Cinnamon is one of those dark horses. I forget about it for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. And then without warning, I eat a dessert with cinnamon, and wham! I can’t stop.

When I tried Hannah Max cinnamon sugar cookie chips for the first time to decide how to bake with them, I had to slap my own hand to stop it from reaching back into the bag. The cinnamon sugar flavor is more addictive than I expected. It’s always fun when life runs contrary to expectation in a good way!

That’s how I got married, actually. When I started dating Kenny, I didn’t really expect it to last for very long. See, he was super cute and a lot of fun, but I’d known him since college when he was a bit rough around the edges and perpetually playing ping-pong. It’s pretty much all he ever did.

So imagine my surprise when on our first date, we actually had a serious conversation. And he was kinder than I’d ever realized, ready to start the next stage of his life with marriage and kids and all that. In other words, he had grown up. I hadn’t expected that at all. In my mind, he was still playing ping-pong with stale rolls from the dining hall because he couldn’t find the ball.

Pleasant surprises are the best kind. They sneak up on you and make you wonder if you really do know as much as you think you know.

Cinnamon desserts are in that place for me. I bake them with almost an internal shrug, thinking that somebody will really like it, but not me. After I’ve managed to mainline several helpings of whatever it is, I’ll finally admit that I really love cinnamon more than I expected to.

This cake is ridiculously good. It’s almost a blondie because of a higher brown sugar content to a lower flour ratio. The inclusion of eggs and baking powder makes it rise to cake-like proportions, however, and the cinnamon sugar topping is made of cookie chips.

I cannot say enough about this topping. Some of it floats on the top while the rest of it sinks into the batter at various points, giving the cake a through-and-through cookie chip quotient. With the (sorry if you hate this word) moist cake base balancing the crunchy cookie chips, it’s hard to imagine breakfast getting any better.

If you don’t think much about cinnamon, you’ll have to rethink your internal musings. Cinnamon sugar cookie chips are too addictive to ignore, and put into this cake, they take on a whole new amazing form. Maybe cookie chips on coffee cake isn’t what you’d expect, but it’s a glorious surprise. And those are the best kind!

A product for this post was provided by Hannah Max Cookie Chips. All opinions are my own.