Banana Milk Chocolate Chunk Cake is an easy, crowd pleasing favourite cake from my recipe box. I’ve served it many times at our annual Super Bowl parties to rave reviews. Given that we’re just a week away from the Super Bowl, I’m resharing. XO

Banana Milk Chocolate Chunk Cake with Cream Cheese Icing is a delicious way to use up your overripe bananas.

Deep winter in eastern Canada is hard. Plain and simple, no embellishment, dealing with every inconvenience you can imagine from impassable sidewalks to going shack happy from being housebound due to inhuman weather is hard on the head. Man was not meant to function at -20*C.

To cope with our seemingly endless winter, my neighbour, Bob throws a potluck dinner every snowstorm. It’s fantastic! Instead of a blizzard feeling oppressive our neighbourhood becomes a little giddy at the prospect of an impromptu dinner party. We feast while the winds howl.

This past Monday, his invitation arrived mid-morning. The storm was too far on for me to get to the grocery store which left me searching in my unstocked kitchen for ingredients. I spotted a bunch of way past the point of no return bananas, a Christmas leftover Lindt milk chocolate bar and a package of unopened Super Bowl cream cheese. You can see how my brain works.

BANANA MILK CHOCOLATE CHUNK CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE ICING adapted from Silver Palate Cookbook

CAKE

• 1/2 lb. butter, softened

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 extra large eggs

• 1 cup mashed really ripe bananas – 5 medium

• 1 3/4 cup flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 5 tablespoons sour cream 

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

• 100 g good quality milk chocolate bar, cut into chunks

METHOD

1.  Preheat oven to 350*F

2. Line the bottom of one tube or bundt cake pan with parchment and sides with spray release.

3. Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl down.

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating to incorporate each egg before adding the next. Again scrape the sides of the bowl.

5. Add the mashed bananas, beating to combine thoroughly.

6. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the butter/egg mixture.

7. Add the sour cream, chocolate chunks and vanilla paste.

8. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat until thoroughly combined.

9. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. 

10. Bake 50 – 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake.

11. Cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes then remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on the rack.

CREAM CHEESE ICING

• 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups icing/confection sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

METHOD

1. Beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually beat in the icing sugar and vanilla – use a low setting to start so that you don’t have icing sugar everywhere.

THE LOVE:  The riper the bananas the better!

Thanks for reading.