Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Last week, while I was at Ross I found a Nordic Ware Coffee Cake Pan on sale for $5.99. It was normally over $15, so I went ahead and picked it up.

It's cute and yellow and gets me thinking about Spring! So, then I need to make something in it - to test it out. This week, I got on allrecipes.com and found a recipe for a Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake and thought I would make it and take it to work with me. Here is the recipe: 1 cup butter, softened 8 ounces of cream cheese, softened 1½ cups of sugar, divided 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups of all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ cup of milk 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips ¼ cup chopped pecans (optional) 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and 1¼ cups of sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking poweer, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into a springform or coffee cake pan. Combine the pecans (optional), cinnamon and remaining sugar and sprinkle over the batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes and then remove from pan. Cool completely before cutting. Enjoy!