This chocolate banana bread recipe is a great way to use up extra-ripe bananas when you are craving something chocolaty. It's a variation of my favourite moist banana bread recipe without baking soda.

Ingredients

You likely have all the ingredients you need to make this chocolate-flavoured banana bread recipe on hand. Here's what you need:

• bananas—for the best flavour and texture, use very ripe bananas that have a darker, blackened peel and are very soft.
• butter—this banana bread is made with unsalted butter. If you prefer to bake with salted butter, you may reduce the amount of added salt
• sugar—you will need both granulated and brown sugar (preferably dark brown)
• eggs—this recipe was tested with large eggs. If you use eggs that are either smaller or larger, the results may be slightly different
• vanilla extract—use pure vanilla extract to make this recipe. Artificial vanilla extract is more potent and you may add less of it to achieve the same flavour
• flour—use bleached all-purpose flour, though unbleached should work just fine
• cocoa powder—this recipe was tested with Dutch-processed cocoa powder, specifically, the Extra Brute cocoa powder from the brand Cacao Barry
• chocolate chips—dark chocolate chips will give you the best chocolate flavour

See the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

This chocolate banana bread is a simple recipe with little room for variations. Here are a few to consider:

• Sugar - you can make this recipe with all granulated sugar, all brown sugar, or a combination of granulated and brown sugar
• Salt - I bake with Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. If you prefer to bake with regular table salt, please use half the amount
• Chocolate chips - I prefer to use dark chocolate chips, but milk or white chocolate chips would work too

How to Make Chocolate Banana Bread

The batter for this chocolate-flavoured banana bread is made using the creaming mixing method.

Step 1—Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (step 1). Cream them together until light and fluffy, scraping down the beater and bowl whenever necessary to make sure all the butter and sugar mix together well (image 2). While the mixer is running, you can sift the dry ingredients together (image 3) and mash the banana with the vanilla extract (image 4).

Step 2—Add the eggs to the mixer bowl, one at a time (image 5), making sure to mix each egg into the batter very well. Whip the mixture for several minutes until very light before adding the dry ingredients (image 6), alternating with the mashed banana (image 7), beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Once you've mixed in all the dry ingredients and banana, add the chocolate chips (image 8).

Step 3—Prepare a loaf pan by buttering it and lining the bottom with a piece of parchment paper (image 9), then transfer the batter to the pan, smoothing it out with an mini offset spatula (image 10). You can insert an oiled bench scraper down the middle of the batter in the loaf pan to encourage any cracking down the centre of the loaf as it bakes.

Step 4—Bake the loaf cake on the middle rack of the oven until the edges are set and pulling away from the pan, and a thermometer inserted into the center reads 209 °F (98 °C). This takes about 80 minutes in my oven.

Hint: Use a fast-reading digital thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the cake to ensure it has baked completely. Banana bread should be baked to an internal temperature of 209 °F (98 °C) to ensure the cakes don't collapse or have a gummy line of underbaked batter towards the bottom of the loaf.

Step 5—Let the banana bread cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes (image 14) before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely (image 15).

Testing Notes for Chocolate Banana Bread Recipe

While developing this chocolate banana bread recipe, I discovered a few key ingredients and steps that make this recipe perfect:

1. Use 300 grams (1-¼ cups) mashed banana—not more, not less. If you use too little, your banana bread may be a little dry. If you use too much banana, the loaf cake may collapse and you will end up with a line towards the bottom that is mushy/underbaked.
2. Use both baking powder and baking soda. Baking powder alone doesn't have enough oomph, likely due to the slight acidity of the mashed banana.
3. Bake the banana bread to 209 °F (98 °C). Otherwise, your banana bread may collapse, and you might see a layer of collapse or some gummy texture towards the bottom.

For more on this, please read about how to make the best banana bread for key information and troubleshooting tips and tricks.

Banana Bread Baking FAQs

Other Loaf Cakes to Try

If you tried this recipe for chocolate banana bread (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Chocolate Banana Bread

Learn how to make the best double chocolate banana bread with this easy recipe using very ripe bananas, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips.

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Calories 425kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Loaf pan
• OXO balloon whisk
• Braun mixer
• GIR spatula

Ingredients

• 220 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 30 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
• 10 mL baking powder
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 2.5 mL baking soda
• 175 grams unsalted butter softened
• 150 grams dark brown sugar
• 50 grams granulated sugar
• 2 large egg(s) room temperature
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 300 grams mashed banana roughly 3 medium–large ripe bananas
• 175 grams dark chocolate chips

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Butter and flour an 8½ x4½-inch (21.5x11.5 cm) loaf pan OR a 9x5-inch (23x12.5 cm) loaf pan, then line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
• Mash the banana with the vanilla using a fork.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer), cream together the butter and sugars for at least 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl often to make sure the mixture is evenly whipped.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each addition.
• Add the mashed banana. Mix well, scraping the bottom and sides to incorporate everything.
• Add the whisked dry ingredients alternately with the mashed banana, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Pour the batter into the prepared loaf cake pan. Smooth the top to even it out.
• Bake until the edges are set and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean. This takes about 65 minutes for a 9x5" loaf or 75 minutes or more for an 8.5"x4.5" pan/

Video

Notes

• Make sure the bananas are very ripe (with a blackened peel).
• Please weigh the mashed banana. Too much banana will cause your banana bread to collapse and it will be slightly underbaked towards the bottom of the loaf
• If you are using frozen bananas for this recipe, please make sure do the following:
  • defrost the bananas
  • peel the bananas and place in a strainer set over a bowl
  • press very gently to squeeze out the liquid
  • either discard the banana liquid OR place the liquid in a saucepan and boil it down to a couple tablespoons, stirring often so that it doesn't burn. Add this banana concentrate to the bananas and proceed with recipe.
• If you want to make any substitutions or variations on this recipe:
  • use any type of chocolate chips (white, milk or dark) or chopped chocolate —use the same weight as in the recipe. You can also skip the chocolate but I find the dark chocolate chips enhand the flavour of the cake
  • add 250 mL (1 cup) chopped walnuts or chopped pecans instead of the chopped chocolate
  • add 5 mL (1 tsp) ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients
  • add 10 mL (2 tsp) ground cardamom
  • you can make this recipe with all granulated sugar, all brown sugar, or a combination of granulated and brown sugar
  • I bake with Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. If you prefer to bake with regular table salt, please use half the amount
• Use a thermometer to check if your cake is done baking and the internal temperature should register around 209 ºF or 98 ºC when it's done.
• If you don't have eggs or are allergic, try this eggless banana bread recipe

Nutrition

Calories: 425kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 314mg | Potassium: 425mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 506IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 127mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Chocolate Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips appeared first on The Bake School.

Some people love crispy oatmeal raisin cookies, and others prefer soft and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. These banana oatmeal cookies are for those who prefer a cakey oatmeal cookie that is somewhere in between. They are kind of like a hearty version of these banana oat muffins but in cookie form!

Ingredients

These banana chocolate chip cookies are easy to make and call for a simple list of ingredients that you probably have in your pantry already!

• butter—this recipe was tested with unsalted butter. If using salted, you may want to reduce the salt added to the cookie dough
• sugar—I like to use a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar. For the brown sugar, dark brown sugar will give you the most flavour, but light will also work
• eggs—use large eggs. The cracked egg should weigh 50 grams
• banana—use a very ripe banana and weigh it after mashing. This recipe calls for 110 grams of mashed banana, which is usually equivalent to 1 large banana. Make sure to have extra bananas in case your bananas are smaller. Make sure the total weight of banana added to the cookie dough matches the recipe card, or else your cookies may be too dry or too wet
• vanilla—use pure vanilla extract if possible, or add less if baking with artificial
• oats—this recipe was tested with large flake oats, which are sometimes called rolled oats or old fashioned oats. Don't use steel-cut or minute/quick oats as these will greatly affect the texture
• flour—I used bleached all-purpose flour, but unbleached flour should work fine here
• leavening agent—these banana oatmeal cookies are made with baking soda, not baking powder. Read about them if you are unsure of the difference between baking soda and baking powder.
• salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If you are using table salt, add half the amount
• chocolate chips—any of your favourite chocolate chips will work here
• nuts—any chopped nuts will work here, but I prefer walnuts or pecans

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

Instructions

Like any drop cookie recipe, these banana oatmeal cookies come together quickly. The cookie dough doesn't require any chilling or resting!

