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.
Video
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!
Deb, someday, way way into the future, your tombstone will read: Deb Perelman, Queen of ALL banana breads.
Thank you.
Thank you. I started this site during a boring job! :)
Just made and tasted it – HOLY MOLY!! It’s SO GOOD!! So plush and delicious!!
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.
What about almond flour – any thoughts?
I would love to know how to sub in almond flour and Alluose. Thanks
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!
The bananas… do they need to be the mushy, brown, well-past-eating bananas one uses for banana bread?
Or will straight from the store, still with a tinge of green work just as well?
This looks great! Curious if you tried making this gluten free? If so, would you just sub 1-1 baking GF flour (I use Bobs Red Mill) or do something else? TY
Greek yogurt is fine here.
Could I cut this recipe in half and bake it in an eight or 9 in.² pan?
I was wondering the same!
Yes, but you do have to split an egg, which is annoying.
Lol – thanks Deb! Do you think the extra half an egg would make a difference?
It’s really not that bad. I make a half batch of cornbread all the time. Whisk the egg in a small bowl then measure out 2 tablespoons.
I halved the recipe and it turned out great. I used a kitchen scale to half the egg by weight and it wasn’t too fussy. Love it!
I do half an egg all the time but never tried half a separated egg. It might be worth it here, because I am trying to deal with a local shortage of margarine and this cake is so very tempting. Deb’s other coffee cakes work beautifully with vegan yogurt in place of the sour cream, and there’s no shortage of that. (It’s ridiculous. Both stores nearest to us have been out of all margarine for more than ten days, and ones I checked farther away are out of earth balance and violife.)
When I do this in half I use an egg white as the half since I figure the sour cream makes up for it!
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.
Sounds like it’s a very forgiving recipe! Thanks for sharing
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
Greek yogurt swap is fine; so is skipping the chocolate. I haven’t tested this with other flours.
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!
Very similar but with added walnuts, the original cake has been a family favorite for I think before you were even born. Ours we bake in a spring form pan. Just tried your banana version . I didn’t have enough bananas so added some apple sauce. Came out great. Never tooted led to try new things
I screwed this up in so many ways and it still turned out tasty. 1. I only had 1cup of mashed bananas, but I did have some ripe avocados that needed to be used, so I added in one smashed avocado and that took me to exactly 1.5 cups. 2. I forgot to mix in my mashed bananas/avocado until after I (very poorly) folded in the egg whites (all the while thinking, “why is this so thick and how am I supposed to fold these egg whites in to such a thick batter” … *facepalm*). 3. I misread and sprinkled all of the cinnamon sugar in the middle and didn’t have any for the top.
Still really good but looking forward to trying it when I’ve made it properly. I feel like I’ve failed you, Deb.
As promised, I made this with gluten-free and dairy-free swaps, and it came out great! Here’s what I did:
– swap butter for equal amount of dairy-free butter
– replace the 2/3 cup sour cream with 2/3 cup full-fat coconut milk (from a can, shaken up) + 2 tsp lemon juice
– replace the 400g of AP flour with 360g of measure-for-measure flour + 60g of almond flour
I also halved it (for unrelated reasons) and made it in a 7×11 glass baking dish. Baking for 40 minutes still seemed to be the right time.
Hope this helps my fellow ingredient-restricted bakers!
What did you do about halving the eggs? Would love to make this but a 9×13 cake is too much for us empty nesters.
Good question! I happened to have eggs that were on the small side, so I just used two of those and figured it was close enough to 1.5 eggs.
Thanks!
I made the original with butterscotch chips and I think that would be a great swap here as well!
I was shook at the 20 year reminder because – I remember this post, from when I was in middle school! And was already a regular reader. I’m now in my 30s…
I love this! Thank you for sticking around.
Wow that is SO CUTE that you were reading SK as a middle schooler 🥲
Same here! smitten kitchen was one of the first blogs I read back in 9th grade and I remember being surprised to learn you could put sour cream in a cake! It’s really nuts to think that I’ve been reading it this long. Thanks Deb for all the ideas and commentary, you’ve helped me become a passionate and somewhat skilled cook.
How would I adapt it using frozen banana chunks?
It will work just fine; just weigh them and give them a little mash.
I hate to ask this, but can I make this without separating the eggs? I don’t have that kind of patience at the moment.
You can, it just doesn’t get as much of a fluffy, crispy texture on top.
