Grandma's Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

There's something about a long weekend that just makes me feel like baking. So, when we were invited to our friend's place for brunch, I decided to make my Grandma Flossie's famous coffee cake for the occasion. I love any excuse to have dessert for breakfast, don't you?

Cinnamon, sugar, chocolate chips ... sold!

It's always a little nerve-wrecking to try a new recipe, especially the morning you're bringing it to someone's house. Luckily, Flos was available to coach me through a few things (okay, fine ... everything) over the phone. I'm so glad she couldn't see that my entire kitchen was covered in a layer of flour.

Here's the recipe:
Cake Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 pt. sour cream
•  2 cups flour

Chocolate Chip Mixture:

• 1 cup of choc. chips and/or walnuts (your taste)
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350
• Make your chocolate chip/sugar/cinnamon mixture and set bowl aside
• Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder
• Sift into 3 separate piles (Grandma Flos tip: Arrange 3 paper towels on your counter. Use a strainer to shake the ingredients into 3 even piles.Then when it's time to add to the batter, you can just pick up the paper towel and pour the ingredients right in.)
• Blend butter and sugar with an electric mixer
• Add eggs, one at a time and blend
• Add vanilla
• Add the first batch of flour and blend
• Add half of the sour cream and blend
• Then alternate flour, the 2nd half of the sour cream, and the last portion of flour.  

Now here's where the magic happens... pour half of the batter into an 8x8 baking dish (make sure to spray it with a nonstick baking spray first). Top with half of your chocolate chip mixture. Take a knife to swirl it throughout. Spoon in the rest of the batter. But before adding the 2nd part of the chocolate chip mixture, my grandma says to "scoop" the batter from the middle of the cake and push to the sides, so it looks like the middle is sunken in. (It will sort itself out when baking.) Add the rest of the chocolate chip mix. Swirl it around with a knife and be sure to sprinkle some of the cinnamon and sugar on top. Bake for about 45-50 minutes.

You'll know the cake is done when it's nice and brown on top. When you stick a toothpick in the center, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for about 15-20 minutes. Then use a knife to separate the cake from the sides of the pan.

Place a large plate on top of the cake pan. CAREFULLY hold the pan and plate together and flip the cake over so it's out of the pan and upside down on the plate. As my grandma says, "You'll lose some of the cinnamon when you turn it over ... but that's life!" Words to live by.

Then you'll take the plate you want to serve it on, and do the same flip maneuver so that the cake is now right side up. I wasn't careful and sadly smushed a corner off. But I cut it up into cute square pieces for serving so no one knew the difference. Obviously I ate the broken corner to ensure it came out okay.

This cake is especially good when it's warm and the chocolate chips are melty. My grandma has been baking this for 60 years ... so it's a sure thing. Enjoy!

PS - her amazing chocolate cake will be featured in a future blog. Stay tuned!