Chocolate Strawberry Rhubarb Coffee Cake

What do strawberry's, rhubarb and chocolate have in common? Well.... they are all in the coffee cake I made for breakfast this morning. This time of year I love the taste of fresh strawberries and rhubarb combined together, but have you ever tried throwing in some chocolate? Let me tell you it tastes amazing and you'll wonder why you've never tried it before.

Ingredients: 1 cup chopped rhubarb, 1 cup sliced strawberry's, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 T. cornstarch, 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. baking soda, 2 T. baking cocoa, 1/4 cup butter, 1 egg, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/2 tsp. vanilla. 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Directions:  In a medium saucepan combine fruit, water and cornstarch.  Bring to boiling; reduce heat simmer covered for 5 minutes.  Stir 1/4 cup sugar into fruit.  Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly.  Cook and stir 2 minutes more; set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.  Cut in 1/4 cup butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbles.  make a well in the center of the flour mixture; and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine egg, buttermilk and vanilla.  Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture.  Stir until just mixed (batter should be lumpy).

In a greased pan sprinkle 1/4 cup chocolate chips in bottom of pan.  Then spread half of the batter on top of chocolate chips. 

Next spread fruit filling on top of batter.

Lastly, add the remaining batter on top.  Bake for 40-45 minutes.  Cool slightly then flip out of pan onto a plate and serve.

This post was linked to: 2 Maids a Baking on 2 Maids a Milking, Tasty Tuesday on Beauty and Bedlam, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace, Hearth N' Soul, Made from Scratch Tuesday on From Mess Hall to Bistro, It's a Blog Party, 33 Shades of Green, Trick or Treat Tuesday with Inside BruCrew Life.