6 Tips to Keep Chocolate Chips from Sinking to the Bottom of a Cake

Ever make a cake that contains chocolate chips and it’s all going ‘wonderfully’ right up until you cut into the cake after it’s baked?  There, right at the bottom of the cake sit all those beautiful chocolate chips forming a ‘puddled crust’ of chocolate.  I’m not saying that’s a bad eating experience – just that what you were going after was a nice, uniform, even distribution of chips throughout the cake.  Well – here are 6 Tips to Keep Chocolate Chips from Sinking to the Bottom of a Cake.

I just made a beautiful Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pound Cake* – not to mention with Brown Sugar Buttercream – yum!!! – Gosh I get distracted easily.  Well, I was making a two tier cake and on the first two layers, I completely forgot to employ these tips.  And, I ended up with exactly what I described above.  So, do as I say, not as I do…

*Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

So, here goes.  What I’ve done to test these theories is to make my Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Pound Cake  employing each of these different tips so that you can see how these work.

Tip Number One

Remember that you’re fighting gravity here.  The viscosity (thickness) of your batter and the density of your chocolate chips play a key role to success.  These babies (chocolate chips) are heavy for their size and they don’t want to suspend in the batter – gravity wants them to fall to the bottom.  So the first thing you need to do is make sure your batter can support the weight of your chips.    Easy solution here is to add 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup of additional flour to the mix to thicken it up.  

Tip Number Two

Change from 4,000 count chocolate chips to 10,000 count mini chocolate chips.  4,000 count is the normal size chocolate chip that you’re buying in the grocery store – just means that there are 4,000 chips in 1 pound of chocolate chips – go ahead and count them – I’ll wait.  This is probably an obvious solution.  The mini chocolate chip is lighter than the 4,000 count which helps it suspend in the batter.

Tip Number Three

Moisten the chocolate chips with a bit of liquid from the recipe and then toss in 2 Tablespoons of flour before adding to your batter.  I got this one from my idol, Rose Levy Beranbaum.  Clever.

Please excuse my cutting of the cake in Tip #3.  Of course, I tried to cut it while it was still slightly warm and I created a mess.

Tips 1, 2 and 3

Tip Number Four

For small items like cupcakes, sprinkle the chips on top of the batter and let them fall through the batter during the baking process.  And, please take note, the mini chocolate chips were too light and didn’t sink very far into the batter.

Tip Number Five

For larger items like cakes, place half of the batter into your cake pan, cover with half of the chocolate chips, cover with the remaining cake batter and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top.

Tip Number Six

If making chocolate batter, toss the chocolate chips in an additional 2 Tablespoons and up to 1/4 cup of cocoa and add to your batter.  One great tip I heard is to keep your empty can of cocoa in your pantry and use that to toss the chocolate chips in the extra cocoa.  Easy – just put the lid on and shake, shake, shake.

Tips 4, 5 and 6

And there you have it!

Buon Appetito!