Could this recipe be halved and put into a square 8 or 9 inch brownie pan?
I made the full recipe in 2 8″x8″ pans and it turned out great. It may be too thin if you do a half recipe in a 9″x9″ pan.
I just made this today! I didn’t have sour cream so I used greek yogurt and it turned out perfect.
I hate to be that person but I don’t like my banana bread with chocolate so I’m hesitant with this…or is it very different?
You could make the original, which doesn’t have banana in it! But this doesn’t really taste like banana bread; it’s more of a banana cake.
Had bananas in the freezer so made this today. Used yogurt as that’s what I had. When I folded in the egg whites I felt like it might not be worth it but the texture after baking is awfully nice. Mine took a lot longer to bake (it’s a thick cake!) but also might be my oven. Can say going longer didn’t make it seem over baked at all, it’s very moist— I just kept it in until it stopped jiggling and tested done.
I meant not worth separating the eggs, definitely worth baking ha!
I was planning to make banana bread from your site this week and then discovered you just published this lovely cake! Perfect timing, Deb. It just came out of the oven and smells divine – can’t wait for breakfast
Coming back to report that it is delicious. My weird children only wanted the chocolate chips and methodically picked all of them out of the cake… so I will not be offering them anymore lol. means more cake for me I guess
I made this! It was really good and had a nice texture. 2c seemed like too much chocolate chips for my taste, so I did like 2/3 of a cup and then a little more. I was wrong, I think it could have handled the full amount, at least in the middle. Also wish I’d weighed my bowl and portioned out my batter equally; normally I’m good at eyeballing but I think I misjudged and I was worried I’d made the top too thin when I was spreading the second layer. But it turned out really well, anyway.
I didn’t love having to whip the egg whites, that’s fussy for me and I was thinking ‘probs not gonna make this again!’ after I finished, but it turned out so nice I probably will! Thank you.
Yum yum yum! Followed the recipe exactly and it turned out a perfectly. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the regular chocolate chip cake but somehow, adding the bananas makes all the difference in the flavor. With just 2 of us, I will probably freeze half of it, because once I start eating it I cannot stop!
I made this and cooked for 35 minutes, toothpick tested (came out dry) and let cool. When I cut into it was still wet so trying to rebake. Hope it’s not lost!
I feel like I’m being crazy, but I’m having trouble testing if it’s done because of the melted chocolate. Did anyone else run into this?
I baked for 40 minutes, clean toothpick, and when I walked by about an hour later mine had sunk in the middle. I haven’t had that issue with the original recipe. I’ll probably try this again but keep it in for 50 minutes.
Deb, forgive me, but how on earth is it possible for you to live in Manhattan and let a cake sit uncovered on your counter overnight?! I live in Washington Heights and cannot go to bed until I have washed, dried, and put away every pot, pan, dish, and utensil, washed and dried the kitchen sink and counters, swept the floor, put the compost in the refrigerator next to the can and bottle recycling, and taken out the trash. Overnight guests make comments like “OCD much?” but I live in a prewar building and any laxity in kitchen hygiene is a guaranteed visit from those less than adorable little creatures who crawl out from inside the drains and behind the walls.
This turned out absolutely delicious!!!! I only had a glass dish so I baked it at 325. It took about 50 minutes to cook and had to cover it at around 35 so it didn’t get too brown on top. Thanks for a wonderful recipe once again!
I think I’ve been lucky! Our building is very low on creepy-crawlers despite being pre-war. However, I take my cues from my grandmother who lived in Jackson Heights: seal your edges! She used to go around with a flashlight and steel wool, making sure there were no gaps. Creepy crawlers exist everywhere, especially in an old city, it’s about whether they get in.
I made this exactly as written to celebrate a beautiful spring day and my father being able to go for a walk in the park after a long hospitalization. I used dark chocolate chips and they were the perfect contrast to the sugar topping. Deb, as always, you supply comfort and deliciousness for all of life’s occasions! Thank you!!
The bananas… do they need to be the mushy, brown, well-past-eating bananas one uses for banana bread?
Or will straight from the store, still with a tinge of green work just as well?
The bananas… do they need to be the mushy, brown, well-past-eating bananas one uses for banana bread?
Or will straight from the store, still with a tinge of green work just as well?
(Apologies for the triple posting! Feel free to delete the other two.)
Huge thanks for banana amount in cups rather than number of bananas. So much better!
