This easy, high altitude chocolate chip breakfast cake is buttery and soft, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and mini chocolate chips. For a quick and easy breakfast on a special occasion, or just for a sweet snack with a cup of coffee, this sour cream chocolate chip cake is ready to enjoy warm from the oven in just a little over an hour.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for chewy chocolate chip blondies, chocolate chip cupcakes, and the best chocolate chip cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No Mixer Needed. The cake batter comes together quickly and easily with just a bowl and whisk.
Enjoy Warm from the Oven. There’s no waiting for cake with this chocolate chip breakfast cake! It only needs to cool for a little bit, before you can enjoy a piece of warm, soft, buttery cake.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Flour. I like to use cake flour for this cake, rather than all-purpose flour, to give it a softer, more tender texture.
- Granulated Sugar. Adds sweetness and moisture.
- Baking Powder. Leavening agent, so the cake rises as it bakes.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness.
- Eggs. Gives the cake moisture, strength and structure.
- Sour Cream + Butter + Oil. A combination of sour cream, butter and oil adds moisture, fat for flavor and richness, and a little acidity for a tender cake.
- Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
- Chocolate Chips. I prefer mini chocolate chips, so they’re distributed throughout the cake a bit more than larger chocolate chips would be.
- Cinnamon Sugar. Instead of making this chocolate chip cake with crumb topping, I decided on a simple sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top, for an extra touch of sweetness and warmth.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly grease an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, melted butter, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and fold everything together with a spatula until combined. Fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips. The batter will be fairly thick.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle the batter with half the cinnamon sugar. Bake the cake for about 28-30 minutes, for a 9-inch pan, or a few minutes longer for an 8-inch pan, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- While the cake is hot, sprinkle with the remainder of the cinnamon sugar and mini chocolate chips.
- Let the cake cool for 30 minutes, then serve warm.
Frequently Asked Questions
How should I store leftover cake?
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Re-warm individual pieces of cake in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds at 50% power for a soft, just baked texture.
Will this cake work with a crumb topping?
If you’d like to make a chocolate chip crumb cake or chocolate chip coffee cake, you can definitely add a crumb topping instead of the cinnamon sugar. You’ll likely need to add a few extra minutes to the bake time. I’d recommend using one of the crumb topping recipes from my other crumb cakes.
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High Altitude Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cake
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ¾ cup full fat sour cream, room temperature
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup + 2 tbsp mini chocolate chips, divided
- ¼ cup cinnamon sugar (1/4 cup granulated sugar + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly grease an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, melted butter, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and fold everything together with a spatula until combined. Fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips. The batter will be fairly thick.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan, and sprinkle the batter with half the cinnamon sugar. Bake the cake for about 28-30 minutes, for a 9-inch pan, or a few minutes longer for an 8-inch pan, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with moist crumbs clinging to it.
- While the cake is hot, sprinkle with the remainder of the cinnamon sugar and mini chocolate chips.
- Let the cake cool for 30 minutes, then serve warm.
If I wanted to make this for a group, can I double the recipe and use a 9×13?
I’m sure that would work.
A go-to recipe in our house. Simple to make and delicious! Thx so much (@5280)
I live at little over 7000 ft how should I adjust this?
Please see my FAQs: https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/
I made this today and it turned out delicious but I live at lil over 7000 feet and the middle kind of sunk in so I think I need to do some kind of adjustments but I’m not sure what could you advise?
You’re almost 2,000 feet higher than me, so you should definitely make a few adjustments – increasing the flour and decreasing the leavening will help. Please see my FAQs for more details.
https://curlygirlkitchen.com/baking-faqs/