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Home » Cake & Cupcakes » Half Birthday Cake (Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting)

Half Birthday Cake (Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting)

Published: Sep 17, 2013 · Modified: Mar 2, 2018 by Allison · 8 Comments

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Half Birthday Cake Recipe – Chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. Perfect for celebrating a “half birthday”!

Half birthday cake on a glass plate.

After our son Jake was born we started the tradition of celebrating his half birthday every year. When we reach the halfway point between one birthday and the next, we celebrate with half of a birthday cake.

Life can get busy and weeks and months fly by, so this seemed like the perfect way for our family to stop and reflect on one of the little moments of his childhood. We recently celebrated Jake’s half birthday. He is now two and a half!

Jake loves chocolate, so I made him a chocolate cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting and decorated it with chocolate chips. He loved the cake and we had the perfect little celebration of our sweet boy and how much he has grown.

Half birthday cake on a glass plate.

Making half a cake is very easy. I baked one 9 inch round cake and when it cooled, I cut it in half, stacked the two halves on top of each other and frosted it. You should be able to make this with any cake recipe that yields two 9 inch cakes. Just cut the recipe in half to make one 9 inch cake. I have found that one generous cup of frosting is enough to frost the entire cake, including in between the layers. Feel free to scale down your favorite frosting recipe or use the one I provided.

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Not in the mood for chocolate? Check out my Funfetti Half Birthday Cake.

Half birthday cake on a glass plate.

Half Birthday Cake (Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting)

One 9-inch cake, cut in half, stacked and frosted to make a perfect half-birthday cake. A super simple chocolate cake with vanilla cream cheese icing.
4.50 from 2 votes
Print Pin SaveSaved!
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Dessert
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 515kcal
Author: Allison - Celebrating Sweets

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup milk
  • ¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ½ cup boiling water

Frosting:

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Optional garnishes:

  • chocolate chips. sprinkles, candy, ganache

Instructions

Make the cake:

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray one 9 inch round cake pan.
  • Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Once combined, beat in egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin), and pour into cake pan.
  • Bake for 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Prepare the frosting:

  • Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly combined and creamy. If necessary, you can add more powdered sugar to thicken it or a splash of milk to thin it.
  • Cut the cake in half. Spread frosting on top of one half then place the other layer on top. Frost the cake with a butter knife or offset spatula. Be extra gentle frosting the area that was cut as it can be a bit crumbly. If desired, you can spread a really thin layer of frosting on the cake then refrigerate it for one hour before adding he remaining frosting. This "crumb coat" will help hold in the crumbs so that the outside layer of frosting doesn't have crumbs in it.

Notes

Cake adapted from Hershey's

Nutrition

Calories: 515kcal | Carbohydrates: 82g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 59mg | Sodium: 168mg | Potassium: 145mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 70g | Vitamin A: 490IU | Calcium: 72mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!

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Comments

  1. teri tatu

    September 17, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    That looks delicious! It looks like Jake is enjoying his half birthday celebration. He is lucky to have such a thoughtful Mom that creates fabulous family traditions.

    Reply
  2. Janis

    March 04, 2018 at 12:37 pm

    4 stars
    That is such a fun idea!

    Reply
  3. Anne

    November 11, 2018 at 11:51 pm

    I made this cake tonight as per the recipe, for my daughter’s half-birthday photo shoot tomorrow. The cake did not turn out. It was so dry and crumbly that it fell out of the pan, in chunks. I attempted to piece it back together but the dryness and frosting were no match. It sits in my garbage can and I have no cake for the photos. I’m definitely more torn up about this than I need to be, but I wanted things to be perfect for my daughter. I do not live in the mountains so I’m unsure what caused the horrible mess, I followed instructions.

    Reply
    • Celebrating Sweets

      November 12, 2018 at 2:58 pm

      Hi, Anne. I have made this cake multiple times with no trouble. It is exactly half of the recipe of Hershey’s (super popular) chocolate cake. Something must have been missing, this cake always comes out super moist. I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work out for you. I hope you were able to come up with something else for the photo shoot.

      Reply
  4. Jamaica Dela Cruz

    November 20, 2019 at 12:33 am

    Hi,

    I’m a newbie in baking. I was just trying to find a new hobby. So as of now I don’t have a complete set of baking tools. Currently the only pan I have is 8″. Can I use this recipe or should I cut it in half? Thanks.

    Reply
    • Celebrating Sweets

      November 20, 2019 at 9:54 am

      You can use an 8-inch pan, just don’t add all the batter. Fill the pan about halfway and discard the remaining batter. You might need to adjust the bake time a bit, just bake it until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Enjoy!

      Reply
  5. Mari

    April 03, 2020 at 6:57 am

    So cleaver! Of course just fold it in half! I kept thinking it would be way more complicated! Thank you.

    Reply
    • Celebrating Sweets

      April 03, 2020 at 3:47 pm

      You’re welcome. Enjoy!

      Reply

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aboutHi, I'm Allison! I'm a busy wife and mom with a passion for cooking and baking. This is where you'll find my favorite homemade recipes, designed to help you make every day delicious! Read more....

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