Thank you for not wasting my time with a 8″x8″ pan. If I am going to take the time to bake something it has to last longer than a few hours. I used to have a very moist banana chocolate chip bread recipe that was lost along the way. I already know how fabulous this will be and can’t wait to make it.
Hi Deb,
Thank you for another great recipe. Unfortunately I don’t like cinnamon. Can I make this without it. Thanks.
This looks so good! The original is one of the best cakes ever: thank you so much for a recipe that has really become part of the texture (and flavour) of my life over the last, well, not quite twenty years, but well over a decade at least! It’s the cake I make for people who are having a hard time, and it always goes down brilliantly.
Hi Deb,
I don’t like cinnamon. Would I be able to make this cake without it? Do let me know. Thank you.
I want to make this but only have ONE banana! Do I just make 1/3 the recipe???
This looks so good! I will definitely need to try making this. I have made the “original” version a few times and looking forward to trying this new variation. I can’t believe that was 20 years ago and now I feel so old. haha :)
Can someone please compare the old recipe and the new? Thank you!
How many days will this be good sitting out at room temp as you suggest?
hmm if this is a banana cake rather than a banana bread does that mean i can’t eat it for breakfast?
either way, i just made this and it’s delicious. i used all brown sugar because i didn’t realize i was out of white sugar until i had already started.
I made this tonight and the edges turned out perfect and cakey but the middle is underbaked/the texture of gooey bananas. It didn’t seem like a problem with the toothpick test because the top was so nice, browned, and crunchy. I did use a glass pan instead of metal. Was that my mistake? Any way to salvage after the fact? I baked an extra 15 min at 300 at google’s suggestion but it made no difference. How can I get a uniform texture throughout next time?
I made this last night and read the i made this comments after I pulled it out, and panicked a little! The top was so gorgeous and the toothpick came out clean. I decided to take the cake out of the pan to cool after 10 minutes – I baked it with a large piece of parchment so lifted it out onto the cooling rack and tore the parchment away. Put it back in the pan after all the way cool. We’ve already eaten an entire edge of the cake and so far so good, but of course there’s no way to know if cooling it out of the pan made a difference. I just know that leaving things to cool entirely in the pan can sometimes backfire from a moisture perspective and wonder if that happened to folks who reported it being mushy even after an extra long bake or it appearing to be fine?
still hope to hear from Deb/better bakers than me but my guess is the glass pan (instead of metal) was the problem, or my distribution of the batter. I didn’t quite eyeball half and half correctly so there was quite a bit more batter on the bottom layer, so maybe too much liquid pooled in the middle? Not sure how the chemistry works but I’ve never had this issue when I make banana bread in a narrower (metal) loaf pan.
This came out great with gluten free flour (I used mochi/sorghum/AP but generally find cakes forgiving). Have you tested it without whipping the egg whites? I know it makes a difference in the original cake (a fave in our house!) but I wasn’t sure if the bananas cancelled it out. GF folks, I also generally do a slightly bigger 10×14 pan which helps it cook in the same time as the original.
This cake has great flavor, I love the amount of chocolate and mixed bittersweet and semi sweet. The texture wasn’t phenomenal, though, after egg separating and careful folding the crumb texture was very normal, if not slightly dry. It rose up fine, no big dips. Maybe I overbaked it (38 min), or maybe it was my Greek yogurt swap? Very tasty but I’ll likely either make loaf banana bread or go back to the cutely named coffee cake from one of the SK cookbooks.
Excellent! Only problem was figuring out how to stop myself from eating the entire pan. Cut and froze half of it. I was never a huge fan of the standard chocolate chip cake, but somehow, the addition of bananas in the recipe has converted me!! Thanks again!
I made this and felt like it turned out waaayyy too sweet, so I checked the recipe it’s based on and saw that it has the same amount of sugar as this version, even though the bananas add considerable sweetness (as compared to the sour cream they’re replacing), so if you only like things moderately sweet, maybe cut back on the sugar! You might lose some tenderness, but it was tender enough as I made it that I think that’d be an okay compromise.
I need to cut back on sugar—1.5 c. seems like a lot. How much less did you use?
This is delicious! Made it vegan like so: refined coconut oil in place of butter; 1/2 cup aquafaba for egg whites, whipped; 3 T canned coconut milk for yolks; 2/3 cup coconut milk for sour cream; plus 1 extra teaspoon baking powder. Big 9X13″ pan of win. And even with all that coconut, no coconut taste because the bananas, chocolate, and cinnamon are so flavor-forward. Thank you, Deb!
