This Chocolate Chip Cake is 2 layers of moist and delicious cake with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips baked right in, and a sweet vanilla chocolate chip buttercream frosting to boot!
Table of Contents
About the Recipe
This chocolate chip cake is 2, 8-inch layers of moist and fluffy white cake that has mini semi-sweet chocolate chips baked right in. It’s a super easy recipe to make without using your hand mixer or stand mixer and pairs perfectly with this creamy vanilla chocolate chip buttercream frosting.
Both the chocolate chip cake layers and the chocolate chip buttercream frosting can be made in advance. You can even freeze this cake easily after frosting it too. Just make sure to bring it to room temperature before enjoying it!
A Few Helpful Tips
Prep your cake pans. Whenever I am baking cakes (bundt cakes included), I always use Baker’s Joy. It’s a flour-based baking spray that just works super well and I’ve never had any issues getting a cake stuck in a pan. Generously coat both 8-inch cake pans.
I also recommend adding a parchment paper circle to the bottom of the cake pan, then respraying the top lightly with more baking spray.
Coat your chocolate chips. This is just for the cake part of the recipe. Coating them in a little of the whisked dry mixture before adding them to the batter at the end helps to keep them from sinking to the bottom while baking.
I will say, though, that even with flour coating, sometimes your chips will still sink (it’s even happened to me), but your cake will still be good, I promise!
Let your cakes cool. Before frosting your cakes, make sure they are 100% cooled.
Storing your cake layers. If you are making your cake in advance, you can keep these chocolate chip cake layers kept at room temperature double-wrapped tightly in plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
You can also freeze them for up to one month, by double wrapping them tightly in plastic wrap and placing them into a large freezer bag.
Wait on the chocolate chips. If making your chocolate chip buttercream frosting in advance, wait to add in the chocolate chips until you’re ready actually to frost the cake. If you add them in before, it will make it harder to revive the frosting when you mix it again in the mixer.
Keep the frosting stored in a tightly sealed food container for up to a week in the refrigerator. Bring it out 45 minutes to 1 hour before using, then give it a few whips of the stand mixer and paddle attachment. Then you can add in the chocolate chips.
You can also omit the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips from the buttercream frosting entirely if you would like a smoother look to your frosting, or having them in the cake is perfect enough.
Alternatively, you can try this chocolate frosting recipe.
Recommended Cake Baking Tools
Recipe FAQs
I used Wilton brand 8″ x 2″ cake pans for this chocolate chip cake recipe.
This is totally your call. I do, on occasion, like to use my Wilton bake strips when baking round cakes. They do an excellent job of preventing doming on your cakes. If you don’t have any, you can either cool the cakes upside down on the cooling racks or simply cut and level the domes off the top of your cakes. Make sure to use a serrated bread knife and wait until your cakes have cooled completely.
This helps to prevent them from sinking to the bottom during baking. Even with doing this sometimes, they’ll still sink, but I promise your cake will still taste just as good!
When fully assembled and frosted, this chocolate chip cake measures approximately 4 1/2 inches high (with each cake layer being 2″ tall).
Chocolate Chip Cake
Ingredients
chocolate chip cake
- 2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup Whole Milk, 1% or 2% can also be used
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips
chocolate chip buttercream frosting
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 4 cup Sifted Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 cup Heavy Cream
- 1/4 cup Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips
Instructions
chocolate chip cake
- Adjust oven rack to the 2nd level position (just above center) and preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Spray 2, 8 inch cake pans with a flour-based baking spray and set aside. You may also wish to add parchment paper circles and/or cake strips.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Reserve 2-3 tablespoons of this dry mixture for the mini chocolate chips to be coated in before they're added to the batter.2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour, 2 tsp Baking Powder, 1/4 tsp Salt
- In a separate large mixing bowl, beat together the unsalted butter and granulated sugar. Add in the eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and whole milk, mixing until well blended.1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, 2 Large Eggs, 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil, 1 cup Whole Milk, 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract, 1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
- Add the whisked dry ingredients (minus 2-3 tablespoons for coating the mini chocolate chips) with the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the coated semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. The cake batter will be on the thicker side, but easily spreadable in the cake pans.1 cup Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips
- Evenly scoop and spread the cake batter into the 2 prepared 8-inch cake pans and bake side-by-side for 32-35 minutes at 350ºF or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean (my oven took 35 minutes).
- When done, allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes before inverting the cakes onto wire cooling racks. Make sure the cakes have cooled completely before frosting.
