Strawberry Sour Cream Cake Bars with Chocolate Chips

Ingredients

• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate (divided, half - for mixing in the cake batter; half - for sprinkling the top of cake)
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of 9-inch square pan (or 9x3 springform round pan) with parchment paper. Grease the sides of the pan with butter or cooking spray.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.
3. In a separate, large mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and eggs, using electric mixer, on medium-high speed until light and fluffy - about 2 minutes. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix to combine thoroughly.
4. Add in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, keeping the mixer speed low, until combined. Don't over mix. Fold in 1/4 cup of chocolate chips into the batter. Transfer batter to the baking pan. Arrange strawberries on top of the cake, cut sides down and close together. Place the remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate chips in spaces in between.
5. Bake cake for about 40-50 minutes until the top is golden brown and the tester comes out clean. After about 40 minutes of baking, you can take out the cake and sprinkle some more chocolate chips on top, pressing them lightly into the top of the cake - it will make for a nice presentation.
6. Let the cake cool in the baking pan on a wire rack. After cake has cooled for about 40 minutes, release the cake from baking pan. At this point, if the cake is cool enough, you can slide your hand under the cake, between the parchment paper and the bottom of the pan and move the cake with the parchment paper attached to its bottom onto a serving plate easily.