Chocolate chip cake is tender, fluffy, and loaded with rich chocolate chips. It’s like a perfect vanilla cake and a chocolate chip cookie combined!
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Pin RecipeI first made this chocolate chip cake recipe when I couldn’t decide between making a cake or cookies. Why not make a recipe that captures the best of both worlds?!
This cake is nice and light, just like a perfect vanilla cake should be. However, it is packed with melted chocolate chips, just like the best chocolate chip cookies out there. This chocolate chip cake recipe really is the best of both worlds.
(Looking for more easy cake ideas? You’ll love my Earthquake Cake, Chocolate Zucchini Cake, and Pineapple Angel Food Cake!)
Chocolate Chip Cake Recipe
My chocolate chip cake recipe is pretty simple to make. In fact, it is one of the easiest cake recipes I have ever made. I just toss all the cake ingredients into a bowl, stir them up and that’s it. The batter is ready! No beating butter, alternating between milk and dry ingredients, or anything crazy with this recipe. Just easy mixin’ here.
To give the chocolate chips a little extra goodness, I toss them in sugar. This helps suspend the chocolate chips in the cake batter, making a nice layer of chips in the middle of the cake and on top. You don’t want them to all sink to the bottom so this step is important! And, you can’t go wrong with extra sugar. This is a dessert after all!
(Love chocolate chips? Make my Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies, Chocolate Chip Pie, or Double Chocolate Chip Cookies next!)
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Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Cake
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- Butter – Make sure your butter is nice and soft. It will blend into the batter best when super soft (but not melted!).
- Sour cream – Use full-fat sour cream, not low-fat or lite.
- Eggs – Here’s the best way to crack an egg.
- Vanilla
- Flour
- Sugar – You will use sugar for the cake batter and the chocolate chip sprinkle.
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Mini chocolate chips – Mini chocolate chips are nice and small so they stay suspended in the batter best. I find that full-sized chips sink to the bottom of the cake. Mini is best!
Variations
- Replace the sour cream with plain Greek yogurt.
- Use almond extract in place of vanilla for a subtle, nutty flavor.
- Use gluten-free baking flour mix in place of all-purpose flour to make a gluten-free chocolate chip cake.
- Replace the mini chocolate chips with butterscotch chips to make a butterscotch chip cake.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cake
- Prepare: Preheat your oven to 350ºF and then coat a 9×13 pan with baking spray. Set the pan aside.
- Make the batter: Add all of the ingredients for the cake batter to a bowl and mix together with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer. Mix until the batter is thick and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.
- Assemble the cake: Spread half of the cake batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle with ⅛ cup of sugar and 1 cup of mini chocolate chips. Make sure the sugar and chips are even across the whole pan. Spread the rest of the cake batter over the layer of chocolate chips, then sprinkle the rest of the sugar and chocolate chips on top of the batter.
- Bake: Bake the cake for 30 minutes. The cake will be golden brown and pulling away from the edges. The center of the cake will not be wet or jiggly.
- Slice: Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes, then slice and serve.
Quick Tip
If you only have regular-sized chocolate chips, not mini chips, toss them in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of flour before sprinkling the chips over the cake batter. The floured chocolate chips will help prevent the heavier chips from sinking to the bottom of the cake when they bake.
How to Store Chocolate Chip Cake
Store this chocolate chip cake covered at room temperature for 3 to 4 days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months; let it thaw at room temperature before serving.
Serving Suggestions
This chocolate chip cake is delicious as-is, but I especially love it served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! It’s also great with a dollop of whipped cream and fresh strawberries.
FAQs
Sprinkling the chocolate chips with a little sugar will help prevent the chips from sinking. My recipe also uses mini chocolate chips, which are lighter than large chips. If you only have large chocolate chips, toss them in a tablespoon of flour before sprinkling them over the cake to help them stay in the center of the cake as it bakes.
The term “folding in” means to stir gently. Chocolate chips are usually “folded in” rather than mixed into batter with an electric mixer. Stronger, electric mixers can break the chocolate chips and make them into small pieces. Gently stirring in the chips, or folding them in, will make them perfectly incorporated throughout the batter.
Melted chocolate will set on the top of a cake. It will set faster if you put the cake in the fridge to cool. Just remember that pure melted chocolate will set and look a little streaky with white stripes or spots. Try making a chocolate ganache instead which will set on the cake beautifully and be soft enough to cut.
More Amazing Cake Recipes
Chocolate Chip Cake
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups sour cream
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
Chocolate Chip Sprinkle
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9×13 baking dish.
- Add all of the ingredients for the cake to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix everything together using a paddle attachment or an electric hand mixer. The batter will be thick but smooth.
- Spread half of the cake batter in the bottom of the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle ⅛ cup of sugar and one cup of the mini chocolate chips over the layer of cake batter.
- Drop the rest of the cake batter into the pan and spread it across the chocolate chip layer. It is okay if some of the sugar and chocolate chips get mixed into the batter. In fact, it is good! You want to slightly mix the chips into the batter.
- Sprinkle the rest of the sugar and chocolate chips over the top of the cake.
- Bake the cake for 30 minutes. The top of the cake will be golden brown and the cake will be pulling from the edges of the pan slightly. Do not overbake the cake! It becomes dry pretty quickly.
- Cut the cake and serve while warm.
Notes
- You can use regular sized chocolate chips but mini chips tend not to sink into the cake as it bakes. The mini chips stay suspended in the batter better. See the tip in the post above for details.
- Top the cake with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extra treat.
