Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Cherry picking was so FUN!! It was just starting to get hot when we arrived, so we were on a MISSION to get as many cherries as we could in an hour. Turns out my Mom is a cherry-picking machine. I underestimated her. Dad turned into a cherry-picking ladder, hoisting Joe (and for a much shorter time, Stephen) up to the top to find the best bunches of perfectly ripe cherries. Stephen and I stuck to the lower branches. Sometimes he'd get inside, under the branches, and we'd call ourselves the "Inside Out" team. It was a lovely hour, and Stephen said that cherry-picking was "kind of like meditating. So relaxing!"

 The Geologist was a little bit shocked when I told him how much we picked... (He's off visiting a rig in Utah somewhere) ...but I figure sixteen pounds of cherries should last me at least a year, right??

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake (adapted slightly from Cozycakes Cottage)
Printable Recipe

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened/room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 and ¼ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract
¼ cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

For Streusel:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 heaping tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

2 Tb softened butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 inch springform pan and set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.Cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs and extracts. Scrape down the sides and add flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Stir in 1 1/4 cup chocolate chips and pour into prepared pan. 

Make streusel by combining the flour, sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a small bowl. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until they resemble coarse crumbs. (This is a pretty fine-grained streusel, you won't have the usual big lumps) Sprinkle streusel over the top of the batter, and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the streusel.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Gently run a knife around edge of pan to loosen cake and remove the outer ring of the pan. Let cool completely before slicing! (This is one of those cakes that will turn mushy if you cut it too soon!)

My boys love coffeecake more than just about anything I bake. Coffeecake is to them what muffins are to me. And scones. Anyway. Stephen has had a coffeecake for his birthday for the last three years, and this one might be his new favorite!

 We loooooved that it combines cinnamon-y streusel with chocolate chips! Best of two worlds! It smelled like heaven baking, too.

Crispy, crumbly cinnamon streusel resting on soft, moist, scrumptious almond-scented vanilla cake stuffed with rich, melty chocolate chips. I like it best cold with a glass of milk, but it's also delicious warm, with your morning tea, coffee, hot chocolate, whatever! :)

Shared at Create It Thursday and Foodie Friday