the way around?
I freeze the cake once its frosted for about 10 minutes and then I roll it in a pan of sprinkles
Can I use 9 in pans instead?
Yes, your bake time will be slightly less with three 9-inch pans.
I want to learn piping techniques…I don’t do a bad job but I just need to get better. Do you have an online course for that or is it just practice, practice, practice?
I have my next level cake class but it’s mostly just practicing.
Ok so I am wanting to make this cake into a 2 layer layered sheet cake? Is that even possible? I’m thinking I’ll have to double the cake recipe for 2 sheet cakes and then just 1 batch of filling? Do you think that would even work? It probably won’t bake nearly as long?
That would work. Just layer the sheet cake on top of the filling and the other cake.
Hi! Any tips for making this one ahead of time and freezing? Should I let the cake thaw completely before adding the sprinkles on the day I plan to serve? Or better yet, can I add the sprinkles before freezing?
You can totally add the sprinkles before freezing!