Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Cake
July 17, 2014
16 Comments
Hi Everyone! The past month has been full of exciting changes for us, and I’m eager to share them with you. I’ll be blogging all about it and of course sharing plenty of delicious new recipes!
Exciting news #1: We’re moving to DC!
I won a fellowship down in DC that starts in September and we’re making our plans to relocate there as I type! I’ll definitely miss Connecticut (my home for the past eight years), but am super excited about exploring all DC has to offer. Also, I absolutely love recommendations…Comment below or send me a message with all your DC must-sees (and must-tastes!)
Exciting news #2: We’re spending July in Santa Barbara!
Chris got accepted to a four week conference/workshop on the UC Santa Barbara campus and I was able to come along with him 🙂
We’ve been exploring the area and enjoying the fantastically temperate weather. The highs in Santa Barbara are 68-78 degrees year round! Year round! That means it’s the same wonderful temperature inside and outside all year long…it’s pretty much the best thing ever 🙂
Exciting news #3: We’re going on vacation!
With all of these changes, Chris and I have been super busy (Chris even has workshop sessions on Saturday morning here in CA!) and we are definitely both in need of a vacation. I’m planning a TBD vacation for somewhere in the Northeast during the second week of August. Destination and plans coming soon!
Over the next few posts I’ll share more details with all of you, but enough of that for now…Let’s get to the food! This Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Cake is delicious and versatile. Its fluffy cake texture and dark chocolate fudge ganache filling makes it a rich, decadent dessert. Its banana and peanut butter flavors totally make it a perfect, eye-opening breakfast. You get to have your cake and eat it for breakfast too! 🙂
Enjoy!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Cake
Ingredients
CAKE
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2 cups flour
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1 teaspoon baking soda
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½ teaspoon salt
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½ cup butter
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1 cup white sugar
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½ cup brown sugar
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2 eggs
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1 cup plain unsweetened yogurt I used greek
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1 teaspoon vanilla
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1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas ~3 large ripe bananas
FILLING
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4 ounces dark or semi-sweet chocolate best quality you can find!
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1/3 cup heavy cream
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½ teaspoon vanilla
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pinch of salt
FROSTING
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½ cup creamy peanut butter I used natural unsweetened peanut butter
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½ cup butter
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2 cups powdered sugar
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1 teaspoon vanilla
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pinch of salt
OPTIONAL TOPPINGS
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Chocolate shavings
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Crushed peanuts
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Banana slices
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9” round cake pans and set aside.*
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In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
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Using a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer on medium high cream the butter until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium until smooth, about 3 minutes. Beat in one egg at a time. Gently stir in yogurt and vanilla, then stir in bananas. Slowly add dry ingredients until just combined.
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Equally distribute batter between the 2 prepared cake pans.* Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Allow cakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack. Once cakes are cooled completely make filling and frosting.
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FILLING: Chop the chocolate and place in a medium bowl. Heat cream in a sauce pan until hot to touch, no need to simmer. Pour cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate melts completely and blends with the cream. Stir in vanilla and salt. Cool until desired consistency is reached for cake filling, thick and fudgy but still spreadable. Spread ganache equally over the top of the bottom layer of the cake. Place other layer on top.
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FROSTING: Using a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer on medium high cream together butter and peanut butter until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and a pinch of salt. While mixer is on medium, gradually add powdered sugar until desired fluffiness is reached. Frost cake and decorate with optional chocolate shavings, crushed peanuts and banana slices. Dig in!
Recipe Notes
*I only own 1 round cake pan so I made all the batter, baked half of it in my prepared cake pan, and cooled the cake in the pan for 10 minutes (as directed). I then washed, re-greased, and re-floured the pan and repeated the process for the second half of the batter.
Dana
Just made this this evening and it was pretty delicious. It’s not overly sweet with the frosting and the cake with chocolate concluded my evening. Saving this recipe even though there were quite a few steps but putting cakes in fridge to cool quicker made this ready to eat from start to finish in 1 1/2 hours.
Karen
Hi Dana! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for sharing the tip for cooling the cake faster 🙂
Maggie
It was fantastic. It took about twice the time to bake, but came out looking wonderful. I cooled it in the springform pan for 10 minutes, then removed it for more cooling on a rack. After about an hour, I cut it with a long, sharp serrated bread knife. I scored it around the edge for evenness, and then just plunged in and kept turning. It came out perfectly proportioned. The cake was a huge hit…fabulous and decadent. Thank you!
I hope you enjoyed Santa Barbara. I’ve lived here for 35 years, and am still delighted every day by its beauty.
Karen
Hi Maggie! I’m so happy to hear the cake was a hit! Thanks for sharing how to make the recipe as one cake. I may need to try it that way next time. It is always I little hard to stack two separate cakes since the top domes up a little on each.
I loved my time in Santa Barbara! I really enjoyed walking down State St. with all its restaurants and how it led right down to the pier. And how the weather was always fantastic…sunny and 75 everyday 🙂
Thalia @ butter and brioche
i am SO craving a slice of this delicious cake right now.. i swear you can never go wrong with peanut butter, bananas and chocolate – always a delicious flavour combination. yum!
Karen
Thanks Thalia! It’s definitely one of my favorite flavor combinations too! 🙂
Maggie
Can the cake be made in one tall springform pan and cut in half for the filling?
Karen
Hi Maggie! Yes, it should work great to bake it as one tall cake in a tall springform pan. It will probably need to be cooked a little longer, just bake it until a toothpick comes out clean. I haven’t mastered cutting a cake in half so I just worked around it by baking two thinner cakes 🙂
Maggie
Thanks! I am going to try it today and will report back later. The cake sounds delish!
Karen
Awesome! I’m eager to hear how it goes and tastes 🙂
amber
I live in the Northeast (Maine) and it really is beautiful this time of year! It’s hot, and we’ve had lots of sunshine! That’s exciting that you’re going to vacay soon 🙂
This recipe looks so delicious… I love peanut butter, chocolate and bananas! YUM! I’ve never made cake with yogurt before but I’m going to try it. The filling part sounds so so good! Thanks for sharing 🙂 Great photos, as well!
Karen
Hi Amber! I would love love love to visit Maine! The whole coastline looks amazing! We may end up planning a nice week or two up there for next year instead, since planning an impromptu vacation during peak season along the Maine coastline is proving to be a bit difficult 🙂 Any suggested must-sees or best towns to stay near? It’s amazing that I’ve lived in the Northeast (upstate NY, Boston, and CT) my whole life and there is still so much I haven’t seen yet 🙂
Layla @ Brunch Time Baker
Peanut butter and bananas are a great combo! Can’t wait to try this!
Karen
Hi Layla! It’s totally one of my favorite flavor combinations too! Definitely let me know if you end up giving the recipe a try 🙂
Mary
I love, love, loved DC! Shopping at the Eastern Market, perusing a museum after work whenever I wanted, day trips to surrounding areas, daily concerts and shows, the restaurants… My recommendation is that you subscribe to The Washingtonian to find out about events.
Karen
Hi Mary! Thank you for the recommendations! I’m happy to hear you really enjoyed DC. I’ll definitely start by subscribing to the Washingtonian. Do they list free (or low costing) concerts/shows/events? Have you heard of theaters in DC that do “day of pay what you can” tickets? Any favorite restaurants or bars that stick out to you? I’ll definitely ask for more recommendations once I actually get down there too…I’m so excited! 🙂