Brigadeiro Cake Recipe (Brazilian Chocolate Cake)

This Brigadeiro cake recipe is a spinoff of our favorite sweet treat, the brigadeiro, and is considered by many a traditional Brazilian birthday cake. Ready to experience a one-of-a-kind Brazilian cake? You’ll love it!

I can taste this delicious Brigadeiro cake!

Brigadeiro Cake

Calling all chocolate lovers! This Brazilian cake will be your next favorite dessert ever! Brigadeiro is a small chocolate dessert from Brazil. There’s absolutely no birthday party without these delicious treats, as they are an intrinsic part of our culture and cuisine. And because we love it so much, we always recreate other desserts with brigadeiro flavor, and this cake is one of them.

You can say this Brazilian cake is a spinoff of the traditional brigadeiro recipe, and once you have tasted it, you will understand all the hype about it. This brigadeiro cake (bolo de brigadeiro in Portuguese) is very sweet, and it seriously tastes like a chocolate piece of heaven. Texture-wise, it’s moist chocolate cake with fudgy and sticky parts because of the brigadeiro filling and frosting, but honestly, it’s nothing over the top. I absolutely LOVE it. However, making this Brazilian cake is not an everyday task. It’s time-consuming and requires some level of experience in baking. If you’re a total newbie in the kitchen, you might want to start with another one, preferably not a layer cake.

That’s also why we usually only bake it on special occasions. Still, it’s the p-e-r-f-e-c-t Brazilian birthday cake! (Yay, parabéns = happy birthday in Brazilian Portuguese). We don’t have a typical birthday cake, but this one meets all the requirements: creamy, delicious, with brigadeiro, and looks nice, lol. If you’re throwing a Brazilian party for a loved one, this Brigadeiro cake recipe is a must to make this day more than memorable. So plan ahead, gather the tools and ingredients, read this recipe before actually going to the kitchen, and you’ll be more than prepared to make it.

How to store the Brigadeiro cake?

You can store this Brigadeiro cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to a week.

Tips for making a perfect Brazilian cake

• Make ahead! You can make the brigadeiro balls that go on top of the cake ahead of time (up to 3 days) and save yourself some time on the baking day.
• A good pan! Be sure to use a non-stick pan to make the chocolate fudge balls to make your life much easier!
• Sprinkle it up! Use high-quality chocolate sprinkles, or you’ll ruin the taste of your cake. You can use milk chocolate sprinkles without a problem. Still, my favorite, and that’s personal, it’s dark chocolate.
• Level up! If the cake layers have domes, use a cake leveler to ensure they are flat. If you don’t have one, feel free to use a bread knife.

More Brazilian cakes you need to try

• Brazilian Carrot Cake with Chocolate
• Brazilian Coconut Cake
• Brazilian Orange Cake – an easy and delicious bundt cake
• Are you throwing a Brazilian party? Then check out other Brazilian recipes you can’t miss at a party.
• Brigadeiro – there is no party in the country without these sweet treats, trust me.
• Beijinho (or any other brigadeiro variations)
• Caipirinha (or any of our cocktails)
• Coxinha
• Brazilian hot sauce
• Sardine pie
• Chicken hand pies
• Sardine pate or dip
• Brazilian chicken salad
• Passion fruit mousse
• Dulce de leche pudding or mousse

What tools you will need

• Three 8-inch round cake pans – I prefer the round cake shape
• Cake stand
• Cake leveler
• Offset spatula

Ingredients explanation

• Table cream (not to be confused with heavy cream) – it ensures the filling gets a rich and creamy texture.
• Brown sugar (instead of granulated sugar) – brown sugar has a bit more flavor, unlike white sugar, which is purely sweet.



• Uns…