Step 1—Toast the nuts on a small sheet pan (image 1) before you begin making the cookie dough. Meanwhile, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, oats, baking soda, salt) with a Danish dough whisk (image 2).

Step 2—Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (image 3) and beat until fluffy and well-mixed before adding the egg (image 4). Add the mashed banana and vanilla after (image 5) and beat it in. At this point, the mixture may look a little curdled.

Step 3—Stir in the whisked dry ingredients (image 6), followed by the chocolate chips and chopped toasted nuts (image 7) to form a thick, sticky cookie dough that you will portion out using a medium cookie scoop (image 8).

Step 4—Place the scoops of cookie dough on a half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper. I like to bake 6 cookies per pan. Use the back of a spoon to press down and flatten out the scoops slightly (image 9), then bake until golden brown and set (image 10).

Hint: Oatmeal cookies don't spread very much in the oven when baked. This is why you need to press the scoops of dough with a spoon or your palm to flatten them out slightly before baking to help them spread, like in this recipe for apple oatmeal cookies.

Other Drop Cookies to Try

Other Banana Recipes to Bake

If you tried this recipe for banana oatmeal cookies (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Banana Oatmeal Cookies

These banana oatmeal cookies are thick and cakey, flavoured with dark brown sugar, chocolate chips, and toasted nuts.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 32 minutes minutes

Servings 20 cookies

Calories 222kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Danish dough whisk
• 6-quart KitchenAid Pro mixer
• GIR spatula
• Sheet pan
• 1-⅓oz scoop

Ingredients

• 90 grams walnuts chopped
• 200 grams rolled oats (or large flake oats) also called old fashioned oats
• 125 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 3.75 mL baking soda
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 155 grams unsalted butter softened
• 100 grams dark brown sugar
• 50 grams granulated sugar
• 1 large egg(s)
• 110 grams mashed banana approximately 1 very ripe large banana
• 10 mL pure vanilla extract
• 160 grams dark chocolate chips

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment.
• Place the walnuts on a sheet pan and toast them until golden brown (about 10–15 minutes). Set aside to cool completely then breka them into smaller chunks.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugars for about a minute or until properly blended and smooth, then add the egg, scraping down the bowl as needed with a spatula.
• Add the mashed banana and vanilla and stir them into the dough. The dough will likely look curdled at this stage.
• Add the whisked dry ingredients to the mixer, on low, until the cookie dough is just starting to come together, then add in the chocolate chips and toasted nuts.
• Portion out the cookie dough using a 40 mL (1-⅓ oz)and place 6 per prepared baking sheet. Flatten the scoops down with the back of a spoon or your palm. You can moisten your palm with water so the dough doesn't stick.
• Bake the cookies until set, about 12 minutes, depending on how well done you like them. Personally, I leave them until the edges turn golden brown.
• Let the cookies sit on the sheet pan to firm up before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Notes

• Store these cookies in an airtight container.
• If the cookies dry out after a few days, you can soften them with a soaked terracotta brown sugar keeper. Blot it dry after soaking, and then place the brown sugar saver in the cookie container and close the lid. After a day, the cookies will have softened. They will remain pleasantly chewy but won't be as hard and brittle!
• If you'd like to add spices to your banana cookies, consider adding 5 mL (1 teaspoon) of cinnamon along with the dry ingredients.
• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Please note that I bake with uncoated aluminum sheet pans that are light in colour. If you are baking this recipe with darker bakeware, you may have to drop the oven temperature to 325 °F (165 °C) in order to prevent your baked goods from browning too quickly.

Nutrition

Calories: 222kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 25mg | Sodium: 101mg | Potassium: 126mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 207IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 42mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Banana Oatmeal Cookies appeared first on The Bake School.

I love the simplicity of single-layer cakes, especially a comforting banana snack cake like this. They bake in less time than a loaf cake, though the ingredient quantities are comparable, which means you get to eat your cake faster. And since my love for combining coffee and banana is real (remember I turned that combination years ago into a coffee banana smoothie, still one of my all-time fave smoothie flavours), well, here we go again: coffee and banana together in cake form with a milk chocolate fudge frosting.

I resisted the urge to add cardamom to the cake batter, but please, don't let that stop you. Cardamom would be so awesome in this recipe, as I have proven in this cardamom banana bread recipe. Perhaps I need to make this one again with cardamom, you know, to make sure.

This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry.

What You Need to Make This Cake

Like banana bread, banana cake has a simple list of ingredients. You'll also need to plan for the frosting (so more butter and sour cream than if you were to make the cake unfrosted).

• butter—preferably unsalted though salted will work in this recipe. You may adjust the salt in the cake batter if your salted butter has a lot of salt
• sugar—both granulated sugar and light brown sugar go in the cake, and icing sugar (also called powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar) in the frosting (sift the icing sugar for the smoothest frosting texture)
• eggs—I bake with large eggs, weighing approximately 56 grams (shell on) or 50 grams (shell off). Larger or smaller eggs may result in either a wetter cake or a dryer cake, respectively
• mashed banana—mash very ripe bananas that are quite soft and with a blackened peel. If the bananas are too young, they are more starchy, which will have an impact on the taste and texture of the cake
• sour cream—I bake with full-fat sour cream (14% fat). If you use lower fat sour cream, the texture of the cake may be dryer
• pure vanilla extract
• all-purpose flour—I bake with bleached all-purpose flour. You can try unbleached, but the texture and rise of the cake may differ
• chemical leaveners—you need both chemical leavening agents, baking powder and baking soda in this cake. If you aren't sure the difference, you can read about baking powder versus baking soda
• coffee:
  • ground coffee beans, as in coffee grinds (the kind you would brew to make drip coffee)—these don't add too much flavour to the cake, but they do give the cake a lovely speckled look reminiscent of the banana seeds. Feel free to skip it if you want!
  • instant espresso powder is a great way to add coffee to baked goods without adding water. Added to the frosting, it enhances the chocolate flavour but also add a subtle coffee taste that is so nice with chocolate and banana
• salt—use Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt, but if you only have regular table salt, add half the amount because it's saltier
• chocolate—I've tested the frosting with both milk and dark chocolate and both work. The flavour will obviously differ
• Dutch-processed cocoa powder—I bake with Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder, which is a dark cocoa powder with a little over 20 % fat.

See the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

• Chocolate—the frosting can be made with milk or dark chocolate but please use high-quality chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa solids (at least 40 %) otherwise the frosting may lack flavour and be too sweet
• Nuts—you can add chopped nuts to the banana cake batter, for example chopped roasted peanuts or toasted walnuts would be excellent here
• Coffee—don't like coffee? Skip the coffee grinds and the espresso powder.
• Garnishes—I've topped this cake with candied pecans, chopped nuts, but also chocolate sprinkles. Use what you've got!

This coffee banana cake has the perfect texture, and it's not too sweet. It's just right for a thick slather of chocolate frosting made from the best chocolate for baking. I've tested the frosting with both 41 % milk chocolate and 70 % dark chocolate, and both work great.

For this recipe, I went with Cacao Barry Alunga milk chocolate (41 % cocoa) to make a slightly sweeter chocolate frosting but not too sweet! Alungo is referred to as milk chocolate for dark chocolate lovers because it has a balanced flavour. Trust me, Alunga is a great milk chocolate and makes excellent chocolate fudge frosting with sour cream, whether it's for a simple banana snacking cake like this banana cake like this or for a tall layer cake like this tall 6-inch vanilla cake with milk chocolate frosting.

You can order Alunga milk chocolate and most Cacao Barry products online via the Vanilla Food Company website and they ship across Canada and to the United States! In Quebec, you might find them at certain IGA grocery stores, as well as Aubut in Montreal.

How it's made

There are two components to this recipe: the banana cake and the chocolate sour cream frosting. Start with the banana cake and while the cake is cooling, you can make the frosting.

Step 1: Do your cake prep work first by buttering your cake pan (image 1), sifting your dry ingredients (image 2), and combining the wet ingredients together (image 3). Use a small whisk to combine the wet ingredients until smooth (image 4).

Step 2: Combine the butter and sugars in a bowl (image 5) and beat them together using an electric hand mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) until fluffy (image 6), then mix in the eggs one at a time (image 7).

