Zero Hour Cake

I recently went through a review of my posts and found that I do not have any many easy to prepare desserts.  With the busy lifestyle that some people have, a lot are looking for something less gourmet and quick.  This particular cake is a breeze to put together and includes ingredients that most people have on hand.

I would say this is a good snack cake to have around for when the kids get home from school as well as an after dinner treat during the week.  The cake is very moist and since it includes cinnamon, it does make you think of a coffee cake.  However, the addition of the chocolate chips brings you back to the idea of a snack cake.  I did not frost it, for I felt the flavor of the cake was rich enough.

The picture above is deceiving, most of the chocolate chips sank to the bottom of the cake. However, I did not have any issues when trying to release the cake from the pan.  Since the chips did sink, I think placing them on top of the batter before baking is much better than mixing in the batter.  These were mini chips and were coated with flour before mixing in, so putting them on top of the batter I see as the only remedy if you use them as an ingredient in this cake.

Zero Hour Cake
by flourtrader

Ingredients
4 eggs
1/3 cup mini choc chips
1/2 cup or 1 stick butter
1 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
confectioners sugar (for dusting cake)

Preheat the over to 350 degrees.  Prepare a 9 inch square cake pan by buttering all inside surfaces.  Then line the bottom and two sides of inside of the pan (with extra overhang on the sides) by using parchment paper and butter the face up side.  Then dust the all the insides with flour.

In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon and baking powder.  Set aside.

Then cream together butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.  Add one egg and beat for 20 seconds.  Continue to add the eggs, one by one, and beat until blended.  Using a spatula, fold in the sifted ingredients into the egg batter until no dry streaks remain.

Place the batter into the pan, smoothing the top so all is even.  Then sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the batter (see third paragraph above).  Then place pan in oven and bake for about 23-28 minutes or until tester comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan.  Once cool, you can either lift out of the pan or leave in the pan for cutting and serving.  Lightly sprinkle with confectioners sugar.
                             **LAST YEAR: Blackout Cookies**