Recipe: Chocolate Chip Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Mocha Frosting

Inspired by chocolate chip cookies, this recipe for a chocolate chip layer cake with milk chocolate mocha frosting comes from Tate's Bake Shop in Southampton, Long Island. It's sure to steal the show at your next celebration.

Kathleen King began baking chocolate chip cookies in her mother's kitchen when she was 11 years old, and her first customers were the neighbors of her parents' farm on Long Island. Now, she whips up all kinds of delicious goodies just down the road, at Tate's Bake Shop in Southampton, which she named after her father. Here, King shares a birthday-worthy version of her famous chocolate chip cookies.

Chocolate Chip Layer Cake

"I developed this cake with the beloved flavors of a chocolate chip cookie. If you don’t have two 9-by-3-inch pans, use three 8-by-1½-inch pans and make cupcakes with the excess batter. Regular chips are too large for the cake, so be sure to use miniature chips."

Makes 12-16 servings

Ingredients

Softened butter and all-purpose flour for the pans

3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups buttermilk

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar

½ pound (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1½ cups (9 ounces) miniature chocolate chips

Directions

1. Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter two 9-by-3-inch round cake pans (springform pans are fine) and line the bottoms with wax or parchment paper. Dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess.

2. To make the cake: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a glass measuring cup, mix together the buttermilk and vanilla. In a large bowl, beat the brown sugar and butter together with an electric mixer set on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. One at a time, beat in the eggs and yolks, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in 2 equal additions, beating until smooth and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Fold in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and smooth the tops.

3. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let cool on wire cooling racks for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the insides of the pans to release the cakes, invert onto the racks, and remove the pans and paper. Turn the cakes right side up on the racks and let cool completely.