A few weeks ago my friend Amy organized a recipe exchange- such a wonderful idea. I brought along chocolate dipped peanut butter biscotti, a hit with the coffee and tea drinkers, but Amy made a simple but incredibly scrumptious cake she called Chocolate Chip Cake, and Nina more aptly named Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake. I recreated this recipe a few weeks ago for a joint birthday party Slip and I had, and our friend Brett said his mom makes this same cake, but it’s called “Busy Day Cake”, naturally, because it’s an easy cake to make on a busy day. One cake, three different names, and Busy Day Cake was the name that won it for me.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 box yellow cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
• 1 box instant vanilla pudding
• 1 cup milk (1%)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 bag chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup equal mixture cinnamon and sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all of the first 7 ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix on high for 2 minutes. Pour into a 9x13 baking pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top of the pan. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top and then swirl through with a knife. Bake for 40 minutes.

Moist, decadent vanilla cake on the bottom, a little chocolate, and crunchy cinnamon sugar on top. This is a great cake to make for any party— it kind of has a coffee cake vibe to it as well, so it could be a good brunch addition. As Amy says, it’s a crowd pleaser!