Yep, snack cake is definitely a cake.
Photo: Courtesy of Nina Lincoff
After watching me slice and photograph said Chocolate Chip Snack Cake, my roommate decided to call me, and my snack cake, ridiculous. This is of course after my roommate took some cake as a lunchtime complement. (With a little whipped cream on the side.) Alas, she had a point—Any cake is really cake, and even if it’s a snack cake it’s still cake. What she was really objecting was my refusal to accept reality and insistence to force an identity crisis on my baked goods. I want to eat cake, but the typical hour of dessert is so very far away from the moment of waking up in the morning.
Slap on a snack to the front of any cake recipe and just like magic, you have cake for snack time, which at college is conveniently anytime and hence, cake all the time.
Snack Cake it is.
Chocolate Chip Snack Cake is essentially a fluffier, slightly moister version of pound cake. Throw in some chocolate chips for added kid-fun and voila, snack cake for all. Not to mention because snack cake is prepared as a loaf and is therefore prime for slicing, the possibilities for toasted snack cake, snack cake sandwiches, snack cake towers and, snack cake vessels are endless. What all this really means is that for each slice of snack cake, there is the possibility to spread it with peanut butter, Nutella, ice cream, whipped cream and, if you’re feeling particularly heart-healthy, butter. A slice of snack cake lightly toasted and topped with a little bit of butter and a sprinkling of salt?—Perfect. Some may say gross. Don’t judge.
But of course, the beauty of snack cake is that it’s portable. Cake-to-go. Cake-mobilized. Above all, it’s a rationalization to eat cake all the time.
Chocolate Chip Snack Cake
1 ¼ cup flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
½ cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup warm water
1 cup chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Set aside a loaf pan lined with tin foil.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and powder and salt and stir until combined.
4. Add the vanilla extract, egg, milk and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
5. Pour the warm water over the batter and stir until just combined.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into the pan, spreading the batter so it’s even.
