Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

My mom makes a few items that not only represent taste, but Christmas morning tradition to our family. In fact, she's been known to set-up quite the assembly line baking up to a dozen of her mom's legendary Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cakes. She now invites the grandkids to help and ships the goods to Colorado, Palm Springs and sometimes even Nevada! My mom lost both her parents in a tragic plane crash when she was in her early 3o's. .. so cooking and baking some of Grandma Sylvia's favorite dishes is not only a treat, but also our way of keeping her memory alive.

Of course each of the kids and grandkids like little twists - some with raisins, some without, some with nuts, some without. But what is unanimous...all of us LOVE and look forward to Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake....in fact, I know this is now an added tradition for many of my friend's families...like the Greenhaw's, Redfern's and Elliott's.

From my kitchen, my mom's kitchen and my grandma Sylvia's kitchen,
Enjoy

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• 1C Butter
• 1 1/2 C Sugar
• 2 Eggs, beaten well
• 1 t Vanilla
• 1 C Sour Cream
• 2 C. Cake Flour (Swanson's boxed cake flour - NOT normal flour)
• 1 t. Baking Powder
• 1/2 t Baking Soda
• 1/2 t Salt

Topping:

• 4 T Sugar
• 1/2 C Nuts, finely chopped (Almonds, pecans, or nothing)
• 1 t Cinnamon
• 1/2-3/4 C Mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 C Golden Raisins (only in the center layer, NOT on top and can be totally optional. Bryson always prefers NONE)

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl, beat eggs well.
• Add butter, sugar, vanilla and sour cream - beat very well.
• In a second bowl, add sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• In a third, smaller bowl, combine the topping ingredients: sugar, nuts, cinnamon and mini chocolate chips.
• Grease a tube pan (NOT A BUNDT PAN)
• Pour half of the batter into the tube pan.
• Sprinkle half of the topping and all of the raisins (if you're using them)
• Pour the remaining batter and then top with the remaining topping mixture.
• Bake for 50 minutes.
• Completely cool before removing from pan.