Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

A peanut butter and banana sandwich - something Elvis made popular.   I've never been a big fan but I know that there are people out there who just swear by that combination of ingredients.  Perhaps adding a touch of honey or chocolate to the mix would make it a little more enticing.

Apparently I'm in the minority because when I searched the internet for banana cake recipes, the banana peanut butter combination was everywhere!    It appears that EVERYONE else in the world is a big fan of the banana, peanut butter and chocolate so apparently, I'm missing out.  It's time I made myself a sandwich and gave it a try.

Forget the sandwich, I want to try the flavor combination in cake form.  I found a really yummy looking recipe on BonAppetit.com.  It looked so good, that I just couldn't resist.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups mashed very ripe bananas
1 cup sour cream
1 10-oz. bag mini chocolate chips

Frosting 

2 cups creamy peanut butter   

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 

Cake

 

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat cake pans with nonstick spray. Line bottom of pans with parchment; coat paper. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. 

Using an electric mixer, beat sugar, butter, and brown sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. 

 

Add eggs one at a time, beating to blend between additions and occasionally scraping down sides and bottom of bowl. Beat in vanilla.

 Add bananas.

Add dry ingredients alternating with sour cream; beat just to blend.

Fold in mini chips.
 

Divide batter evenly among 3 cake pans pans; smooth tops.

Bake cakes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Transfer to wire racks; let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto racks; peel off parchment and let cool completely.

• Using an electric mixer, beat first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl until a light and fluffy frosting forms, 2–3 minutes. 
  
  
  
   
• Place 1 cake on a platter. Spread 1 1/4 cups frosting over. 

Place remaining cake on top.

Cover top and sides of cake with remaining frosting.

 Decorate with remaining frosting and chocolate curls. Cover and chill. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.

Turns out - the chocolate peanut butter banana lovers are actually onto something.  This cake was really pretty good.  I had some leftover batter so I made a few cupcakes and I was really pretty surprised that I liked it as much as I did.  I think I've been missing out all these years.  I've got some catching up to do - time to go make a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Ciao!