This Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake is one of our all-time family favorites. It’s the perfect combination of tasting sweet and chocolaty without being too much. It has a perfectly crusty top and is the moistest coffee cake I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating (you can thank the sour cream for that). And it’s a breeze to make.
This recipe has been in my family for a looong time. We affectionately call it Mimi’s Cake in
my family, since it was one of the signature desserts of my grandmother’s (Palma, or Mimi to us grandkids). The recipe came from her sister (my great-aunt) Connie, who adapted it from one of her friends. My mom tells me that the original recipe was for a cake from scratch, but Aunt Connie modified it to make it with a boxed cake mix. Turned out that was a genius shortcut. This cake is amazing.
It was extra special for me this year to make the cake on Mimi’s birthday, because her birthday falls on Palm Sunday, for only the 3rd time since she was born on a Palm Sunday, and given her unique name, Palma.
I grew up living in the same house as my maternal grandparents, in a sort of mother-daughter home, but the two sections of the house were separated only by a sliding door and small stairwell. Mimi always encouraged me to bake and cook when I was younger. She showed me how to make her family recipes, and loved when I tried new ones. Sometimes after she went food shopping, she would leave cake or cookie ingredients on the top of her stairwell for me, and she wouldn’t say a word about it. Except later that day to ask for a bite of whatever I made!
This cake is so well loved by our family and friends. Since my grandparents lived with us, they knew many of my friends and my brother and sisters’ friends very well. I remember on a few separate occasions, a few of our friends expressed disappointment in not getting to have a piece of the cake after she made it on
holidays or birthdays. Within the next few days, she would ask us when that friend was coming over again, and sure enough we would smell the cake baking in her oven the next time he or she was over.
We still make the cake all the time, and we still call it Mimi’s Cake.
Mimi’s Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 8 oz sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, bittersweet chocolate, or any combo you like)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
- Several pads butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour Bundt cake pan.
- Combine cake mix, sour cream, and eggs in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be thick. Add chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Make a mixture of the sugar and cinnamon (if using nuts, add here).
- Spread half of the cake batter into prepared cake pan. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar on top of batter. Dab with small pieces of butter. Spread remaining batter into pan. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar and butter.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Turn off oven, open oven door, and keep the cake in the oven for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and let cool several minutes in the pan if still hot to the touch. Turn out onto serving platter and let cool completely or serve warm.