One Bowl Chocolate Chip Cake

This one bowl chocolate chip cake is amazing! Incredibly after dumping all the ingredients to mix together, it is one of the fluffiest cakes ever!

This one bowl chocolate chip cake is unbelievable. 

Every single last cake batter ingredient is thrown into one bowl and mixed up all together. Professional cake bakers everywhere will tell you this means sudden death to your light and fluffy cake. 

But I’m arguing back: not so! It is moist and tender and one of the fluffiest cakes I’ve ever had. 

In other words, it’s kind of a miracle cake. 

Double Duty Cake

With the layers of chocolate chips and cinnamon/sugar (trust me, it’s a winning combo!), this cake has made many, many appearances for birthdays and Sunday dinner desserts and potluck treat offerings. 

But it also reminds me a lot of a really good coffee cake. Which means, it’s totally acceptable to serve for breakfast. 

I’ve been making this cake for over ten years, and it continues to be a huge favorite. It’s so, so good!!

A True One Bowl Wonder

You may feel morally opposed to throwing the eggs and flour and butter and sour cream and everything else in the same bowl together. I get it. 

It feels weird and slightly wrong. And if you’re like me, you may even start questioning who to even trust anymore!

But I promise, it works. I don’t know how or why, but it does.

Mix up the batter until it is very well-combined. 

Whatever you do, DON’T taste even the smallest smidgeon of batter. Just don’t. It’s terrible and gross and you shouldn’t be eating raw batter anyway. Jeez, who are you?? 

{Ok, lying. It’s actually amazing. And so perfectly cake battery sweet and vanilla-y. If you taste any, good luck stopping at just one little lick.}

Layers and layers

Once the cake batter is ready:

• spread half in a 9X13-inch pan
• sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar
• layer on 1 cup of chocolate chips

Then take the remaining cake batter and dollop spoonfuls across the top of the chocolate chips. 

Doing so will make it easier to spread into an even layer. 

And then repeat the same cinnamon and sugar + chocolate chip layers. 

Easy peasy.

I’ve classically never been a huge fan of the cinnamon + chocolate combination. 

I mean, I would never say no to it, but I don’t necessarily crave it. 

But in this one bowl chocolate chip cake, the cinnamon and sugar gives the most delightful ribbon of spicy sweetness to the middle of the cake and allows the top to get crispy, crackly golden. 

And the sweet cinnamon flavor is so delicious with the dots of rich, melted chocolate chips all throughout the cake. 

Let’s Talk about Chocolate Chips

You already know I feel strongly about chocolate chips. There’s very limited room in my heart for milk chocolate chips, and so I always use semisweet chocolate chips in this cake. 

But you do you. And I promise we can all still be friends. 

Interestingly, while I love a good quality chocolate chip (Guittard or Ghirardelli), they don’t stay as soft in this cake after it cools as Nestle or Kirkland Signature brands of chocolate chips. 

So do with that information what you will. 

The Great Sinking Debate

Sometimes the middle layer of chocolate chips sink to the bottom of the cake. And sometimes they don’t. 

You can try tossing them with a bit of flour, but in my experience, there’s honestly no rhyme or reason to when or why they sink. Same brand of chocolate chips, same cake recipe, sometimes they sink, sometimes they don’t. 

*Several readers have reported in the comments that when they use mini chocolate chips, they don’t sink at all.

I’ve chosen not to let it keep me awake at night because this chocolate chip cake is crazy delicious no matter if the chocolate chips are well behaved or not. 

Basically, of all things going on in the world right now, we aren’t going to let chocolate chips stress us out. 

This one bowl chocolate chip cake is really, really good served slightly warm or at room temperature on its own. It’s interesting and fluffy and moist enough to do quite well by itself.

But. It is insane in a whole different way served ever so slightly warm with a scoop of ice cream. And hot fudge, too. 

This cake is a solid favorite of ours and so many others (just read through the comments!). I hope you love it, too.

FAQ’S FOR THIS ONE BOWL CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE:

Can I leave out the cinnamon and sugar?
Sure, the cake will still turn out fine. But I promise it’s really delicious with the cinnamon and sugar layers.

Can I halve the recipe?
Yes! A half recipe should fit well in a 9X9-inch baking pan (keep a close eye on the time, I’d check it after about 22 minutes).

Can I sub yogurt for the sour cream?
Many people have done this in the comment thread below with good results!

How can I make sure the chocolate chips in the middle layer don’t sink?
This happens sometimes; it’s not something to stress too much over. Many people have reported that using mini chips solves the sinking issue. Or you can try tossing the chocolate chips in a tablespoon or two of flour before adding to the layers. Brand and type (milk, semisweet) can also make a difference on whether they’ll sink or not.

My cake is taking forever to bake! What gives?
A lot can depend on oven (gas vs. electric, convection bake vs regular) and if your oven bakes hotter or cooler than mine. Also, glass pans can be the culprit, too. Cakes baked in glass pans bake less evenly and can take much longer to bake. So if you are using a glass pan, it won’t be unusual to have to add upwards of 10-15 minutes onto the baking time.

How come my cake sank in the middle after it cooled?
Chances are it needed a few more minutes in the oven. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out with a few moist crumbs. If there’s any hint of wet batter, continue baking for a few more minutes. Also high altitude can play a part in sinking cakes. Try googling “baking cakes at high altitude” for tips (I’ve heard adding a few tablespoons extra flour can help).

Recipe Source: from A. Marilyn and Monique G.
Recipe originally published May 2009; updated Sept 2020 with new pictures, recipe notes, etc.

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