Here’s the story of my mom’s chocolate chip cake! This cake is truly one of her signature dishes, and one of my favorite cakes. It’s easy to make (it’s semi-homemade), travels well, and is adored by everyone. If you can’t wait to make this wonderful cake, click here for the recipe, and click here for a how-to video.
My mom and dad died within seven weeks of each other in the late spring and mid summer of 2015. My dad died first, in May. At his funeral, I talked about his love for family, dogs, friends, and poker. I talked about his sense of humor and love of play, and taught everyone attending what he taught me–how to make a perfect fart noise by licking the inside of your elbow and then blowing a raspberry on it.
When my mom died the following July, I again wanted to share something that she had taught me with everyone at the service. I chose her signature chocolate chip cake. Pretty much everyone who knew my mom had tasted her cake. My brother loved it so much he gave the recipe to a baker in San Diego who made it into a groom’s cake for my brother’s wedding. So, at her service, I listed the ingredients and told people how it was made. After the funeral, I got a card in the mail from one of my mom’s nursing-school friends, asking me to write down that recipe and send it to her. She even included a self-addressed stamped envelope and a blank recipe card.
Over the five years since Mom died, I have made this cake many times. It always brings my mom back to the kitchen with me. I remember how she used to bake a chocolate chip cake for everyone’s birthday, and then bring it to whatever restaurant in which we were celebrating said birthday. After dinner, when the waiter would ask us if we wanted to see the dessert menu, my mom would proudly bring out the cake and ask for plates, forks, and a knife to cut the cake. The amazing thing, to me, was that the restaurants NEVER objected. In fact, in one restaurant the servers cut the cake and served it on cake plates with extra forks, and my mom rewarded those servers with their own slices of cake.
These days, I bake this cake whenever there is something to celebrate. The last time I made it–the night before Election Day 2020, less than a week ago–was to honor a brand-new American citizen from Cameroon who was voting in the USA for the first time.
There is but one rule for making this cake, and it has nothing to do with the pan. My mom baked this cake in an angel-food cake tube pan with a removable bottom. I bake it in a Bundt pan because: 1. I can’t find her tube pan (John, do you have it?); and 2. It looks beautiful as a Bundt pan cake. I have also baked this cake in a 10-inch cake round to rave reviews (you cut it in wedges, like a pie). But there IS a rule that cannot be broken. My mom swore that this cake would only “work” with Nestle brand chocolate chips. You know what? She’s right. I have tried many other brands of chocolate chips over the years. Super-fancy imported chips. See’s chocolate chips (to DIE FOR). Ghiradelli, Hershey, Harris Teeter brand…. they taste okay (more than okay, actually) but they do not work. Unlike Nestle, other chips somehow get all clumped together near the bottom of the pan to form a big chunk of chocolate rather than a constellation of delicious melty gloriousness. I don’t know why. But it is what it is, so I recommend using Nestle chips for best results.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with the flavor of the cake. Mom’s cake was a lovely and rich milk chocolate-level of chocolate, since she started with a yellow cake and added chocolate pudding mix. I sometimes love a darker chocolate, so. I make the cake with chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding. My husband Mark is a vanilla lover, so for him I use yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding. I still add the chocolate chips; otherwise, it really wouldn’t be Mom’s cake. Despite all the experiments and tweaks, her recipe is still the best. Thanks, Mom!