P.S. Good recent book for vegan / gluten free conversions that helped me with this one: The Elements of Baking by Katarina Cermelj. Very science-y, for those of us who like that kind of thing.
Thanks for the book recommendation! I’m going to check it out. I always check Deb’s comments to see how people modified for vegan.
Haven’t made this version yet (but promise I will), but came to promote my favorite banana trick: I freeze extra/overripe bananas, then defrost when needed. Then it’s a matter of seconds to run an immersion blender through them for uniform banana flavor throughout whatever you’re baking. No mashing, no banana lumps, unless you like that kind of thing.
I made this exactly as written and it is the BEST banana bread/cake I have ever made or eaten. It is so crazy delicious! It makes a lot of cake for my regular two-person household but I shared it with a couple friends and trust me, everyone was delighted to take some home. Thank you!
Let me tell you did I botch the execution of this cake. Even after over whipping the egg whites – then forgetting to add them in before putting everything in the pan – then dumping it all back into the bowl to fold in the egg whites and recreate the middle layer, this cake was incredible. Only change to the ingredients was subbing plain Greek yogurt for sour cream. Thankyou for making saveable recipes that can still make it to a friends brunch after a tiny meltdown.
Anyone gone rogue and used 100% banana and no sour cream yet to report back?
Yum! This was great and I could never say no to the chocolate banana combo. It’s always so satisfying!
I made this as soon as I saw the recipe, no modifications. My husband’s colleagues LOVED it, said it was the best banana cake they’d ever had!! The chocolate to banana ratio is just, chef’s kiss. Thank you Deb for another winner!! Will be saving this recipe forever!
This was delicious! I subbed yogurt for the sour cream and topped with Turbinado sugar instead of granulated (taking a cue from your banana bread recipe). I also had to bake it a little longer–perhaps 50 minutes? I just used a thermometer and took it out when it was over 200 degrees in the center (but not in a melted chocolate chip which was a little challenging). My office loved it, as did my almost four-year-old who otherwise refuses to eat anything for breakfast. Since she goes to preschool right after breakfast, I’m sure they appreciated her sugar-high :)
I made this using a gluten-free AP flour plus a teaspoon of xanthan gum (my blend did not contain it). It worked great. It was outstanding on Day 1, but as is the case, a bit less outstanding in the days that followed.
I made this as written on Sunday afternoon. Had some on Sunday evening. I thought it was just meh.
I brought the rest to work the next day and it was fantastic! This is one of those recipes that gets better overnight. Thanks Deb!
Yum! I cut the sugar in the batter to 200g and used only a cup of chocolate (all in the middle layer with none on top). I also baked it in two 8″*8″ pans to avoid the mushy middle. It needed 33 minutes to bake even in the smaller pans, but turned out great. Thank you for a delicious way to use up my brown bananas.
Would this work as muffins with the choc chips stirred in and the cinnamon sugar mix as the topping?
Yes but topping it as written gives it that crispy layer.
Amazing, really delicious!
Hi Deb. The ingredients list includes 300g granulated sugar (1 1/2 cups). The recipe instructs to cream same amount with butter. Later instructions are to combine “remaining” 1/2cup sugar with cinnamon. Should total sugar be 400g (2cups) or should the amount to be creamed with butter be only 200 g ((1 cup)? TBH, I made it with the higher amount and it was delicious but I know your sensibilities lean towards less sugar! Also, FYI, the original coffee cake recipe (sans banana) has same sugar quantity and instructions. Thank you!
I just realized the. “Extra” 1/2 cup sugar was included in topping ingredients! Never mind… feel free to delete my original comment!
My partner told me this is the best thing he has ever eaten. And then intervened when I tried to pack some for coworkers. Ha. Think it was a hit.
Very forgiving, and delicious!
Used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 AP flour (it was fine!, and Greek yogurt, cut back on the sugar in the batter (by taste) by approx. 1/2 c., and used 2 frozen bananas (thawed) and one fresh one. They were a little under the recipe weight, but not by much. Next time, I would also cut back on the chocolate chips by ca. 1/2 c., as they detracted some from the cake, which itself is tasty! I decided cinnamon and chocolate go together well.
Picky eater requested more!