Step 3: Once the batter is fluffy and smooth (image 8) add the wet ingredients (image 9) alternating with the dry ingredients (image 10), beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Use a spatula to scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are well mixed (image 11). Do not overmix at this stage or the cake will be tough!

Step 4: Pour the batter into the prepared 9x9 square cake pan and use a mini offset spatula to smooth it out (image 12). Bake until the edges are golden and begin to pull away from the sides (image 13). A cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

You can also use a Thermapen to check the internal temperature of the cake. It should be around 93–95 °C when it's baked.

If you aren't experienced at making frosting, please refer to this post about how to make chocolate fudge frosting for more details and lots of step-by-step pictures.

Step 5: Make the chocolate frosting while the cake cools, melting the butter with the chocolate first (image 14), then after that mixture is smooth and has cooled down a little, you can sift in the cocoa powder, espresso powder, and icing sugar (image 16), also adding the sour cream. Beat the with an electric hand mixer (image 17).

Step 6: When the frosting is glossy, thick, and smooth (image 18), use a mini offset spatula to spread it on top of the cooled cake (image 19).

Serving Suggestions

You can garnish this cake with candied pecans/candied nuts, or nut/popcorn brittle. This cake is great served with homemade ice cream! Serve it with dark chocolate ice cream, cardamom ice cream, or even chocolate brownie ice cream!

Tip: I love this chocolate frosting and I make it all the time! I highly recommend making a half batch to garnish this marble loaf cake or a larger batch for this vanilla cake with milk chocolate frosting. It would also work great with this eggless chocolate cake!

Banana Cake Baking Tips

I baked this banana cake in a square 9x9 pan so that I could cut it into square portions for a fun afternoon snack.

Tip 1: Make sure that you take the time to prepare the cake pan before transferring the batter into the pan: I like to butter the pan and line the bottom with parchment. If the pan isn't non-stick, flour the sides too! This way, the cake can be unmoulded and frosted very easily.

Tip 2: Don't overmix the batter once you've incorporated the wet ingredients. If you do, the cake will be dense, tough, and possibly even gummy! You may incorporate the last of the dry ingredients by hand, with a spatula to avoid developing the gluten in the cake batter.

Tip 3: Unmould the cake onto a rack after it's cooled down for 10 minutes. This ensures the edges don't get damp from condensation and it will also speed up the time it takes for the cake to cool down.

Other Banana Recipes to Try

Want to bake more with bananas? Here are some other recipes to try, from an elaborate banana split cake to simple banana bread without baking soda.

If you tried this recipe for banana cake with chocolate frosting (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Learn how to make the best banana cake with chocolate frosting with this easy recipe. The moist banana cake is made with sour cream and the chocolate fudge frosting is flavoured with espresso powder and sour cream for a very flavourful topping.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings 9

Calories 559kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 9x9-inch pan
• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• GIR spatula
• Mini offset

Ingredients

For the coffee banana cake

• 173 grams unsalted butter softened
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 100 grams light brown sugar
• 2 large egg(s)
• 350 grams mashed banana from 3–4 large bananas
• 60 ml sour cream (14% fat)
• 10 mL pure vanilla extract
• 250 grams cake flour
• 23 mL ground coffee beans
• 10 mL baking powder
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 1.25 mL baking soda

For the milk chocolate frosting

• 58 grams unsalted butter
• 65 grams milk chocolate (41 % cocoa content)
• 140 grams icing sugar sifted
• 85 grams sour cream (14% fat)
• 23 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
• 5 mL instant espresso powder
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Decoration (optional)

• 30 grams candied nuts chopped, or toasted nuts chopped

Metric - US

Instructions

To make the coffee banana cake

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175 °C). Grease a 9x9-inch (23x23 cm) metal brownie pan (I used a Chicago Metallic pan you can find on Amazon). Line the bottom with parchment paper. Flour the sides of the pan if you find your cakes stick. Set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and the sugars. Scrape down the sides of bowls as needed.
• Add the eggs one at a time and beat them in. The mixture should be fluffy and well mixed
• Mash together the bananas with the sour cream and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, the coffee grounds, and the salt. You can also sift the dry ingredients if they are very lumpy, but note the salt and coffee grinds won't go through the sieve, so add them after sifting or transfer what is trapped to the bowl of dry ingredients.
• Alternate mixing into the cake batter the dry and wet, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix until the batter ingredients are combined. Do not overmix!
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a mini offset spatula . 
• Bake the cake for about 35 minutes until the edges are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes then unmold onto a wire rack.
  

To make the milk chocolate frosting

• Melt together the butter with the Alunga chocolate on power level 5 of the microwave or over a double boiler. Set aside to cool slightly.
• Beat together the melted chocolate mixture with the rest of the ingredients into a smooth frosting
• Once the cake has completely cooled, smooth the frosting over top and decorate with candied or toasted nuts or even sprinkles.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• I baked this in a square 9x9-inch (23x23-cm) cake pan. Be sure to butter it and flour it, lining the bottom with square of parchment paper to make the cake easier to serve.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a mini offset spatula.
• For the chocolate in the frosting, I've tested the recipe with both milk or dark chocolate and it works! Please use high-quality chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa solids (at least 40 %). Otherwise, the frosting may lack flavour and be too sweet!
• Want to add nuts? You can add chopped nuts to the banana cake batter, for example chopped roasted peanuts or toasted walnuts would be excellent here
• Coffee—don't like coffee? Skip the coffee grinds and the espresso powder. The coffee grinds in the cake batter create a lovely flecked cake, reminscent of the banana seeds. The espresso powder in the frosting is discrete, but you can skip it altogether if you would prefer.
• Garnishes—I've topped this cake with candied pecans, chopped nuts, but also chocolate sprinkles. Use what you've got! Chopped popcorn brittle also makes a fun garnish.

Nutrition

Calories: 559kcal | Carbohydrates: 75g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 101mg | Sodium: 181mg | Potassium: 411mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 46g | Vitamin A: 817IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 97mg | Iron: 2mg

This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry. I was compensated monetarily and with product. Thanks for supporting the companies that allow me to create content. As always, please know that I wouldn’t work with a sponsor nor recommend a product if it wasn’t worth it.

The post Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting appeared first on The Bake School.

You can take any banana bread recipe and turn it into muffin, baking the batter in muffin pans instead of a loaf cake pan. One banana bread loaf cake will yield about to 12 muffins.

For this gluten-free recipe, we are making banana muffins with oat flour instead of all-purpose. Remember that you can buy oat flour but you can also make it by grinding rolled oats (large flake oats) into a flour in the food processor. This works quite well! You will find more information about this below. And if you’d rather make cookies with your bananas, try these banana oatmeal cookies loaded with toasted nuts and chocolate chips.

Making banana muffins with oats

Ingredients and formula

Banana muffins are made from the same ingredients and follow the same formula as basic banana bread: 115 grams (½ cup) fat (either butter or oil) + 200 grams (1 cup) sugar + 2 large eggs + 2 or 3 mashed bananas + (190–250 grams) 1-½–2 cups all-purpose flour + 1–2 teaspoon chemical leavener + ½ teaspoon salt.

These banana muffins follow that same formula, but with a few changes:

1. For the fat, we are using softened butter because the flavour of butter is better than the flavour of a neutral oil, which doesn't lend any flavour at all. Unsalted or salted works here.
2. For the sugar, we are using dark brown sugar instead of white sugar. Dark brown sugar gives these muffins a richer flavour and a more tender texture.
3. For the flour, we are using oat flour instead of all-purpose flour, which makes these muffins gluten-free and also gives them a very tender, melt-in-your-mouth quality.
4. For the chemical leavener, we are using baking powder because we aren't dealing with any overly acidic baking ingredients here. Sure, ripe bananas are a little acidic, but nowhere near as acidic as sour cream or buttermilk, for example. Baking soda would lead to a lot of browning and a different flavour, while baking powder wouldn't have as much of an impact on flavour or appearance.

How to make oat flour from oats

The recipe for these banana muffins with oats is based on this banana bread without baking soda. The all-purpose flour was simply replaced with oat flour, weight for weight. Oat flour makes these gluten-free banana muffins very tender with a moist crumb.

You can buy oat flour at health food stores and some bulk bin stores. But if you can't find it, you can easily make it in a food processor from oats.

Remember that the conversion from weight to volume or grams to cups for oat flour isn't the same as for oats. This baking conversions chart will help you convert volumes to weights or vice versa.