- Cakes can be double wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up 3 days. If planning to freeze, double wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and place them in a large freezer bag. Cakes can remain in the freezer for up to a month. When ready, take the cakes out of the freezer and frost.
chocolate chip buttercream frosting
- Using your hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the unsalted butter on medium-high speed until completely smooth (about 2-3 minutes).1 cup Unsalted Butter
- Switching the speed to low, add in the sifted powdered sugar one cup at a time until blended. Then add in the vanilla extract and heavy cream. Stir the mini chocolate chips using a spatula. If making the frosting in advance, wait to add the chocolate chips until you're ready to frost the cake.4 cup Sifted Powdered Sugar, 1 tsp Vanilla Extract, 1/4 cup Heavy Cream, 1/4 cup Semi-Sweet Mini Chocolate Chips
Video
Notes
- This cake when assembled and frosted measures approx. 4 1/2″ high (with each cake layer being 2″ tall).
- When spraying the cake pans with baking spray, you can also add an 8″ circle of parchment paper to the inside bottom of the pans.
- While I didn’t test the recipe this way, you can make this Chocolate Chip Cake as cupcakes. The baking time stays the same, but you will reduce your baking time to 18-20 minutes. The recipe will yield 18-24 cupcakes.
- 9/30/22 – The recipe has been retested/updated after hearing issues with chocolate chips sinking to the bottom.
Nutrition
Nutritional information provided above is an estimate only and will vary based on specific ingredients used. See Nutritional Disclaimer for more info.
excellent recipe. classic cake. very sweet. I made it with 2 – 8″ cake pans and would like to try my hand at making it into a tiered cake as a gift for my friends anniversary party. Amateur baker here and am trying to work the math out for how to adjust the recipe for 6″ and 10″ cake pans. Do you have any suggestions?
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe; thank you for making it! I never tested this recipe using another cake pan, but it might work if you double the recipe and divide it between the 6, 8, and 10-inch cake pans (assuming one of each). If you make it as a tiered cake, I would love to see how it turned out!
I made this cake for my husbands birthday and it was a hit! Super yummy and beautiful! Will keep this recipe for another occasion!
So glad you and your husband enjoyed this cake, Michelle! Thank you for making it!
I have this cake in the oven right now!! Is it normal for the wet ingredients to separate when you add the cold milk to it?? Should I have set the milk out for awhile before I added it? It seemed to mix ok when I added the dry ingredients to it but it looked chunky and weird before that. Just wondering if I did something wrong?? Thanks.
So happy you’re making this; thank you! To answer your question, I don’t think you did anything wrong. It’s quite possible that was just some bits of the butter that maybe weren’t fully mixed in when you had added the milk. Have a great weekend, and hope you enjoy the cake!
Delicious! Made twice the amount of batter to ensure I had enough for 3 8” pans. Trimmed it up and added a little green to go with the peppermint extract; which I doubled for this recipe and it was great! Moist cake and the peppermint was a subtle compliment! Thanks!! Will make again! 😄
Awesome, Ginnie! Thank you so much for sharing your results. I’m glad it was a hit!
Haven’t made this yet, but looking at non chocolate cakes for a mint chocolate chip cake base! I see this cake has 1 tablespoon of vanilla. How would you incorporate peppermint extract into this recipe??
Thanks for your help!
Without having tested this, I would say to keep the vanilla extract amount as is, then add 1/2 tsp of peppermint extract. A little goes a long way when it comes to peppermint extract, so I wouldn’t go too much more than that. The other alternative would be to leave the chocolate chip cake part as is and add the peppermint extract to only the frosting. Hope this helps!
Thanks! I’ll test it out for ya! 😊 can’t wait to try this!
I appreciate that, thanks! Have a great weekend!
Hi !!! I’m going to make this recipe today. It looks so good and we love chocolate chips in almost anything dessert ☺️ I wanted to ask, Is it needed to sift the flour or you don’t sift for this recipe ?
Sorry for the late reply to your question! It’s totally not required, but it does help break up any possible lumps of flour.
turned out great!! the addition worked well, none of the chocolate chips sank. also, writing the measurements needed under each step is SUPER convenient, thank you so much 😀
You’re so welcome! I’m glad the cake was a hit!
Just took my cakes out of the oven. They turned out very well. I baked them for 32 minutes and they were a lovely golden color. I’m waiting for them to cool down so I can frost them. I used white chocolate chips instead of the dark chips and will be making a chocolate icing from the back of a Ghirardelli dutch process cocoa bag.
Also, thank you for the detailed instructions. I like the way you put the measurements in bold letters along with the step by step instructions. This was perfect for my 2 sided printer!
Would love to hear how it turned out with the white chocolate chips! That sounds lovely! And thank you (regarding the ingredients/instructions). I know what a pain it is having to scroll up or look up each time for the ingredient amounts, so I decided to include them below.
Any way I can get a copy of the old recipe? I tested a bunch of recipes to make my own wedding cake and we decided on that one but I never printed it. I haven’t tried the new one yet.
Hi! Yes, I can email it to you!
Flavor wise cake was decent. Chocolate chips fell to the bottom even with coating in flour which has never been an issue before.