Chocolate chips are part of the chocolate cake batter and the two-ingredient frosting on this rich, easy-to-make cake. Recipe below.
THE OTHER DAY I WENT INTO THE PANTRY to find something or other, and I did not find it, but I did come across a lot of bags of chocolate chips. I am not even sure where they came from, as I don’t recall actually buying any at all in the first place. Well, maybe one bag, around the holidays, for a project that had temporarily flitted through the brain. But… is this five bags of chocolate chips? That is a lot of chocolate chips for a two-person household.
So, heavy sigh, now what? As a preface, no cookies please. Terry enjoys cookie baking and finds it meditative. For me, it always becomes so fiddly that by the time everything is done, I’m totally annoyed and feel all sticky and wonder why I took up this cookie project in the first place and why would I even want to eat any.
But cake—well, you all know we love cake.
This is a nice weeknight cake, very simple to create. You mix it up in five or ten minutes. The olive oil enhances the chocolate flavor. It stays invitingly moist for days. Bake it in the evening and you will find it tastes better in the morning—richer and more mellow. You can turn it into a two-layer cake if you are feeling ambitious or you can do what we did, which is leave it as is and slap on some frosting all around the whole thing. It is also completely dandy with no frosting whatsoever. Nothing in it is exotic.
Even the frosting is easy—it’s from Amanda Hesser’s mother’s classic Chocolate Dump-It Cake recipe, and it consists entirely of equal amounts of chocolate chips and sour cream—and btw, I am probably going to put this on every cake going forward because it is just the perfect balance of chocolaty and tangy and effortless.
And how does it taste? Nice! Not too sweet, very alluring. In fact, pretty addictive. We found ourselves going back into the kitchen and cutting off additional little slivers again and again. (Yes! Extra workout sessions!)
Chocolate/Chocolate Chip Cake
Equipment
- 9-inch springform pan (see Kitchen Notes)
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose unbleached white flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar, well packed
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1 cup buttermilk, well shaken
- 1 cup chocolate chips or more
For the frosting:
- This makes enough for a modest coating (see Kitchen Notes)
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Prepare the pan. Oil and flour a 9-inch springform pan; line the bottom with parchment paper and oil that. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, white sugar and cocoa powder into a medium bowl. Stir together with a fork, then stir in the brown sugar. Before adding in the brown sugar, try to break up any lumps with your fingers.
- In a large bowl, mix the eggs, vanilla, olive oil and buttermilk until combined. The oil will want to separate—that is fine. Leave it that way.
- Sift the dry ingredients into the large bowl and beat using a hand mixer until everything is smooth. You can do this by hand but the mixer will do a more efficient job and will just take a minute or two At the last, stir in the chocolate chips. Pour this liquid batter into the springform pan.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes on the middle rack, depending on your oven. The cake is ready when a tester inserted near the center comes out clean and the cake is just beginning to pull away from the sides.
- Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Then gently loosen around the edges with a table knife, and remove the cuff. Let it cool completely before frosting it.
- When the cake is entirely cool, make the frosting. Gently melt the chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler, or in your microwave, if you have a chocolate melting feature. (In our microwave, it hides among the frozen food thaw functions). Let the melted chocolate cool until it is just a little warm to the touch, then stir in the sour cream, a big spoonful at a time, until it is well incorporated and smooth. The frosting is ready to spread.
Love that frosting! And the cake is pretty darn good, too. 🙂 Really an interesting recipe. And although we really like chocolate chip cookies, we haven’t baked any in ages — much easier to make chocolate chip bars. They’re better than cookies, actually. May need to add this frosting next time we make them. 🙂
This frosting sounds SO good (and easy)! I can see using it on vanilla bean cake, yellow cake, raspberry/vanilla cake… the possibilities seem endless but as a chocoholic I can guarantee this chocolate cake will be the favorite.
Lovely dish, as well.
Thanks for sharing the info about Terry loving to bake cookies ~ over the years he’s always made it sound like he doesn’t enjoy baking.
Happy Spring to you both.
yep i definitely need to make this one!
No one here would judge me if I made just the frosting, right?
Just a small batch, 1/4 c each ingredient.
After all, I need to do a little quality control before I put it in a cake… 🙂
Just wanted to circle back and let you know we made this frosting for a cake yesterday. It’s fabulous! SO glad you shared this recipe. 🙂
Does this frosting harden? Or will it stay soft due to the sour cream?
Lisa, it stays soft, sometimes with a very thin sugary crust. It’s not one of those super-smooth super-rigid icings. I hope this is helpful.
My 6 year old grandson wanted a chocolate chocolate chip cake for a birthday party, and I found this recipe. I wasn’t sure whether to use mini or regular chocolate chips. I used the regular size chips. The cake and icing are easy to make. The icing is super. I made this icing before so there was no hesitation to use it on this cake. Everyone loved this delicious cake. Definitely a repeat performance is in order.