This recipe calls for 250 grams (2 cups) of oat flour, but 2 cups of large oats only weighs 190 grams. You will actually need to process 2-⅔ cups (250 grams) of large flake oats (or perhaps a little more just to be safe) to get the right volume/weight of oat flour for this recipe.

To make oat flour, I recommend using old-fashioned oats or large flake oats. Do not use minute oats or steel-cut oats. These will yield a different texture and also have a different capacity to absorb water. Minute oats and steel-cut oats are not good baking substitutions in this recipe.

Mixing method for muffins

The muffins are made using the reverse creaming mixing method, which I prefer for fruit muffins. For this method, the dry ingredients, leaveners, salt, and sugar are mixed together in a big bowl, and then the butter is worked into that mixture to form a crumbly mixture resembling coarse wet sand. Then you stir in the liquids.

The reverse creaming method is very similar to the traditional two-bowl muffin method, except in the recipe below, the fat is worked into the dry ingredients.

Making the crumble topping

To make the crumble topping, I reserved a portion of that mixture for later, before adding in the liquid ingredients. This method worked well and allows you to make the crumble topping at the same time as the muffins, speeding up the process and dirtying fewer dishes!

Now go forth and make these banana muffins with oats with the easy recipe below!

Storage

Muffins freeze well once baked. Just let them cool completely, then freeze solid on a sheet pan before you transfer them to an airtight freezer bag to store for a couple of months.

📖 Recipe

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Banana Muffins With Oats

These banana muffins are made with oat flour and oats, which makes a tender muffin that is also gluten-free!

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 351kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• OXO balloon whisk
• GIR spatula
• Muffin pan

Ingredients

• 250 grams oat flour or all-purpose flour
• 200 grams dark brown sugar
• 65 grams rolled oats (or large flake oats)
• 10 mL baking powder
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 5 mL ground cinnamon
• 175 grams unsalted butter cut into cubes and softened at room temperature
• 2 large egg(s) room temperature
• 330 grams mashed banana roughly 3 ripe bananas, approximately 450 grams with peel
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 130 grams pitted dates chopped, or use the same weight of chocolate chips, raisins, chopped nuts, etc.
• 30 mL rolled oats (or large flake oats) more or less because this is a garnish

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C). Line two 6-cup muffin pans with paper liners to make 12 muffins. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
• Add the butter, and work it into the dry ingredients to form a crumbly mixture that looks a little like coarse, wet sand.
• Scoop out 60 mL (¼ cup) of this mixture and set it aside as a crumble topping for the muffins.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed banana, and vanilla.
• Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, scraping the bottom and sides to incorporate everything.
• Fold in the chopped pitted dates.
• Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans. Scatter a little of the reserved crumble over each muffin and sprinkle with a few oats.
• Bake for 25–30 minutes, until the edges are a golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Notes

• Make sure the bananas are very ripe (black even).
• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• If you are using frozen bananas for this recipe, please make sure do the following:
  • defrost 4 bananas (instead of 3)
  • peel the bananas and place in a strainer set over a bowl
  • press very gently to squeeze out the liquid
  • place the liquid in a saucepan and boil it down to thicken it, stirring often so that it doesn't burn. Add this banana concentrate to the bananas and proceed with recipe.
• If you want to make a variation on these banana muffins, add any of the following:
  • add 250 mL (1 cup) chocolate chips instead of the chopped dates
  • add 10 mL (2 tsp) ground cardamom
• You can also use a thermometer to check if your cake is done baking and the internal temperature should register around 212 ºF or 100 ºC when it's done.
• If you don't have eggs or are allergic, try this eggless banana bread recipe.
• If you find your banana muffins sink or are gummy, they may be underbaked or the batter was too wet.

Nutrition

Calories: 351kcal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 59mg | Sodium: 184mg | Potassium: 398mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 424IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 83mg | Iron: 2mg

The post Banana Muffins with Oats (Gluten-Free) appeared first on The Bake School.

I'm currently dealing with a mountain of frozen bananas. Sure, you could make the best banana bread without baking soda or banana chocolate chip cookies with them, but smoothies will also do the trick when it comes to getting the frozen banana stash under control.

Ingredients

You don't need much to make this easy smoothie recipe!

• milk and yogurt—I use a combination of 2 % milk and 2 % plain yogurt
• ice to give the smoothie some body and thickness
• frozen banana—I like to keep sliced ripe banana in the freezer for things like this, but if your banana is frozen whole, that will absolutely work too!
• coffee—I use instant coffee granules (the kind you add boiling water to when making a quick cup of coffee) but espresso powder will work too
• ground green cardamom

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

I love the frothy layer that forms when you blend smoothies, like the milky foam of a cappuccino. This banana smoothie is so versatile and there are a lot of possible variations.

• Spices: I added cardamom to this banana drink, while thinking of Turkish coffee, which combines coffee and cardamom seeds, but you could try cinnamon, nutmeg, or even allspice for a different, warm flavour profile
• Chocolate: the coffee smoothie is topped with espresso powder, but you could try cocoa powder instead or even a splash of chocolate syrup
• Berries: one surprising flavour pairing is coffee and berries (like in this coffee raspberry bread pudding! Add a few strawberries or raspberries to the blender and see if you like it!
• Oats: to give the smoothie more body and to make it a better meal replacement, you can add large flake oats (also called rolled oats) and blend them in. They won't add much taste but will thicken up this smoothie and make it more substantial.
• More protein: if you want more protein in this recipe, add a spoonful of almond butter or peanut butter.
• Sweetness: For a sweeter smoothie, add a splash of maple syrup or honey to the blender before mixing.
• Yogurt—I use plain unsweetened yogurt, but you can also use vanilla yogurt instead or sweetened plain yogurt.
• Lactose-free options: This smoothie has a lot of dairy with lactose in it, if that's a problem, you can use
  • lactose-free milk or non-dairy milk.
  • lactose-free plain yogurt or non-dairy yogurt
• Vegan options: if you are following a vegan diet try:
  • non-dairy vegan milk beverage to replace the cow's milk, like oat milk, almond milk, or even soy milk or coconut milk. Use the type of milk you like to drink
  • coconut milk yogurt or even oat milk yogurt, which is slowly becoming more common and easier to find.

Fun toppings

While I topped this smoothie with espresso powder and cocoa nibs, you could try cocoa powder, shredded coconut, and so many other ingredients. Get creative!

How it's Made

Smoothies are so easy! You can measure your ingredients directly into the blender jug. Some blender jugs even double as drinking cups!

I always put the liquids in a smoothie into the blender jug first (image 1) before adding the other ingredients. Next, add the bananas (image 2) and the flavour elements, like coffee granules (image 3). Blend on medium–high speed until smooth.

For a thicker smoothie, use less milk or add more ice cubes. For a thinner smoothie, add more milk. Smoothies are very forgiving.

I use a KitchenAid blender to make my smoothies. Another option would be to use a stick blender and blend it directly in a large glass or jug. The KitchenAid stick blender kit has a tall blending cup that can fit these ingredients.

When I have some freshly brewed coffee on hand, I use it instead of the instant coffee, reducing the milk used. If it's summer, I blend in a few ice cubes. Cocoa powder would also taste great in this recipe. The smoothie you create will be a matter of taste, but here's a recipe to get you started. And, by all means, tweak away when you make your version of this smoothie!

Smoothie FAQs

More Banana Recipes

If you love to bake with bananas, here are a few more recipes to try:

If you tried this coffee banana smoothie recipe (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

📖 Recipe

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Coffee Banana Smoothie

Learn how to make a coffee banana smoothie with this easy recipe, ready in less than 5 minutes. This banana drink makes a healthy snack!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 1 large glass

Calories 290kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 190 mL skim milk (fat free) more or less depending on the desired consistency
• 190 mL yogurt (2 % fat)
• 4 ice cubes
• 1 frozen banana sliced
• 5 mL instant coffee granules
• 1.25 mL ground cardamom

Optional toppings

• cacao nibs
• instant espresso powder

Metric - US

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients in a blender, and pulse. Continue blending until smooth.
• Pour the smoothie in a tall glass, or several smaller glasses, and top with a sprinkle of espresso powder and a few cocoa nibs. Serve immediately.

