Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

This is an excellent company cake which is both homey enough for family nibbles but equally good for holiday and Shabbat snacking. In fact, I honestly made this since I expected some of the kids to come and in the end they kinda disappeared on me only to re-surface the next week (such is life) and it wound up being served primarily to DH.

Now know this, he’s not a big chocolate fan. While I too prefer things in a cinnamon- whatever-baked-good it may be, I can go for the occasional brownie and my favorite cookie recipe I developed (with Netanel and Ayelet in mind, actually) the Divine Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies but DH often will look around and say, that’s the only dessert we have? looking a bit forlorn. The point being that I wouldn’t have made this cake (a new one) had I known it was only he who would be the primary devourer. So, he surprised me. He announced that the cake is excellent and I could definitely make it again. I also thought I might have to call Netanel to come and take half the cake but lo and behold, the cake disappeared – in large quantities and quite quickly! I also, (rare for me) asked him if I should post this cake this week or my new and improved cinnamon roll flower cake (I’ve been working on variations for a while and this is the one!!) and he said, the chocolate chip one. Need I say more? So this is the post for this week. I hope you enjoy it as much as my not such a chocolate fan loving hubby did.

The cake is a thick batter and this is important since if the batter is too light and liquidy, it won’t support the chocolate chips throughout the cake and they will sink. Now I used chocolate disks mainly which are a bit heavier but they still stayed nicely suspended in the cake but even the ones which “sunk” a bit, since you make it in a bundt pan and turn it upside down to serve will be on top of the cake and it’s really attractive. I debated a chocolate drizzle on top but believe it or not, DH said no, don’t add it, it’s perfect just the way it is. (As you can see, I’ve not recovered from the shock. He loves to give me critiques on the food, since I need feedback before I will blog, but this enthusiasm over a chocolate chip cake just blew me away 🙂 ).

Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C.

Start with your soft butter/margarine – now when I say soft I really mean soft. Leave it out for about 2-3 hours till it’s seriously soft. This way it will whip into the sugar properly.

Beat in the mixer until well incorporated and fluffy like so::

Remember to scrape sides and bottom before adding the eggs (also during if it looks like it”s stuck). Beat in the eggs, one at a time, whipping into the mixture. Then mix together your dry ingredients – flour, baking powder and salt – in a bowl

and get your milk/soy milk ready to hand. Turn the mixer on low and gently shake the flour mixture and milk from two sides into the mixture, slowly till incorporated, and it should look like so:

As you can see, it’s a thick batter. Scrape, scrape sides and bottom, no clumps! Excellent. Last but not least, take your cup of chocolate chips/disks and plunk on top of your batter and you will see now just how thick it should be:

As you see above, the batter is so thick it literally sits on top. This is correct and don’t worry that you are missing some liquid. This keeps the chips from sinking. Don’t beat them in, just stir with beaters (flick on flick off) just till they mix in. Good.

Prepare your bundt pan by greasing and flouring !! to avoid it sticking to pan. Now pour the batter (may need help with a spatula to remove since it’s thick) and scrape into prepared pan.

Pop into preheated oven for approximately 50 minutes, checking after 45 minutes with a wooden toothpick or skewer. Should come out clean. When done, remove from oven and let cool completely on wire rack. When completely cold!! gently pry away from all the edges and lightly press down to release the cake and place a platter on the pan and flip out carefully (make sure to release well, now breaking cake apart)

Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

1 cup (227 g) softened butter/margarine

1 1/2 cups (300 grams) white sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups (330 grams) all purpose white flour

2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (240 ml) milk, or soy milk

1 cup (160 grams) semi sweet or dark chocolate chips or small disks

in a mixer, beat the butter/marg and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each additional egg, making sure to scrape sides and bottom of mixer to fully incorporate. Add the vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir with a whisk and add it to the butter mixture followed by the milk. Beat on medium-low speed just until combined. 

Bake 350 50 minutes to an hour or till wooden toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.