Banana chocolate cake with Peanut butter cream. A dense but soft banana cake with milk chocolate chunks, layered with a rich and smooth peanut butter cream, made the perfect celebratory cake for my husband's birthday.
As every year, I asked my husband if he would prefer a store-bought cake for his birthday, or if he wanted me to bake him one. The answer was "I would love for you to make my birthday cake". Although birthday cakes, aka layer cakes, are not my forte, in the last few years, I have actually baked for him a fresh fruit tart with lemon custard, a chocolate ganache cake with yogurt cream and berries, a double chocolate Italian cream cake, and a classic Italian sponge cake with layers of custard and chocolate.
Banana chocolate cake
What do you do when your husband bought a few too many bananas that are quickly getting spotted? At first, I wanted to make my usual spelt flour banana bread, but since his birthday was approaching, I thought I could use them to make him a birthday cake. I asked him if he liked the idea of a banana cake with chunks of milk chocolate (leftover from the recent Easter), and he wholeheartedly agreed.
Let's make the banana chocolate cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Butter and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. I also placed a round parchment paper at the bottom of each pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time. On low speed beat in half the dry ingredients then the yogurt or sour cream and mashed bananas. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips or chunks.
- Divide the batter among the prepared pans.
- Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the cakes are golden brown and pull away from the edges. I also check the inside with a cake tester. Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then unmold onto cooling racks to cool completely.
Peanut butter cream
This delightful peanut butter cream comes from a beautiful cookbook I received last Christmas from my husband: "Baking Wisdom" by Anna Olson. It is a combination of smooth peanut butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and whipped cream. Very easy to make, you're going to love it as much as we did. This is how it's done:
- Whip the cream to soft peaks.
- Beat the peanut butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla, then fold in gently the whipped cream until evenly incorporated.
- Refrigerate until ready to assemble.
How to assemble the Banana chocolate cake with peanut butter cream
- Step 1: Place the first cake layer on a cake stand. Spread a little less than half of the peanut butter cream evenly on top.
- Step 2: Place the second cake layer on top.
- Step 3: Spread the rest of the peanut butter cream on top, leaving some that you will need for the decoration.
- Step 4: Moving some of the peanut butter cream from the top, spread it around the sides of the cake until smooth, then pull off some of the cream from the sides to reveal the cake layers (naked style). Then, refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes.
How I decorated the top
I kept it very simple and just added swirls of the remaining peanut butter cream around the top edge, placed a blueberry in between each rosette and finally grated some milk chocolate in the middle. I know I had the perfect cake topper to add the wow factor.
Birthday cake for my love
In the end, a banana bread/cake might not be your typical birthday cake, but we can assure you that it is absolutely scrumptious. The cake is a bit dense but soft, with lots of banana flavor, as it should be, but it is also chocolatey and not overly sweet. The peanut butter cream is the perfect compliment to the banana chocolate flavors, and it is so smooth and delicious that you will find it great on other sweets, too. We had some leftover and I topped some of my carrot muffins with it. Amazing!
Happy birthday, Loreto, amore mio! I know you enjoyed the cake very much. Well, we all did.
Happy baking!
PrintBanana chocolate cake with Peanut butter cream
Banana chocolate cake with Peanut butter cream. A dense but soft banana cake with milk chocolate chunks, layered with a rich and smooth peanut butter cream, made the perfect celebratory cake for my husband's birthday.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 35 minutes
- Yield: one 2-layer, 8-inch/20cm cake 1x
- Category: Dessert, cakes
- Method: Baking
Ingredients
Banana chocolate cake:
- 2 ½ cups (317 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ½ cup (113 g) yogurt or sour cream (I used blueberry yogurt)
- 1 ⅓ (300 g) mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
- ½ cup to 1 cup mini chocolate chips or chunks (milk or dark chocolate)
Peanut butter cream
- 1 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1 (8 oz/250 g) package cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup (100 g) icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (250 ml) whipping cream
Instructions
Banana chocolate cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Butter and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. I also placed a round parchment paper at the bottom of each pan.
- In a medium bowl, add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add in the vanilla and then the eggs, one at a time. Change the attachment to the paddle.
- On low speed beat in half the dry ingredients, then the yogurt or sour cream, and then the mashed bananas.
- Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Lastly, stir in the chocolate chips or chunks.
- Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cakes are golden brown and pull away from the edges.
- Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before flipping onto cooling racks to cool completely. Refrigerate until ready to add the frosting.
Peanut butter cream
- Whip the cream to soft peaks.
- Beat the peanut butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla, then fold in gently the whipped cream until evenly incorporated.
- Refrigerate until ready to assemble.
Assemble
- Place the first cake layer on a cake stand. Spread half of the peanut butter cream evenly on top.
- Place the second cake layer on top.
- Spread the rest of the peanut butter cream on top, minus some that you will need for the decoration.
- Moving some of the peanut butter cream from the top, spread it around the sides of the cake until smooth, then pull off some of the cream from the sides to reveal the cake layers (naked style). Then, refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes.
- Spoon the remaining peanut butter cream into a small piping bag with a star tip. Pipe swirls of the butter cream around the edge, in a random pattern, or to to cover the whole top.
- Place a blueberry in between the swirls of frosting and grate milk chocolate in the middle if you wish so.
- Refrigerate the assembled cake for a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
The cake will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. It will even get more moist.
You can use sour cream or yogurt. I used what I had, blueberry yogurt, that's why I also added fresh blueberries on top.
I had some leftover peanut butter cream, I used it to top some carrot muffins.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 10 people
I love baking and kneading dough because it takes me to a happy place in my soul.
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