Notes

• For added sweetness, blend in a splash of maple syrup or honey, or you can use sweetened plain yogurt or vanilla yogurt.
• To make this banana smoothie more substantial and filling, add 25 grams (½ cup) of rolled oats and blend them in.
• lactose-free options:
  • This smoothie has a lot of dairy with lactose in it, if that's a problem, you can replace the regular milk with lactose-free milk.
  • For the yogurt, there are lactose-free plain yogurt options now in stores
• vegan options:
  • you can try a vegan milk beverage to replace the cow's milk, like oat milk, almond milk, or even soy milk or coconut milk. Use the type of milk you like to drink.
  • you can try coconut milk yogurt or even oat milk yogurt, which is slowly becoming more common and easier to find.

Nutrition

Calories: 290kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 163mg | Potassium: 1218mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 33g | Vitamin A: 714IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 508mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Coffee Banana Smoothie appeared first on The Bake School.

The point of this post isn't to have you throw out all your bakeware and buy new. On the contrary, what I am hoping is that this post will help you better understand how your baking pans affect your baking and how to make adjustments so that you know how to make adjustments and adapt, regardless of what bakeware you're using!

If you want to easily convert recipes from one pan size to another, I recommend investing in the complete baking conversion charts bundle to get conversion charts for ingredients, pans, temperatures, volumes, weights, and more.

The impact of material on baking

Different baking pan materials behave differently in the oven, which can really throw off the baking time of a recipe. Baking times are highly dependent on the baking pan material, but once you know how each material reacts, you can adjust your baking temperatures and times accordingly, like a pro!

Aluminum 

Aluminum is a great heat conductor, which means that the metal is good at giving off the heat it absorbs and transferring it to what you are baking. This is why aluminum bakeware is so popular. Ideally, you want to invest in top-quality aluminum pans that are crafted with an even sheet of metal that is thick: this way your baked goods will bake evenly in the pan. Poor-quality pans are sometimes made with uneven metal sheets, which leads to hot spots where the cake browns more in certain spots.

The problem with aluminum is that it is reactive and therefore if the pH of the food is low (acidic) or high (basic), the aluminum will react and may leach into foods. This isn't a problem for most recipes, but if you are baking a blueberry rhubarb crisp, for example, you would want to reach for a ceramic dish or something that is non-reactive.

I ran into problems with my bakeware when I baked this moist rhubarb cake: the rhubarb reacted with the pan, etching it and leaving black marks in places.

Stainless steel

Stainless steel is an iron alloy, meaning it's made from a mixture of metals and other non-metal materials. The metals vary from one type of stainless steel to another, as well as the percentages of each. What this means is that not all stainless steels are created equally and therefore their properties will vary depending on the quality used. In general, stainless steel isn't a great heat conductor, but it's popular because it's easy to clean, and doesn't tarnish or rust (unless your stainless steel is very bad quality).

Silicone

Silicone is an insulator, meaning it's not good at conducting heat to your cakes and cookies. If you've ever baked a batch of cookies on a pan lined with a silicone baking mat and compared them to a batch baked on a parchment-lined sheet pan, the difference is quite striking: if you bake the cookies for the same amount of time, the cookies on the silicone liner will be under-baked and won't brown in the same amount of time as the cookies baked on parchment.

If you want soft cookies, baking on silicone is a great option! For cakes, nobody likes under-baked cake, so you will have to adjust and increase the baking time, inevitably if you bake a cake in a silicone cake pan.

Glass

Glass is a poor conductor of heat, which means that glass isn't good at transferring heat from itself to what you are baking. Baking in glass is slower, meaning recipes take longer to bake. You will notice this, especially with pies, which take longer to brown on the bottom if you bake them on a glass pie plate. This is the reason I now bake my pies in metal pie plates, which do a better job of baking the bottom crust and browning it. Metal pie pans are one of my essential tools for making pie and my secret weapon to a properly baked pie crust on the bottom.

Glass is an insulator, meaning it's good at retaining heat. This is why glass baking dishes are so popular for casseroles: the glass baking dish can go from oven to dinner table, retaining the heat of the oven for longer so the food stays warm. Bake the same casserole in a metal pan, and the pan will rapidly lose heat when you place it on the table, so your food will go cold faster. 

I recommend investing in the complete baking conversion charts bundle to get conversion charts for ingredients, pans, temperatures, volumes, weights, and more.

Cast iron

There's a reason why people love to bake and cook with cast iron pans that are passed on from generation to generation. Iron is a decent conductor and a well-seasoned pan is non-stick. The seasoning process involves brushing on a very thin, even coating of oil over the entire surface of the pan, even on the underside, and then baking on that oil in the oven at a very high temperature. The heat will cause the oil to polymerize into a non-stick polymer, which is why it doesn't wash off with soap and water.

Ceramic

Like glass, ceramic is a poor heat conductor but a great insulator, which means it's not good at transferring heat to baked goods, but the pan is great at holding the heat, so useful if you want to serve the dish warm. This is why ceramic is a popular material in slow cookers designed to hold heat for as long as possible. It's also great for casseroles that you want to serve warm, table-side.

Enamel cast-iron

Some cast iron pans are finished with an enamel coating to protect the iron and prevent rusting. These pans have the heating capacity of cast iron that can transfer heat easily to baked goods, combined with a shiny non-stick coating that also holds heat well. 

Insulated metal

Over a decade ago, insulated metal pans were quite popular, made from two sheets of metal with an air gap in between. Insulated pans appear thicker though they are made from two thin sheets of metal because of the gap between the layers. That air makes it very difficult to burn cookies baked on this type of sheet pan

Insulated pans grew in popularity because they reduced the browning of baked goods, especially cookies, leading to softer, lighter-coloured cookies. If you are a fan of under-baked cookies, consider switching to insulated pans (or using a silicone liner as mentioned above).

The impact of the gauge of the metal on baking

The higher the gauge, the thinner the pan. The lower the gauge, the thicker the pan. You might not know the gauge of the sheet of metal used to make your bakeware, and that's okay! The important thing is to remember that thicker aluminum pans heat up more and your baked goods will bake faster in a thicker metal pan than in a thinner metal pan. 

The impact of pan colour on baking

Yes, the colour of your bakeware can affect how much your baked goods brown in the oven and you should make adjustments to the baking temperature according to the bakeware you are using.

Dark finish vs light finish

Darker materials radiate more heat than lighter materials. So a pan with a dark, dull (matte) finish will radiate the most heat, while a pan with a shiny aluminum finish will radiate the least.

Pans that radiate the most heat are the best at transferring heat to baked goods. With darker pans, I recommend dropping the oven temperature by 25 ºF, so baking at 325 ºF instead of 350 ºF in order to achieve the same bake in roughly the same time as a dessert baked in a lighter pan. Why? Darker finishes radiate more heat, which means your baked goods will be exposed to a higher temperature on the bottom in a dark pan versus a lighter pan. In order to mitigate this, drop the oven temperature. 

In the same way, if your recipe was developed for and is suggesting you bake in a darker pan, then if you want to use a lighter colour pan, you should increase the oven temperature by 25 ºF. So bake the recipe at 375 ºF instead of 350 ºF to achieve the same bake.

What types of pans should you buy?

At this point, knowing all of this, you might be wondering what are the best baking pans to invest in, so I'll break it down by the type of baked goods you would need them for:

• for cakes, invest in aluminum cake pans with a light finish, like the Wilton professional line of bakeware that is light in colour and has a matte finish. If you plan on making layer cakes, buy 3 cake pans of the same size and type. I like to bake in 6-inch cake pans and these are the Wilton Performance pans I use from Amazon.
• for quick breads and loaf cakes, I like pans with a lighter finish. Lately, I've been baking in OXO Good Grips pans with the gold non-stick finish (from Amazon). I love this line of pans, though I have noticed that the cake edges brown more than in lighter finish pans, so if you go with the gold pans, you may have to explore baking at lower temperatures (like 325 ºF instead of 350 ºF).
• for cookies, buy at least 2 sheet pans and preferably heavy duty with a light finish, preferably half sheet pans so that you can fit more cookies per pan, staggering them to allow for airflow. I like the Nordic Ware sheet pans on Amazon. On the subject of sheet pans, if you plan on baking pizzas or other recipes where you want the bottom to brown, invest in pans with a darker finish or else try increasing the baking temperature to ensure the bottoms brown properly.
• for pies, buy a metal pie plate with a darker finish, which will combine extra heat absorption with being a good heat conductor! It's the perfect combination for getting the pie crusts baked on the bottom so that you can avoid the dreaded soggy bottom of under-baked pies! These dark metal pans from Amazon work great.
• for cheesecakes, a light springform that has a good seal is essential. This will allow you to bake cheesecakes in a water bath, gently, thereby avoiding any cracks, but also this will reduce browning on the edges so that the cheesecake bakes more evenly. I like these Wilton springform pans on Amazon.
• for bundts, the best in the industry is Nordic Ware bundt pans. They have a special non-stick coating that prevents baked goods from getting stuck in intricate patterns and grooves. Nordic Ware pans are heavy duty and the company has a great reputation with good reason. The anniversary pan on Amazon is heavy duty and the pan I use on this website.

