my favorite chocolate chip cake :: cake mix hack

I’m not a huge cake fan. Give me a fresh baked cookie or brownie and I’ll be your biggest fan. Cake is okay, but has a tendency to be dry and I don’t like frosting, so that can get a little tricky. But THIS cake. Oh, friends, let me tell you. It has no frosting (none needed), is sweet without being overwhelming and is (while I inexplicably can’t stand this word, there’s really no other way to describe it) moist.

I love that it’s so simple to throw together I can do it in the time it takes to heat up the oven. I’m often a from scratch baker, but when I can use a mix and get a delicious cake, I go for it. A mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do, right?

Without further adieu, the recipe:

Ingredients: 3 eggs, 1 cup sour cream, 1 yellow cake mix, 1 vanilla pudding mix (just the powder–don’t actually make the pudding), 3/4 cup oil, 3/4 cup water, 3/4 bag chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together and place in a 13×9 pan or a bundt pan. If you are like me, you will eat a few healthy spoonfuls of the batter.  Yes, it is as good as it looks.  Bake at 350 for around 45 minutes (I find this can vary greatly by what oven I use, so just look for a not-too-jiggly center and a golden brown (but not crisp) top–see pic below).

Cool. Enjoy.

Note: Many people also make this cake with chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding mix. Give that a try if you’d like! I love the vanilla cake with the chocolate chips so I’ve never wanted to try another way!