Baking with Bananas

I have a confessi0on. We don’t really eat bananas that much, and I don’t really bake that much. But since I had to buy a banana for my banana raita this week, I was secretly really looking forward to picking up a bunch and letting them get nice and ripe for the weekend. Armed with 3 brown-spotted bananas and a few hours to spare, I set out to find a killer banana recipe. I didn’t want to make your everyday banana bread; I wanted to go all out and make a really special treat. Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel sounded too good to be true!

One of the reasons I don’t bake that much is because Ben and I really do watch what we eat, and unless we are having company to help us eat these sweets, there’s really no good reason for us to have them in the house. Of course, things like cookies and brownies and cupcakes can be carried into the office and shared with others, but what does one do with a partially eaten cake? Here’s a tip: I baked two small ones. The original recipe called for baking in an 8×8″ square pan, but I dug out my two smallest springform pans – a 5″ and a 6″ – and split the batter and streusel between the two. Voila! Two perfectly round and pretty cakes. The cooking time was about the same as written in the recipe, and both came out perfectly moist and fluffy. We enjoyed the smaller one over the course of the weekend, and I took the second one to work on Monday to treat my coworkers.
I followed the recipe almost exactly as written, except I substited yogurt for buttermilk and reduced the sugar in the cake batter to 1/2 cup. Warning: This is a VERY sweet cake (notice I did not say too sweet, as that is not in my vocabulary!). But if you like your breakfast sweets on the less-sugary side, feel free to reduce the amount of sugar in the streusel. Or, just serve the cake for dessert – it would work fit perfectly well in that category too! I guess the combination of yogurt and chocolate makes this another submission for Platinum Chef Challenge Round 4!
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16 Responses to “Baking with Bananas”

  1. 1

    Elly — August 14, 2007 @ 2:08 am Reply

    That looks SO good! I am not crazy about bananas myself and usually only like them in cake so this is right up my alley, lol

  2. 2

    Beth G. — August 14, 2007 @ 2:15 am Reply

    YUM!!! That looks AMAZING, I’m going to have to try this sometime 🙂 I really want to get it together & participate in the PCC next round ~

  3. 3

    laneyu — August 14, 2007 @ 1:14 pm Reply

    this looks fantastic!

  4. 4

    Valli — August 14, 2007 @ 1:29 pm Reply

    Wow!! This cake just looks so good. I have it printed and on the books to bake at a future date. I don’t do much baking for the same reasons as you. I baked a chocolate zucchini cake on the weekend for a blogging challenge I entered but gave 1/2 of it away to my daughter and took the other half to work. I did have 2 pieces though….

  5. 5

    Trouper — August 14, 2007 @ 2:14 pm Reply

    All I can say is yum….Will you come be my personal chef! lol

  6. 6

    Renea — August 14, 2007 @ 4:45 pm Reply

    Wow! That looks so awesome! I’ve got to save this one.

  7. 7

    DeborahSW — August 14, 2007 @ 6:04 pm Reply

    Oh my, this looks awesome! I wish blogspot had a “taste” function for recipes… 🙂

  8. 8

    Betsy — August 14, 2007 @ 9:30 pm Reply

    This looks so yummy!!

  9. 9

    eatme_delicious — August 15, 2007 @ 12:03 am Reply

    Yum sounds and looks like you found an awesome recipe! I like to bake a lot but like you don’t want to be eating baked goods all the time (okay I might want to but I know I shouldn’t). So I’ve gotten into trying to find yummy healthy muffin recipes! That way I get to bake, and I have a healthy snack.

  10. 10

    Amber — August 15, 2007 @ 3:44 pm Reply

    This looks wonderful! Thank you for sharing.

  11. 11

    flymansWife — August 15, 2007 @ 8:45 pm Reply

    wow… that looks soo good!! i think i have bananas at home i need to use up (if they haven’t gone bad yet)… this looks like the perfect recipe to try!

  12. 12

    Kevin — August 16, 2007 @ 12:59 am Reply

    That looks good. It reminds me of a chocolate chip and banana coffee cake that my mom used to make when I was a kid.

  13. 13

    Ally — August 18, 2007 @ 1:42 am Reply

    I don’t have a big sweet tooth, but I do love a good coffee cake. I am so stealing your recipe. this would be such a treat for my teacher friends!

  14. 14

    Shauna — April 5, 2009 @ 2:29 am Reply

    I will definitely have to remember this recipe for the future; it looks delicious. I love to bake but try not to do too much for the same reason as you. I will try this out the next time I have some kind of get together to go to.

  15. 15

    Ally — April 5, 2011 @ 1:11 am Reply

    I don't have a big sweet tooth, but I do love a good coffee cake. I am so stealing your recipe. this would be such a treat for my teacher friends!

  16. 16

    Shauna — April 5, 2011 @ 1:11 am Reply

    I will definitely have to remember this recipe for the future; it looks delicious. I love to bake but try not to do too much for the same reason as you. I will try this out the next time I have some kind of get together to go to.

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