Tip: different pans are labelled and sold with different measurements. For example, bundt pan sizes are expressed as a volume (for example, a 10-cup bundt pan) whereas a loaf pan is labelled with the dimensions of the length and width (for example, a 9x5-inch pan). Read all about how to measure cake pan sizes to find out more.

FAQ

Do you preheat the oven with the baking pan inside?

The first step of most recipes is to preheat the oven to the desired baking temperature suggested by the recipe. When you preheat the oven, the goal is to warm the oven up to the temperature you want to bake at. During the preheating phase, the heating elements are working hard to heat up the oven, meaning that they are giving off a ton of heat, more so than the elements give off later to maintain that temperature. This is the reason why you should give your oven plenty of time to preheat, before you begin baking. You want to avoid exposing your baked goods to that blast of heat from the heating elements, which is unpredictable at best.

For some recipes, you may preheat the oven with the baking pan INSIDE the oven. Popovers, Yorkshire puddings, and Dutch baby pancake recipes tell you to preheat the oven with the pan inside because these recipes need to be baked in a hot pan. The heat of the pan is what gives the batters a burst of energy to puff and rise up.

For other recipes, cakes, cookies, bundts, etc., you want to use baking pans that are at room temperature. Don't use a hot pan or a pan that you preheated in the oven unless the recipe specifies to do so!

Shallow vs deep baking pans

When it comes to filling pans with cake or muffin batter, there are a few rules you want to follow to ensure that your baked goods bake properly in a reasonable amount of time. 

1. Don't overfill the pan. There should be at least an inch between the surface of the batter and the top of the cake pan. For muffins, as a rule, fill the cups ¾ full, otherwise, the cake may overflow as it bakes, but also you may have a hard time baking the middle of the cake properly, and then your cake may collapse! Sometimes, the trick for jumbo muffins is to overfill the muffin cups, and the consequences of this are obvious: the muffin may overflow and stick to the edges of the muffin pan, and the muffins may take much longer to bake.
2. For layer cakes, split the batter between two or three cake pans rather than baking one very tall cake that you split into layers after. I have some 3-inch deep professional cake pans, but cakes baked in this pan take FOREVER to bake properly, and you may have trouble judging if your cake is done baking or not. For 3-layer cakes, I prefer to split the batter between three identical cake pans, rather than baking one layer that I split into three.

I recommend investing in the complete baking conversion charts bundle to get conversion charts for ingredients, pans, temperatures, volumes, weights, and more.

Why do baking pans warp or bend in the oven?

Sometimes you will hear a bang coming from the oven. It's the sound of the sheet pan in the oven suddenly bending or warping from the heat. This happens when pans have a thinner construction that is more prone to bending with temperature changes. Usually, higher-quality pans won't do this, which is why it's important to invest in good brands that make thicker pans that are higher quality. Wilton and Nordic Ware are two brands that make heavy-duty, durable pans, for example.

Why do baking pans rust?

If your pans are supposedly stainless steel, don't forget that stainless steel is an alloy made from several types of metal, combined into one. Not all stainless steels are equal, and some are more durable and rust-proof/stainless than others. I've noticed with very cheap metal bakeware, for example, the stainless may rust and with whisks, for example, they can even impart a metallic flavour into cooked custards and curds that are whisked on the stove. It's really bad when this happens. 

Older pans may be made of iron and the metal may be prone to rust when in contact with water and air. It's not ideal to bake anything in a rusted pan because that metal rust may leach into your food. 

Cast iron pans can rust if exposed for prolonged periods to moisture. For this reason, it's important to dry pans thoroughly. I go as far as baking the washed pan in the oven to ensure all the water evaporates completely so that the pan is completely dry before I put it away.

How to prevent it

When you wash metal bakeware, make sure to dry it immediately and thoroughly with a towel to avoid any water damaging your pans.

Why do glass pans explode?

Glass bakeware is made to be baked with and is shatterproof, but some bakers have experienced a glass pan shattering or exploding. This would happen if the glass is damaged and then undergoes an extreme temperature change, from cold to hot, or hot to cold. Be sure to inspect any glass bakeware you use to make sure there aren't any defects or any damage that you can see. This way, you're less likely to run into problems down the road.

Best practices for cleaning bakeware

There's a reason why almost all of the recipes on this website start with a variation of "line the pan with parchment paper." I loathe washing my bakeware and taking the time to carefully prepare a pan for baking saves me a ton of time in the long run. Soaking the pan in hot soapy water for 5 minutes usually lifts any stuck-on food, just like with most cookware. Avoid using any scrubbing brushes that are too rough on baking pans, especially if they have a coating or finish on them, which you could damage with excessive scrubbing.

Need more help with cake pans?

Most of us aren't born with the natural ability to guess the exact size of any cake pan. If you would like to learn more about converting recipes from one pan type to another, you need the Baking Pan conversions chart.

Pan conversions chart

Use this baking pan size conversion chart to help you swap cake pans in a recipe. Learn how to find out which pans are equivalent and how to convert from one cake pan size to another.

Get the chart

The post Guide to baking pans and bakeware appeared first on The Bake School.

I opted for a buttermilk cake base, with a little whole wheat pastry flour. I mixed the chopped banana into the batter just before baking to make sure this would be a buttermilk cake with banana and not a buttermilk banana bread. And because of my love of cardamom and my previous experience with this cardamom banana bread recipe, clearly, cardamom and banana are magical when combined. So I added some freshly ground green cardamom for its floral notes. The recipe comes together like any other cake by the creaming method, and the glaze was a quick mix of icing sugar, melted butter, buttermilk, and a splash of vanilla.

The thing that surprised me about this cake is that I was certain that the banana chunks wouldn't discolour inside the cake as it baked. And there really was some thought behind that assumption. The first reason was that I peeled and chopped the banana right before working in the dry ingredients into the batter. I worked quickly to minimize the time the banana chunks were exposed to the air. The second reason that I thought the bananas would not brown is because I assumed the batter would be somewhat acidic (with a lower than neutral pH) because of the unbalanced buttermilk in the recipe. If you look at my list of ingredients (compared to most other buttermilk cake recipes), I didn't provide any sodium bicarbonate to balance out the acidity of the buttermilk. That was done on purpose. I didn't want any ingredients to mess with that acidity and I thought that given the unbalanced acid in this recipe, that acid would prevent (or slow) the browning process of the bananas enough that once the chunks eventually felt the heat of the oven, that those pesky browning enzymes (polyphenol oxidase) would denature and no longer cause browning. Does that make sense? Basically, I was banking on the combination of an acidic environment and the heat of the oven to prevent the browning of the fruit.

Apparently, I was wrong. The banana chunks greyed a little around the edges. Conclusion: I really need to get a pH meter or even some pH paper to verify the pHs as I go. Or maybe I need to work more on my banana browning theory (or rather my banana greying theory in this case). Remember blueberries turn green with changes in pH.

On the bright side, I wasn't wrong about everything. I omitted the baking soda that most buttermilk cake recipes tend to include because I felt like it was unnecessary. This cake is made with baking powder, so it has that perfect combination of bicarbonate and an acid. This cake also gets its lift from the rising power of eggs. As predicted, my little loaf cake rose beautifully in the oven, up and out of the pan, so my theory, that the extra bicarbonate in most buttermilk cake recipes isn't really necessary, was correct. At least I seem to have gotten that much right, and so I rewarded myself with cake.

