Chocolate Dulce de Leche Birthday Cake

A chocolate layer cake filled with dulce de leche is magic and you should try it! I went a step further and added swiss meringue to the mix. The result if chocolaty and sweet and delicious. A birthday cake you'll want to make over and over again. 

Originally published in November 2013, this post has been updated with text and images to serve you better. The recipe remains the same. 

A tall, scrumptious, chocolatey cake, filled with dulce de leche and meringue is what we all need right now. I'm hoping you agree because this is one large cake recipe!

When I started this blog, a gazillion years ago it seems, for a few months I did virtual birthday cakes for my fellow food bloggers. It lasted several months and there are some great recipes to prove it. 

Chocolate layers

This is one amazing chocolate cake recipe. 

Besides some obvious ingredients, like cocoa powder, it has yogurt and some milk chocolate in the batter which are two ingredients not normally associated with the regular chocolate layer cake recipes. The result is moist, tender, full of chocolate, and very balanced in terms of sweetness. 

About the two different-sized pans. But the thing is that if you want more than two layers - I wanted 4 - you need two pans. And my oven doesn’t fit two 9-inch pans (the nerve I know), so I used a smaller one. So a best practice would be to use 2 8-inch round pans. Go ahead and make it a one size cake if you want. It’s easier to frost and make it look prettier, that’s for sure.

The filling

Here I used my favorite cake filling in the world: dulce de leche. If you never tried it you should, especially with chocolate cake. The combination is magic. 

• Dulce de leche: it's a sweet milk jam - a caramel-like mixture made by cooking milk and sugar for a while - originally from Argentina, my home country. We consume it like crazy here and there are many recipes in this blog that make it shine, like the Dulce de Leche Brownies or the best Alfajores ever, and also the Walnut Alfajores. 
• Swiss meringue: it's my favorite type to make and I used it for both the filling and the frosting, some of it swirled with dulce de leche. Because why stop at one good thing, right? Let's have both together.

Bread crumbs

And that ‘decoration’ that looks like dirt?

It’s the piece of cake that I cut off the large layer to even it out. They always find it amusing to develop an upwards mini bump, and if you want to make filled layers it's easier if they are smooth.

So the pieces ended up being crumbled and dried in a low oven and used to make even more rustic a frosting that was already a mess and didn’t even try to appear like the work of a pastry baker who decorates. I'm all about the recipes. 

Make-ahead

• Cake: the layers can be made in advance and kept, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for 3 days or frozen for up to a month. 
• Dulce de leche: the best option is to buy it. Choose the 'pastry dulce de leche' which is thicker and made especially for filling. The label should have the words pastelero or repostero (Spanish for pastry and baking). If you can't find it choose the thickest one you buy. 
• Meringue: it can't be made in advance. It should be used once it's made so it stays fluffy and wonderful

Other cake recipes you might like:

Bourbon Hot Chocolate Bundt Cake
The Best Chocolate Bundt Cake 
Gooey Chocolate Sheet Cake

Let me know if you make this recipe! I’d love to hear what you think about it. Thank you for being here, I appreciate it! Let’s connect via Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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Chocolate Birthday Cake with Dulce de Leche

• Author: Paula Montenegro
• Prep Time: 30
• Cook Time: 50
• Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
• Yield: 16-20 servings 1x
• Category: Cakes
• Method: Baking + Whipping
• Cuisine: International

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Description

A chocolate layer cake filled and frosted with dulce de leche and meringue. A stunner! And a birthday cake you'll love.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the devil’s food chocolate cake:

• 1 ⅓ (185g) cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup (50g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons (150g) unsalted butter, room tº
• ½ cup (100g) brown sugar
• ½ cup (100g) white sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room tº
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 oz (60g) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• ½ cup natural yogurt (or buttermilk or whole milk)
• ½ cup boiling water
• 4 oz. (120g) chopped milk chocolate

For the swiss meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup (200g) sugar
• 2 ½ cups dulce de leche (about 700g)

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Instructions

For the devil’s food chocolate cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF /180ºC.
2. Butter a 9-inch and 6-inch (or two 8-inch) cake pans with removable bottoms. Dust with breadcrumbs.
3. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda, salt.
4. In a large bowl beat butter until creamy, about 1 minute. Add sugars gradually and beat for 2 minutes after adding the last part.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add vanilla and unsweetened chocolate. The mixture will look curdled, that’s fine.
7. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the yogurt in 2 parts. Mix just until well combined.
8. Slowly add boiling water and mix just until combined.
9. Add the milk chocolate with a spatula, and divide between pans, using a bit more in the large one.
10. Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, until a tester inserted in the middle of both cakes, comes out clean.
11. Let cool completely on a wire rack before filling and frosting. It can be made the day before and kept wrapped in plastic.

For the meringue:

1. Put a pan with water over medium heat.
2. On top of it, place the glass or metal bowl from the mixer with the whites and sugar. The water should not touch the bottom of the pan.
3. Mix constantly with a hand whisk. The water will start to boil. Don't let water get into the bowl.
4. The mixture will be thick at first but will liquefy as it warms. This is your cue to remove it. It will also be warm to the touch (use your pinky finger to test).
5. Transfer to the mixer (or mix with a hand-held electric beater) and whip until stiff and glossy, about 5 minutes. You should have rather stiff peaks.

To assemble the cake:

1. Cut both cakes in half. If you want to, dab the cake plate with a bit of dulce de leche in the middle and place one of the large layers on top; that way the cake won’t move.
2. Fill with a thick layer of dulce de leche, about ¾ of the amount, spreading evenly but not reaching the edges completely. Top with the other large layer, pressing gently. The dulce de leche will fatten towards the edges.
3. Add some meringue on top of the cake making a circle as big as the layers that you haven’t used yet. Place one of those layers on top, and fill with meringue, not reaching the edges completely.
4. Mix the rest of the dulce de leche with the meringue you have left, swirling just a few times to have a marble effect. (As you can see I didn’t quite get that effect, but not for lack of trying…).
5. Add a thin layer of meringue to all of the cake and then add a thicker one. However, you can. The meringue is soft for having a perfect frosting.
6. Sprinkle with the chocolate crumbs.

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Notes

• Cake: the layers can be made in advance and kept, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for 3 days or frozen for up to a month.
• Dulce de leche: you can buy dulce de leche online, Havanna brand.
• Cake pans: the recipe is enough for 3 8 or 9-inch layers, the former will be a bit taller. The filling and frosting will be enough if you use those pans.
• Meringue: I make swiss meringue because it’s quite easy and stays rather soft, which I particularly like. This makes it harder to have a perfect frosting, which I don’t mind, but if you do, consider making Italian meringue (which involves syrup and a thermometer). Here’s a basic Italian meringue recipe.

Keywords: chocolate birthday cake

Adapted from Baking from my Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Paula Montenegro

I'm Paula, a baker for more than 30 years and your designated recipe finder, sharing the best ones here, with simple ingredients + easy-to-follow instructions.

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