Light banana cake with a cinnamon filling, chocolate chips, and a buttery streusel crumble.
This cake is amazing. As you can see by the photo below, my dad and I ate 2/3 of the pan before I could even snap a few photos.
It’s really good warm. I had a piece after it had only cooled 15 minutes and man oh man that cake just has everything going for it. I mean just listen to these layers … banana cake, cinnamon filling, chocolate chips, banana cake, chocolate chips, streusel topping … can life really get better than that? The answer is no, no it can’t … it has cinnamon, chocolate, and banana all in one cake, so it’s just not possible. And the buttery, cinnamon streusel crumble really just completes the deliciousness.
The recipe looks long, but all the ingredients are simple items that you probably already have in your pantry. And the only thing that takes a little time is assembling the six different layers.
This cake would be great for a weekend brunch. I always like to make breakfast items over the weekend and then save them to kickoff the weekday mornings! Enjoy!
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 5 Tablespoons salted butter, softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1½ cups mashed ripe banana, about 3 ripe bananas
- ¼ cup yogurt, (I used vanilla greek yogurt)
- 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
- ⅔ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 6 Tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled for a minute
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x9 square baking pan.
- Stir together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth.
- Add in the granulated sugar and beat until combined. Scrape down the side of the bowl as needed.
- Add in egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Add in mashed banana and yogurt and mix until combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Don't mix too much or the batter will become tough.
- Pour half of the batter into the prepared and pan and spread it into an even layer.
- Mix together the 2 T. of brown sugar and 1½ t. cinnamon for the Cinnamon Filling.
- Sprinkle the Cinnamon Filling over the batter in the pan.
- Sprinkle ⅓ cup of the chocolate chips over the Cinnamon Filling.
- Pour the remaining batter into the pan and spread it into an even layer.
- Sprinkle the remaining ⅓ cup of chocolate chips on top of the batter.
- Make the streusel topping next by combining the dry ingredients with a whisk and then gradually stirring in the melted butter until you have moist crumbs. You may not use all of the melted butter. If the mixture becomes too wet, add a Tablespoon of flour one at a time until it drys out a little.
- Crumble the streusel mixture on top of the chocolate chips in the pan.
- Bake for 25 minutes and then cover with aluminum foil to make sure the streusel does not burn. Bake for an additional 15 - 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool.
- Cover and store at room temperature.
Half the cake batter
Cinnamon Filling
Half the chocolate chips
Half the cake batter
Half the chocolate chips
Streusel Topping
Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction
This looks amazing. Thank you!!