Notes

• I baked this loaf cake at 325ºF, and not the usual 350ºF, because I was using a Baker's Secret pan (available from Amazon), which has a darker finish. Remember darker baking pans are very good at browning cake edges, and even burning them, so if you are baking with a pan that has a dark finish, remember to lower your oven temperature by 25ºF. On the other hand, if you are baking this recipe in a light, aluminum pan, you can go ahead and bake it at 350ºF.
• Another thing to keep in mind: my pan is an 8x4" loaf pan, medium size, not the typical 9x5" pan we bake our loaves in usually. If you are using a 9x5 pan, your cake might bake faster. I suspect that it might be done after an hour. Best check it earlier rather than later!
• Got extra buttermilk after baking this cake? You might as well try my buttermilk pancake recipe to use it up. 

📖 Recipe

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Banana buttermilk cake

This buttermilk cake is flavoured with cardamom and chunks of banana for a lovely afternoon snacking cake.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Calories 214kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• OXO balloon whisk
• Loaf pan

Ingredients

• 125 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 63 grams whole wheat pastry flour
• 5 mL baking powder
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 2.5 mL freshly ground cardamom
• 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 2 large egg(s) whisked together
• 2.5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 1 ripe banana(s) this is equivalent to a heaping cup, ~150 grams, banana chunks, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 125 mL buttermilk (1 % fat)

Cardamom glaze

• 160 grams icing sugar
• 45 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat)
• 1.25 mL ground cardamom to sprinkle on top

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) (or 325 °F (165 °C) if using a dark loaf pan). Grease, flour, and line the bottom of a medium (8x4") loaf pan. I like the pan from Baker's Secret (available from Amazon).
• Sift together the flours, salt, and baking powder into a medium bowl, then whisk in the freshly ground cardamom.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and the sugar for 3 minutes then, with the mixer on low, gradually add the whisked egg, a little at a time, then the vanilla. Scrape down the bowl and beat for another 3 minutes.
• In a small bowl, combine the banana chunks with 2 scoops of the dry mixture, and stir to coat the fruit.
• With the mixer on low, add a third of the flour and mix until almost combined, followed by half the buttermilk. Mix until just combined. Add another third of flour, and then the last of the buttermilk. Take the bowl off the mixer and then add the last bit of flour, mixing it in with a spatula by hand. Before the last of the flour has disappeared, stir in the flour-coated banana chunks.
• Transfer the cake batter to the prepared pan, smoothing the top and tapping the pan on the counter several times to try and remove air pockets.
• Bake for about 80 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
• Let cool 15 minutes before unmolding on a wire rack to cool completely.

Milk glaze

• In a small bowl or a measuring cup with a pouring spout, whisk together the icing sugar with the milk. Adjust the consistency with more milk or powdered sugar. It should be thick but pourable.
• Set the wire rack with the cake over a big sheet pan, then pour the glaze over the cake.
• Sprinkle with ground cardamom.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!

Nutrition

Calories: 214kcal

The post Banana Buttermilk Loaf Cake appeared first on The Bake School.

Everybody always needs a way to use up those ripe bananas that have gone too far to enjoy as is and are better suited for baking. You could make banana oat muffins or these cakey banana oatmeal cookies, or you could make a classic banana bread following the recipe below.

Baking Soda Versus Baking Powder in Banana Bread

Old-school banana bread recipes are usually made with baking soda only and without baking powder. I gather that there was a time when baking powder wasn't as readily available, but also that the consistency of baking powder sold in grocery stores varied. Baking powder wasn't the reliable chemical leavener it is today.

Remember that baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and requires acidic ingredients to react to form carbon dioxide. The acidity in banana bread could come from the mashed bananas, which have a pH that is between 4 and 5.

Tip: Curious how baking soda works? Read more in this science breakdown of baking soda in baking.

Baking powder is made from sodium bicarbonate, acid(s), and a drying agent (or anti-caking agent) like cornstarch. It's a complete leavening agent and all you have to do is wet it and apply a little heat to make it react.

The Role of Baking Soda in Banana Bread?

In banana bread, baking soda does more than just help the loaf cake rise:

• it increases the pH of the batter, leading to a browner, much darker crumb and crust
• it tenderizes by reducing gluten formation in the batter
• it adds flavour, especially since most banana bread recipes call for 5 mL (1 teaspoon) or more of baking soda, which is quite a lot for such a small quantity of flour and batter.

Examples of Quick Breads with Baking Soda

This eggless banana bread and this healthier pumpkin bread are made with baking soda only. These are older recipes passed down from my grandmother and made without eggs so baking soda is necessary.

There were two instances where I found a combination of baking powder and baking soda worked better for the loaf cakes to rise properly and achieve the perfect texture

• this classic pumpkin bread that is very moist and made with a large amount of pumpkin purée compared to the quantity of flour
• this delicious chocolate banana bread, which tended to collapse a little towards the bottom without both baking soda and baking powder

Baking Banana Bread Without Baking Soda

I find baking soda, especially in some loaf cake recipes and quick breads, can provide too much flavour. While some tasters don't notice it, I find I'm particularly sensitive to it, and the flavour in some instances can verge on soapy.

Baking Soda Substitute In Banana Bread

Though in some recipes, it's inevitable, I prefer the taste of banana bread without baking soda, which has a milder more buttery flavour and a lighter, golden brown colour with a pale yellow crumb inside. Baking powder is a good substitute for baking soda in banana bread. A good rule of thumb is to use at least 5 mL (1 teaspoon) of baking powder for every cup of flour.

And though I couldn't get the pumpkin bread to work without baking soda, I am happy to report that banana bread without baking soda does work beautifully, with the recipe below.

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Banana Bread Without Baking Soda

This is a classic banana bread without baking soda. Instead this easy recipe uses baking powder and basic ingredients

Course Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 10

Calories 337kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Loaf pan
• OXO balloon whisk
• Braun mixer
• GIR spatula

Ingredients

• 250 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 10 mL baking powder
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 175 grams unsalted butter softened
• 200 grams granulated sugar or a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar
• 2 large egg(s) room temperature
• 5 mL pure vanilla extract
• 300 grams mashed banana roughly 3 ripe bananas, approximately 450 grams with peel

Metric - US

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ºF (175 °C). Butter and flour an 8½ x4½-inch (21.5x11.5 cm) loaf pan OR a 9x5-inch (23x12.5 cm) loaf pan, then line the bottom with a rectangle of parchment paper. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
• In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for at least 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl often to make sure the mixture is evenly whipped.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each addition. Mix in the vanilla, if using.
• Add the mashed banana. Mix well, scraping the bottom and sides to incorporate everything.
• Dump in the flour and fold it in with your spatula.
• Pour the batter into the prepared loaf cake pan. Smooth the top to even it out.
• Bake for 60–65 minutes for a 9x5" loaf or up to 75 minutes for an 8.5"x4.5" pan, until the edges are a deep golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Notes

• Use the largest bananas you can find for this recipe: I used a pound of bananas and after peeling, I was left with roughly 330 grams of fruit, which works out to 330 mL (1⅓ cups) but this recipe can accommodate up to 375 mL (1½ cups) of mashed banana. Don't use more than that.
• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• Make sure the bananas are very ripe (black even).
• If you are using frozen bananas for this recipe, please make sure do the following:
  • defrost the bananas
  • peel the bananas and place in a strainer set over a bowl
  • press very gently to squeeze out the liquid
  • either discard the banana liquid OR place the liquid in a saucepan and boil it down to a couple tablespoons, stirring often so that it doesn't burn. Add this banana concentrate to the bananas and proceed with recipe.
• If you want to make a fancier banana bread, add any of the following:
  • add 250 mL (1 cup) chocolate chips
  • add 250 mL (1 cup) chopped walnuts or chopped pecans
  • add 5 mL (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
  • add 10 mL (2 tsp) ground cardamom
  • add 5 mL (1 tsp) vanilla extract
• You can also use a thermometer to check if your cake is done baking and the internal temperature should register around 212 ºF or 100 ºC when it's done.
• If you don't have eggs or are allergic, try this eggless banana bread recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 337kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 210mg | Potassium: 262mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 506IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 58mg | Iron: 1mg

Frequently asked questions

The post Banana Bread Without Baking Soda appeared first on The Bake School.

A few weeks ago, Caroline Dumas, a Montreal chef restaurateur and cookbook author,  accused Danny St-Pierre, another chef and cookbook author, of plagiarizing her recipe for pouding chômeur. Apparently, Caroline Dumas had been internalizing her rage over this for many, many years until she was presented with an opportunity to basically blow up publicly on a radio show and accuse him. She was mad. He was confused. From his reaction, it was clear that he wasn't aware of the blunder and that he has a staff behind him and his websites. It seems that somebody from his team goofed and copied/published word-for-word Caroline Dumas' entire pouding chômeur recipe, all the way down to the note at the end that you can add strawberries to the syrup layer. All that without a single credit or link back to her.

