banana cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting
one of the most tasty flavor combinations is banana and chocolate. last year, my mom and i went to arizona, and one of my fondest memories was getting these frozen bananas dipped in dark chocolate. i must have eaten four or five of them! when i was looking through a cookbook the other day, i saw a recipe for banana chocolate cake. i knew i had to try it.
i originally thought that i was going to make banana chocolate chip cake with cream cheese frosting, but then i decided that it would be too sweet. instead, i ended up making banana cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting.
the finished cake turned out really well! the banana cake was super moist and went superbly with the rich chocolate frosting. my family and i couldn't stop eating it. try this recipe out and let me know how it goes!
ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 stick (6 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature, more for greasing pan
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 1/2 teaspoons espresso or strong coffee, cooled (optional, to taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup smashed ripe bananas (about 2 1/2 medium sized bananas)
directions
heat oven to 425 degrees F. grease an 6-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and fine sea salt.
in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter, oil, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, espresso and vanilla until just combined. the secret to this cake's texture is to stop mixing before the sugar is dissolved.
use a spatula to mix egg into butter mixture, then stir in flour mixture just to combine. fold in bananas. scrape batter into prepared cake pan and bake until top is golden and toothpick comes out clean, about 40 minutes (checking every 15-20 min).
let cool for at least 20 minutes (or longer, until completely cooled), then run a thin metal spatula around the edges to separate from the pan. flip onto a serving plate. cake will keep for 1 day, covered.
*see my notes at the bottom
ingredients
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1⁄4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar (to taste)
1⁄3 cup baking cocoa
1 dash salt
3 tablespoons milk or 3 tablespoons whipping cream
1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
directions
in a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth.
add powdered sugar, cocoa, salt, milk or whipping cream, and vanilla.
mix well. spread over the cake or cupcakes. store in the refrigerator.
*see my notes at bottom
my notes
for the cake...
i ended up using a 6-inch round cake pan, which was perfect for the amount of batter that the recipe makes. if you're looking to make cupcakes, i would double the cake recipe. if you double the recipe, it will fill two 6-inch round pans, and one 3 1/2 x 6” pan.
i didn't end up using molasses (i didn't have any), but the cake still had a perfect amount of sweetness. i also didn't have allspice, so instead i just added a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and nutmeg. as i mentioned before, instead of using chocolate chips in the batter, i added cocoa powder in the cream cheese frosting. the adapted recipe also calls for more bananas and more espresso to amp up those flavors, but feel free to make adjustments.
for the cake, i didn't completely mush up the bananas. this left some chunks of banana in the batter, which added a nice texture to the cake. if you want a more consistent batter, the make sure to mush up that banana!
the baking time for the cake was about 35 - 40 minutes (make sure to bake until your toothpick comes out clean...times can really vary so make sure to keep checking on your cake every 20 minutes).
for the icing...
this adapted recipe cuts down on the powdered sugar. if you plan to make a 6 inch single layer cake, this recipe makes the perfect amount of icing.
for assembly
if you are making a two layer cake (or want to slice one layer in half), a great filling in between the cake layers would be a layer of frosting as well as a layer of thinly sliced fresh banana.
