Birthdays are a huge thing in our house, we love celebrating each other. And, who doesn’t love birthday cake?
Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting
My Vanilla Birthday Cake recipe is made with six ingredients total. Yes! You’ve got that right. You can have an amazing gluten-free dessert for birthday celebrations that turns out perfectly every time.
Easy Gluten-Free Cake
Better yet, mixing the batter for this cake is as easy as using a cake mix. The difference? Homemade Birthday Cake tastes so much better, and it’s healthy too!
People fell hard for my Chocolate Birthday Cake, and then asked for a Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting, so I had to make another fabulously healthy dessert for y’all.
Happy Birthday Cake
This easy Gluten-Free Birthday Cake recipe is so simple that my boys used to throw it together when they were in grade school.
I love it when readers show me their little ones making my cake recipes over on Instagram.
Free exclusive eBook, plus recipes and health tips, delivered to your inbox.
Homemade Birthday Cake Recipe
Yup, my cake recipes from scratch are so easy an elementary school student can make them, and this homemade birthday cake recipe is one of my faves!
Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- ¾ cup coconut flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 9 large eggs
- ½ cup salted butter, melted
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pulse coconut flour and baking soda in a food processor
- Pulse in eggs, butter, maple syrup, and vanilla
- Grease two 6 inch springform pans
- Pour batter into prepared cake pans
- Place cake pans on a baking sheet, then bake at 350°F for 25-35 minutes
- Cool and frost with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Serve
Birthday Cake Recipe
For this birthday cake recipe, all you do is throw the coconut flour and baking soda in the food processor, then pulse in the wet ingredients –eggs, butter, maple syrup, and vanilla. That’s it!
To learn more about the main ingredient, coconut flour, check out my Ultimate Guide to Coconut Flour.
How to Make a Cake Tall
After that, transfer the batter to two greased 6-inch pans. If you want your cakes to be tall like mine, be sure to use the 6-inch pans.
If you use an 8-inch pan the batter will not fill the pan properly, in turn, your cake will be sad 😟 and flat.
Bake Cake
If you need to know how to bake cake, well, that’s even simpler. Place your cake pans with the batter on a baking sheet, put it in the oven and you’re off to the races.
Frosting Cake
Now let’s talk about frosting cake. There’s one basic step that ensures the results of frosting the cake will be gorgeous.
Let the cake cool for two hours minimum after it comes out of the oven. I have the best results frosting the cake when I bake the cake the night before, and then let it cool overnight at room temperature.
Make-Ahead Birthday Cake Recipe
When we throw a birthday bash that requires a lot of set-up, I make Vanilla Birthday Cake a couple of days ahead of time.
I bake the cakes and cool them in the pans overnight. The next morning I remove them from the pans and then wrap individually in foil. Store Vanilla Birthday Cake in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
I frost the cake with my homemade frosting the day of the birthday party.
Chocolate Frosting
My homemade chocolate frosting recipe really takes the cake here, no pun intended. I am one of those people who likes a little cake with my frosting.
Homemade Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Use a double batch of Chocolate Buttercream Frosting for this birthday cake. That’s what you see in the photo.
I serve my cakes on cake stands because they have a big wow-factor and look incredibly special this way. More on the best cake stands below!
Dairy-Free Frosting Recipes
If you don’t eat dairy, try my Dairy-Free Chocolate Frosting recipe for an all-out dairy-free birthday cake celebration.
Happy Birthday Wishes
Did you know I launched Elana’s Pantry in 2006? This year is our fifteenth birthday! I love this community so much.
We are a motley crew when it comes to food allergies and I work to create recipes that meet the needs of each person here.
Food Allergies
I want you to be able to break bread, and cake, with friends and loved ones. If a recipe doesn’t meet your food allergy needs, experiment and use substitutions to customize it for you.
That includes substitutions for this Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting recipe.
Substitutions
I wish I had a crystal ball when it comes to knowing how to make perfect recipes. Unfortunately, I don’t. This means I test each recipe dozens of times.
So, the only way to know if a substitution works is to try! Don’t be afraid to experiment.
Cake Stand
Here are some of my favorite cake stands! Use them to create a breath-taking presentation when you make Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting or any of the cake recipes from scratch below:
Cake Recipes
Although these cakes may not be labeled as birthday cakes, I’ve received several comments that they have become family favorites for birthday celebrations.
Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake
Most strawberry shortcake recipes from scratch are complicated. My homemade Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake recipe is incredibly easy to put together.
I love it because the vanilla cake is made with six ingredients total. My family loves it too and tells me it’s one of the best cake recipes with fruit they’ve ever had.
Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Homemade Coffee Cake is one of my favorite comfort foods, and my gluten-free coffee cake is super healthy.
Nut-Free Carrot Cake
This Nut-Free Carrot Cake recipe made with coconut flour is another cake recipe from scratch that’s healthy and super easy to assemble. Throwing a party is enough work, why make the cake difficult?
Mug Cake
My Mug Cake is the perfect single-sized treat. It’s made with five ingredients total –almond flour, cacao powder, an egg, maple syrup, and baking soda.
Make this when you’re craving dessert, but either don’t want to take time to bake a full cake or want to allow everyone to add their own toppings. This would be so much fun with a group of friends.
Strawberry Cupcakes
Back when the boys were growing up, this strawberry cupcakes recipe was the perfect nut-free treat for school!
The recipe is an exclusive from my book Gluten-Free Cupcakes, but I’ve also shared the recipe here on the website with our Elana’s Pantry community.
Get the Book! Gluten-Free Cupcakes
Speaking of cupcakes Gluten-Free Cupcakes is a great investment if you’re looking for birthday cake style recipes.
And I have a Vegan Chocolate Cupcake recipe in the book for all of my egg-free, dairy-free readers!
Gluten-Free Orange Cake with Almond Flour
Because I loved chocolate-covered orange peel growing up, I’ve always wanted to smother Orange Cake in my Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe, the same frosting used here in my Vanilla Birthday Cake recipe. I’ve had many readers try this and they all tell me it’s incredible!
Cake Recipes from Scratch
Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting is one of my favorite cake recipes from scratch. Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite is!
This post is an oldie but goodie from the archives. I first shared this Vanilla Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting in September 2016.
Sue S says
Hi Elena,
I have been enjoying your recipes for sometime. They have been great for my son’s fiancee who has celiac disease.
My question is about your cake recipes…I have been tasked with making the wedding cake and wonder if any of your cake recipes (vanilla and/or chocolate)can be DOUBLED effectively to be baked in a 10 inch pan (4inches deep). I would like to make a tiered cake for them with the base of 10 inches, followed by 8 inches, then 6 inches (all 4 inches deep) and finally a 4inch tier (2 inches deep).
Thanks so much for all your great healthy recipes,
Sue
Elana says
Hi Sue! Sorry for the delayed reply. I haven’t tried that and doubt it would work.
Rachel Stutzman says
Hi Elana, thank you so much for your recipes! This vanilla cake recipe and your chocolate cake recipe breathed new life back into birthdays for my six year old son. He has lots of food allergies and has sensory issues on top of that which prevents him from eating other things. Anyway, we are nearing his seventh birthday and he is asking for a LEMON cake! I cannot find a recipe anywhere that will work for him. Have you ever tried a lemon version of this cake? I looked at the blueberry-lemon bread recipe hoping for some clues/ideas, but that uses almond flour (vs coconut flour) which my son won’t eat. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Elana says
Rachel, thanks for your comment! I don;t have any lemon cake recipes, but I will add that to my list of requests. You could experiment with adding lemon zest or lemon extract to this vanilla cake recipe. If you do LMK if it works :-)
Elana says
Susan, thanks for the feedback :-)
Susan Couillard says
I found the cake turned out OK. It was spongey – probably due to the large quantity of eggs! Kind of heavy so probably won’t make again – sorry!
Floweraura says
Wow! Now that is some delicious recipe keep posting such recipe because we need it urgently in this boring quarantine it seems lip smacking really
Elana says
Thanks Floweraura!
Cheryl Minichini says
Hi Elana,
Can I substitute coconut flour for another flour? (almond, gluten free)? Also, is there nutritional information for the recipes and if so, where can I locate them?
Thank you,
Cheryl
Elana says
Cheryl, for more on that please go to the section entitled “Substitutions”. For details on nutrition info go here:
https://elanaspantry.com/nutrition-information/
Have a fantastic day!
Elana