Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Chip Cake

When I was at my parents' house right after Christmas, for our annual sibling holiday gift exchange, I was craving a chocolate chip cake. Absolutely craving. So simple and homey yet delicious after a season of making more exotic or more Christmasy baked goods. But I felt fairly certain it would be disappointing to a decent number of my family, so instead I tried a fancy mascarpone dessert from The Silver Spoon for our Italian-themed meal.

Bad idea.


The dessert--whose recipe came with absolutely no pan size suggestion--exploded in the oven despite being at least an inch under the rim. And I mean exploded--2 inches would not have rescued this baby. My mother's brand new oven was a blackened mess and the only reason fire alarms weren't screaming the entire time is because my parents have an old home and you can shut the door to the room with the fire alarm. The smoke was astounding--at least 2 windows if not more were opened despite the near freezing temperatures. And at one point we could only barely see each other across the kitchen. After all that, no it did not taste good either.

Alas. That's what happens sometimes when you go for untried and fancy over simple, homey, tried and true.


Now this cake did not turn out perfectly in appearance--which I will explain in a moment--but its flavor was spot on. It was super moist because it used oil instead of butter, and my family devoured every last crumb of it. Which is a little unusual--often when I make a cake just for the 4 of us toward the end interest flags, it gets dried out and stale, etc. But not this cake. Alex especially asked for it every night and I am anticipating disappointment tomorrow night when she realizes it's truly gone.


As for the appearance, the recipe called for the glazed cake to be studded with mini chocolate chips. Now I love chocolate, but that is the kind of busywork "landscape cookery" that Nigella Lawson rails against--and I agree. I don't have enough time on my hands to stud an entire bundt or tube cake with standard chocolate chips--let alone mini ones! But I should have realized that the "glaze" would be much thicker to support the weight of all those chips. Don't get me wrong, the glaze is delicious, but in appearance it is a little gloppy and thick. I think if I were to make the cake again I might try eliminating the butter from the glaze--so that is how I wrote the recipe. If you try it let me know how it works.


Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Chip Cake
Adapted from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook, Elinor Klivans

The cake:
3 cups cake flour (I used an AP/cornstarch sub)
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup regular olive oil (or any other vegetable oil)
1 T vanilla
1 cup sour cream (I used a mish mash of what I had around of low fat sour cream and no fat Greek yogurt plus some heavy cream)
1 1/2 cups (9 oz) mini chocolate chips

The glaze:
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, optional (see notes above)
2 T light corn syrup
6 oz semi sweet (60% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped
2 cups regular or mini chocolate chips for studding onto outside of cake, optional (see notes above)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Thoroughly butter or spray a 9 1/2-10 inch bundt or tube pan (I used a 9 inch pan and made one extra mini loaf). If using a tube pan, line the bottom with buttered parchment, but I was ok with my holiday tree bundt pan and nonstick spray, I just used a lot (I was lazy with my silicone loaf pan and only sprayed lightly and it did indeed stick so do be generous).

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and then whisk thoroughly. Set aside. Remove 2 tablespoons of the mixture and toss the mini chocolate chips with it.

Use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running on low, add the oil and vanilla until it is just blended. Add the flour mixture and sour cream, alternating, beginning and ending with the flour mix, in 3 and 2 additions respectively. Mix to incorporate. When there very little flour streaks left, add the floured chocolate chips and fold until everything is incorporated with no flour streaks.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top and place it in the oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs attached (ignore any melted chocolate from hitting a chip), about 1 hour. If you use a smaller pan, as I did, set the timer for less and watch the cake as it may be done early.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack lined with parchment paper (to prevent indentations and sinking). Let the cake cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze, combine the cream and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat. If you are going to stud the outside of the cake with chocolate chips, also add the butter. Mix over the heat until the mixture is hot, the butter melted, and is forming tiny bubbles at the edges. Do not let it come to a true boil (if it does, pour it over the chocolate through a sieve). Pour it over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute. Then stir the chocolate--it will become a melted, smooth ganache.

Klivans instructions call for setting the ganache aside for 20 minutes to let it thicken. I suspect (see my notes above) you should only do this if you are pressing chocolate chips into the cake. Otherwise let it cool for about 5 minutes. Remove the parchment under the cake. Place wax paper under the cooling rack. Pour the glaze over the cake, being sure to get the inside and outside. Using a second piece of wax paper to catch additional drips, remove the original wax paper and use it to pour the chocolate that dripped down back over the cake. If desired, press chocolate chips onto the exterior of the cake.

Let set completely before slicing.