Preheat oven to 375f/190c. Grease and flour a 9" cake tin (tap out any excess flour), and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, beat together wet ingredients.

Add wet ingredients to the dry and whisk until smooth. Note: you can add the chocolate chips at this point and mix them in, though I prefer to top the batter with them after I pour it into the cake tin.

For the cinnamon topping, simply combine all the ingredients.

Pour cake batter into the pan. Then, if you haven't added them yet, top with chocolate chips (coating the chips in flour suspends them in the batter and keeps them from all sinking to the bottom), followed by the cinnamon mix. DO NOT top with the pecans yet because they will burn in the cooking (I speak from experience).

Bake for 20-25 minutes. When fully cooked (I do the clean toothpick test), remove from the oven and place on a wire rack. Top it with pecans while still hot. Let the cake cool fully before serving.