Kay so this cake…. I adore it. It may not be a flavor that comes to mind when someone asks you what cake you love but it’s divine! Seriously this and my chocolate cake are all I ever make myself when given a choice! I rotate through different frostings but this cake… AMAZING.
I get a lot of questions about the ratios of this cake – yes this is correct! Promise! Now I use three 8×3 inch round cake pans or four 7×3 inch cakes for this cake – I like the height. If you only have 1 inch tall cake pans you’ll either need more than three pans or need to cut the recipe back as you don’t want it to over flow in your oven. I like my cake layers tall.
This cake doesn’t rise and dome much either, which I love- and it’s another super moist cake that I use for cake carving if I’m looking to carve something other than rich chocolate cake (but the mini chocolate chips can cause issues when carving a frozen cake, just watch out for the knife catching on frozen chocolate chips)
These cakes cook lower and slower – but they do get super dark before the cake is fully baked. It’s okay, make sure you level the top AND the bottom of the cake layers to get rid of the dark before laying the cake. The inside is moist and soft and totally worth the trimming!
This batter makes three 8 or 9 inch cake layers or four 7 inch layers - now I like my layers tall - so I use 3 inch tall cake pans. If you use 2 inch tall cake pans you'll have to use more layers, more like four 9 inch layers
- 8 cup all-purpose flour (8 1/2 for high altitude)
- 8 cup lightly packed brown sugar (7 1/2 for high altitude)
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cup cold butter cut into pieces
- 4 eggs
- 4 cup full fat sour cream
- 4 tsp baking soda (3 1/2 tsp for high altitude)
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 6 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup butter
- 12 oz full fat cream cheese
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 lbs powdered sugar give or take
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Preheat your oven to 325 (25 degrees hotter for high altitude - use an oven thermometer)
in a mixer with the whisk attachment add the flour, sugar and cinnamon
add the butter and mix on hight until the butter pieces are the size of peas - stop before it starts to warm and cream
add the eggs one at a time, mixing between
in a medium sized bowl mix the baking soda and sour cream, let sit 3 mins (it will expand)
add the sour cream mixture into the batter along with the milk and stir until just evenly moistend
stir in the chocolate chips - it will be a thick batter
spread into three 8 or 9 inch pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about an hour (50 mins for high altitude)
Melt the butter and brown sugar together until the brown sugar dissolves
let cool to room tempurature (you don't want this warm when you add it to the frosting)
beat the cream cheese until creamy
pour the brown sugar mixture into the cream cheese and beat until smooth
mix in the vanilla
add half the powdered sugar and beat
add more powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until your happy with the thickness
level the cakes (I also trim the bottom to get rid of the dark outside)
place one cake on the cake plate and add 1 cup frosting and spread, repeat, add the final layer of cake
frost the outside of the cake and decorate how you'd like - I usually add extra mini chocolate chips
Recipe Video
it tends to bake dark, don't worry about it, I cut off the top and bottom when I frost the cake
Here is an image from when I made the three 8 inch layered cake! It’s the same amt of batter, and you can see the shape difference in the cake, tall and thin vs fat… but just a 1 inch different in the pan width!
And today is National Cake Day!!! AMAZING – my all time favorite day right? So us Celebrating Food Bloggers have 9 new recipes for you and links to some older favorites as well! What’s your favorite cake to make?
New recipes from the Celebrating food holiday bloggers!
- Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cake – HERE
- Gingerbread Spice Cake – Life Made Simple
- Fudgy Grasshopper Cake – Creations by Kara
- Lemon Curd Cupcakes – The Baker Upstairs
- Vegan Ginger Pear Bundt Cake – Namely Marly
- Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake – Foodie with Family
- Cranberry Pound Cake – Real Mom Kitchen
- Instant Pot Peanut But Cup Cheesecake – 365 Days of Slow Cooking
- Best Chocolate Cake with Coconut Buttercream – Gather for Bread
More Cake Recipes from ME
- Perfect Chocolate cake with Chocolate Ganache Buttercream
- Maple bacon Cupcakes with Maple buttercream
- Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting
- Coconut Pecan cheesecake filled Bundt cake
- Almond Poppyseed Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Snickers Caramel Cupcakes
- Peanut Butter S’more cookie Cake
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Macadamia nut cookie cake
More amazing cake recipes you should try!
- German chocolate cake – life love and sugar
- Zucchini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting – i am baker
- carrot cake recipe – sally’s baking addiction
- peanut butter cake – beth cakes
- cookie dough chocolate cake – liv for cake
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Love this cake recipe and the flavors of cinnamon and chocolate chips! Such an elegant cake!!
Can I use this recipe for cupcakes?
yup – obviously they’ll be denser than typical cupcakes (but I love them) I use them as the base cupcake for these homemade snoballs. And remember to shorten the cooking time