Somehow, despite how impossible it seems (to me, a person who has neither aged nor matured a day), it’s been almost twenty years since I first told you about my family’s favorite coffee cake. It’s tall, plush, crisp with a flaky layer of cinnamon sugar on top, studded with a quilt of chocolate chips and is downright, well, adorable when cut into cubes because they’re a little wobbly. When one tumbles, it shakes off a little pfft of cinnamon sugar, like a pup coming in from today’s blizzard. It’s perfect. It needs no changes or updates.
And yet, you know we are here today because I succumbed. Over the decades, I’ve had intrusive thoughts along the lines of whether it might also be an excellent jumping-off point for pumpkin cake, or an apple spice cake. I’ve wondered if it would make a good sheet cake even without the cinnamon or chocolate chips (it does!). But mostly I’ve bitten my tongue/sat on my hands/just tried to leave a good thing as a good thing. “Less is more!” or some other lesson I’ve struggled to learn. And then one day I was short on sour cream and used mashed bananas instead and my family and friends went feral for it. I had to make it again; it also didn’t last. It’s currently the most-requested dessert in my family, and I’ve lost the thread on what I’m fighting.
You, we, need this: everything we obsess over in the classic but even more fragrant, warming, and clairvoyant because it sees those speckled bananas going to waste on your counter, and wants to help.
Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
- 3 large eggs, separated
- ½ cup (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1½ cups (375 grams) mashed bananas
- ⅔ cup (160 grams) sour cream
- 3 cups (400 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 cups (12 ounces or 340 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cake
Filling and topping
Make the batter: In a large bowl, beat egg whites until they hold firm peaks and set aside. [If you only have one mixer bowl, you can transfer the egg whites to another and use the mixer bowl to make the rest of the cake batter.]
In an empty mixing bowl, beat butter and 1½ cups of the granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, ½ teaspoon of the cinnamon, and salt together. Add banana to butter mixture and beat until combined. Add half the flour mixture, the sour cream, then the remaining flour mixture, beating each until combined. Fold in the egg whites.
Assemble the cake: Combine remaining ½ cup of the granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Spread half of batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and 1 cup of the chocolate chips. Dollop remaining cake batter over filling in spoonfuls. Use a rubber or offset spatula to gently spread it over the filling and smooth the top. Sprinkle batter with remaining cinnamon-sugar and remaining chocolate chips.
Bake the cake: For 35 to 40 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pan. [Note: This takes less time in my oven than the classic version does, which is usually 40 to 50 minutes.]
To serve: Transfer cake to a cutting board and cut into squares.
Do ahead: My preference is to keep this cake at room temperature and not cover it. I will, however, press a piece of foil or plastic against the cut side. I don’t like to cover the pan or put the cake in an airtight container because it softens the flaky cinnamon-sugar topping, which feels tragic.
Previously
6 months ago: Chipwich Ice Cream Cake
1 year ago: Ziti Chickpeas with Sausage and Kale
2 years ago: Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova Stack
3 years ago: Pasta with Longer-Cooked Broccoli
4 years ago: Lemon Sorbet and Sweetheart Sables
5 year ago: Baked Feta with Tomatoes and Chickpeas
6 year ago: New Classic Wedding Cake + How-To
7 years ago: Bodega-Style Egg-and-Cheese Sandwich
8 year ago: Stromboli and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
9 years ago: Guacamole and Broccoli Pizza
10 years ago: Banana Puddings with Vanilla Bean Wafers and Taco Torte
11 years ago: Charred Cauliflower Quesadillas and Chocolate Oat Crumble
12 years ago: Garlicky Party Bread with Cheese and Herbs and Fennel and Blood Orange Salad
13 years ago: Egg Salad with Pickled Celery and Coarse Dijon and Salted Caramel Brownies
14 years ago: Cheddar, Beer, and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread
15 years ago: Roast Chicken with Dijon Sauce and Mushroom and Farro Soup and Meatball Subs with Caramelized Onions
16 years ago: Mixed Citrus Salad with Feta and Mint and Edna Mae’s Sour Cream Pancakes and New York Deli Rye Bread
17 years ago: Flaky Blood Orange Tart and Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad
18 years ago: Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree and Matzo Ball Soup and Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
19 years ago: Miniature Soft Pretzels and Sour Cream Bran Muffins
Dying over the almost 20 years comment you made…and the fact that you link to previously “19 years ago”…I remember when I found your blog in 2010 at my first boring desk job and went backwards to catch up on every blog post you had made. Have loved following you ever since. And so excited to have a new recipe for brown bananas!
Oh wow, I need to make this as soon as I’m done with work (and my 9×13 pan emerges from the dishwasher). Will report back on how it goes with gluten-free/dairy-free ingredients. (My family has a lot of food restrictions.)
Oooh, can’t wait to hear how the GF substitutions go!
I regularly make the original with Cup 4 cup flour and dairy free sour cream, so I expect GF flour would be an easy substitution in this recipe. We prefer cup4cup to KAF measure for measure for Deb’s cakes (have made many of them GF). I substitute the GF flour by volume not by weight.
I have completely made the transition to Greek Yogurt and never have sour cream around anymore. Do you think it would be an easy swap like in most recipes? PS my kids are obsessed with the original recipe
I always sub w yogurt (regular or Greek, both have worked beautifully) with the original recipe!
Could I cut this recipe in half and bake it in an eight or 9 in.² pan?
I made this but separated it into 12 muffins and a smaller loaf pan. I forgot to put chocolate chips on the middle layer of the muffins, but remembered for the loaf pan. There’s a beautiful line of yum in the middle of the cake! Turned out delicious. I forgot to measure my banana, but I had 4 medium bananas mashed in a bowl and dumped it all in my mixing bowl and figured oh well. Still turned out great! I used more sugar/cinnamon than the recipe called for since I was doing so many muffins (they got real big!) and the cake pan.
Looking to make this but I have few questions
Can I sub Greek yogurt for sour cream
Can I omit chocolate, would I need to put a titch of butter for filling or topping?
Can I sub a bit of the AP flour with oat or WW
( I am trying to use it up)
Thanks
Oooh, this is very similar to my family’s beloved UBC Ponderosa Cake, but with less butter and with the eggs separated. I’ll try this version next time we have bananas to use up! (Darned teenaged banana monster means that rarely happens these days)
My husband was just asking for the original last night, family favorite!