Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chips

Enjoy making my moist Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chips for an easy breakfast treat.

This coffee cake family recipe is super delicious on its own. But with the addition of sour cream and chocolate chips, this easy cake becomes even more decadent!

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Recipe to Make Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Make Coffee Cake Base

Creating a delicious cake base is the first step towards getting a delicious sour cream coffee cake! Of course, after we create the base, we’re going to make a super delicious crumbly topping with chocolate chips!

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Step 1: Preheat Oven

Preheat oven to 350° F (177° C)

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Step 2: Prepare Pan

Prepare 9 x 13 pan with baking spray and lightly coat with flour.

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Step 3: Beat Butter and Sugar

Beat butter and white sugar until light and fluffy.

For this dish, we’re going to use ½ cup of softened butter. (Margarine would also work, but it is a lot less healthy due to its trans fat content.)

For the best results, you can leave the amount of butter that you’re planning to use on the counter for a few hours. This will make it the perfect consistency to beat into the sugar!

Once you have your softened butter all ready to go, it’s time to get 1 cup of granulated sugar. You’ll want to beat your sugar and butter together until it creates a smooth mixture. It’ll be super light and fluffy when you’re done with this step!

You can use a stand mixer to do this job for you, a hand-held electric mixer, or even just a regular spoon or whisk (although this last option could take the longest).

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Step 4: Add Eggs

For this next step, you’ll just need 2 eggs. You can crack them directly into the bowl with your sugar and butter and continue to beat.

Or if you’re worried about getting eggshells into your mixture, you can always crack them in a separate bowl first and pour them in! While doing so will create another dish to wash later, you can be extra sure that your final cake is going to be egg shell-free.

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Step 5: Stir in Dry Ingredients

If you’d like, you can mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl. However, adding them directly into your mixture of sugar, butter, and eggs will save dishes and probably be faster.

You’ll need 1 ⅓ cup of all-purpose flour. If you’re planning on using another type of flour, it could be worth it to do some research to see if it will have the same effect as all-purpose.

Some recipes (like this one) include both baking powder and baking soda. This is because the recipe contains acid that needs to be offset with baking soda and baking powder alone isn’t enough to properly leaven the dish. While baking soda and baking powder may look the same, they have slightly different compositions- which means that they’re not used in precisely the same way.

Baking powder is going to be essential to add some excellent height to our coffee cake. Not to be confused with baking soda, baking powder is slightly different in composition. We’ll add 1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder on top of your flour.

Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, which requires both an acidic ingredient and a liquid to activate its leavening qualities. In contrast, baking powder is a complete leavening agent that comes with the acid it needs already- so all you’d need to do to activate it is add a liquid.

Cinnamon is the perfect ingredient to give your coffee cake a bit of a spiced kick! For this recipe, you’ll just need 1 teaspoon. But if you’re a serious cinnamon lover, you can totally experiment with more in the future!

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Step 6: Fold in Sour Cream

If you want some seriously spongey, moist coffee cake, you’re going to need some sour cream. You can add your 1 cup of sour cream into the mixture all at once. Or you can gradually mix it in and see if you want to use the full cup.

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Step 7: Spread into prepared pan

Once you have all of these ingredients mixed together, it’s time to spread your tasty coffee cake batter into a prepared pan. Now it’s time to add the toppings!

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Step 8: Sprinkle Topping

It’s not quite a coffee cake without the delicious crumby topping! Let’s get into the tasty topping ingredients that we’ll use to finish off the recipe. As mentioned in the title of this recipe, it’s time for the most exciting part: Adding some chocolate chips!

This is going to be such a unique and delicious part of your coffee cake topping. You need just 1 cup (6 ounces) of chocolate chips. (But feel free to go crazy with them! After all, it’s your coffee cake.) Just sprinkle them on top of the batter after you’ve smoothed it out in your pan.

White granulated sugar is not just a fantastic sweetener- it will also create an enjoyable texture on the top of your cake! 2 tablespoons of white sugar are the perfect amount. But you can always add an extra spoonful if you happen to have a sweet tooth.

Brown sugar has a very different texture than white and will clump together nicely on top of your sour cream coffee cake. Use ⅓ cup of brown sugar for the best results!

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Step 9: Bake

Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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Step 10: Cool

Place on a wire rack to slightly cool.

About 30 minutes of cooling before serving is perfect. This allows the cake to set enough to cut, but it’s still warm enough to enjoy the gooey melted chocolate chips.

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The Origins of Coffee Cake

Coffee cakes initially come from Northern Europe, where they became a popular item to eat with some tea and coffee. They were then brought to the states by German and Scandinavian immigrants. And different versions of coffee cake have been popping up in the United States ever since.

In the 19th century, Americans would sometimes put leftover coffee in their cakes to avoid wasting it. Although most coffee cake does not actually include coffee. It is more of a little snack to enjoy with your coffee or tea!

Adding sour cream makes your cake moist, springy, and flavorful. It helps activate baking soda’s leavening agents and also adds a nice tart flavor. So let’s get into how you can make a delicious, modern-day sour cream coffee cake of your very own!