Ouch.

To make the situation even more dramatic, the Twitterverse hashtagged it #poudingchomeurgate and all the newspapers and radio jumped on the story. Even a grocery store tried to cash in on the media blitz by labelling their containers of pouding chômeur as "façon Caroline Dumas" or "façon Danny St-Pierre". There were online polls to gauge whose side the public was on. In general, a lot of us felt bad for the way Danny St-Pierre was ambushed on the radio. You'd think Caroline Dumas would have spoken to him beforehand about the issue before exploding on the radio...

Like every other media scandal, #poudingchomeurgate quieted down and apologies were apparently exchanged all around. Still, it amazes me that people don't understand that copying something word-for-word isn't right, especially those working in the media and even worse, those working behind the scenes for big names. On the other hand, #poudingchomeurgate unleashed a whole lot of mocking because a lot of people interpreted that Caroline Dumas was claiming to have "invented" the pouding chômeur, which is clearly not the case. I gather her signature pouding chômeur syrup calls for equal parts cream and maple syrup, whereas traditional pouding chômeurs use brown sugar and boiling water because it was a "poor man's pudding" baked during the Great Depression, and maple syrup costs a small fortune. Her recipe has been published on a few websites and books over the last 10 years, and Martin Picard of Au Pied de Cochon apparently even uses it and has published it himself in his cookbook (of course, crediting Dumas).

When I was prepping for this recipe, I did a lot of research and math, as usual, and of course, I made a spreadsheet (pictured above). I converted all the recipes into grams/mLs. There are probably hundreds of versions of pouding chômeur with slight variations, and a lot of people seem to use a 1:1 ratio of maple syrup and cream for the yummy sauce hidden beneath the cake layer. Perhaps Caroline Dumas started that trend. I can't say because I don't have the proper tools to research that. In general, nobody's reinventing the wheel here either (including me): it's a basic butter cake recipe dolloped over a pool of syrup. I'm sure they are all yummy, and they all yield some version of pouding chômeur. This one's my latest version to add to the pool: with a boozy maple syrup base reminiscent of bananas foster. I added both vanilla and salt to my cake layer because I think that's important, while most recipes don't (data not included in table).

This is one of many great maple syrup recipes to warm you up as winter drags on and on. It's easy and it's sweet with a good amount of bananas foster flavour and a fluffy cake top. It might not be the prettiest, but it sure hits the spot! If it's rhubarb season, try this rhubarb pudding cake recipe, another easy dessert recipe with fruit baked on the bottom. Or for something simpler, there's always the best banana bread recipe ever.

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Bananas Foster Pouding Chômeur

This bananas foster pudding cake is a riff on the classic Quebecois dessert, the maple pouding chômeur with a bananas foster layer on the bottom and vanilla cake on top.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Canadian

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 9

Calories 348kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

Cake ingredients

• 58 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 1 large egg(s)
• 1.25 mL pure vanilla extract
• 83 grams bleached all-purpose flour
• 2.5 mL baking powder
• 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Bananas foster ingredients

• 250 mL pure maple syrup medium
• 250 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• 63 mL spiced or dark rum
• 2 ripe banana(s) about 2 cups, sliced and divided

Metric - US

Instructions

• In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a bowl with a hand mixer), cream the butter and the sugar. Add the egg and beat well , scraping down as needed. Add the vanilla and continue beating on medium-low for several minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Dump this mixture into the mixer bowl and beat on low to combine.
• Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C).
• In a medium saucepan, combine the maple syrup, whipping cream, dark rum and half the bananas. Heat on high and bring to a boil. Boil for a minute or two.
• Scatter the rest of the banana slices in the bottom of an 8x8-inch baking dish (preferably at least 2-inches high to minimize spillover later). Pour the syrup over the bananas, then dollop the cake batter over top with the help of a couple spoons (or you can use your fingers).
• Place the baking dish on a parchment-lined sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the centre of the cake layer comes out clean. The cake will have browned nicely too.
• Serve warm (but not straight from the oven because you might burn your mouth off).

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!

Nutrition

Calories: 348kcal

The post Bananas foster pouding chômeur appeared first on The Bake School.

What is a banana split?

A banana split is a classic American ice cream dessert where a banana is split in half, lengthwise, then topped with three scoops of ice cream, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. The dessert is drizzled with chocolate fudge sauce, strawberry sauce, or even pineapple topping, and then garnished with dollops of whipped cream, maraschino cherries, chopped nuts, and even sprinkles.

Ways to turn it into a layer cake

There are so many ways you can translate a banana split into a layer cake. The goal is to pinpoint the key flavours of the classic dessert in order to incorporate them into a layer cake

Here are a few ideas:

• For the cake layers, you can use vanilla cake, banana cake, chocolate cake, or even strawberry and/or cherry cake.
• For the fillings, you can use:
  • sliced bananas and incorporate them as is, or sauté them in butter and brown sugar to soften them.
  • chocolate fudge sauce or salted caramel sauce
  • fruit fillings, like strawberry jam or pineapple compote
• For the frosting, you can flavour it with vanilla extract or go with bolder flavours, incorporating nut butter or even freeze-dried berries.
• For the toppings, chopped nuts or nut crunch work well, as do Milk Bar milk crumbs or berry milk crumbs, and maraschino cherries, the classic topping for most ice cream sundaes and desserts.

After testing out a few combinations with these components, I felt like the combination that best represented the banana split is a vanilla cake with a cherry-pomegranate soak, sautéed bananas, peanut crunch, chocolate fudge sauce, cherry-strawberry frosting, topped with maraschino cherries.

Most of the components for this layer cake are adapted from either Christina Tosi's first book Milk Bar, available on Amazon, or her third book All About Cake, also available on Amazon. I highly recommend both books.

The layers of cake are cut out from a large vanilla sponge sheet cake. This is the secret to achieving the flawless "naked cake" look with no golden brown edges to be seen. Tosi isn't a fan of the golden edges.

The bottom layer of the cake is actually made from cake scraps, patched together and pressed gently to create the base that you build on.

This method will still leave you with leftover cake. Save the cake scraps and make cake truffles, using the same method as the birthday cake truffles.

Special ingredients you need to bake Milk Bar recipes

• liquid glucose: you may find it at Bulk Barn or your local bulk ingredients store, or restaurant/baking supply stores in your area. If not, you can buy Wilton brand glucose from Amazon.
• cake flour: cake flour has a lower protein content and higher starch content than regular all-purpose, which will help you achieve a fluffier, more tender cake. This type of flour is better at absorbing more liquid. You can find it on Amazon if your grocery store doesn't have it.
• grapeseed oil: grapeseed oil is a flavourless oil. If you don't want to buy grapeseed oil, Tosi recommends using canola oil. If you feel like buying grapeseed oil, you can buy it on Amazon. I use canola oil because it's cheaper, so feel free to swap them!
• pailleté feuilletine from Cacao Barry is what gives the nut crunches that crispy light texture. You can buy it on Amazon, but I used Gavottes crispy crêpe cookies, and they worked perfectly. I got them at the grocery store from the cookie aisle, but you may have to order them from Amazon.
• freeze-dried fruit powders, cherry and strawberry for this recipe—you can buy whole freeze-dried cherries on Amazon and whole freeze-dried strawberries on Amazon, and then grind them down in the food processor into a fine powder.

Special equipment and tools to make Milk Bar layer cake recipes

• stand mixer: Christina Tosi has a very specific way of mixing cake batters and they require a ton of beating. Unfortunately, this means using a hand-held electric mixer is a terrible option for this recipe (as is a wooden spoon for mixing by hand). Your best bet is to use a KitchenAid Artisan 5 quart mixer or their 6 quart professional mixer. If you don't have one and you want to bake more, I highly recommend getting one on Amazon.
• 6-inch cake ring: I actually used the ring of a 6-inch springform pan from Amazon to build my cake, but it was not ideal because of the rim/seam on the springform which made it extra hard to unmold. Buy a cake ring from Amazon if you can.
• acetate: when I made this cake, I didn't know where to buy acetate, so I used acetate sheets from an office supply store. No clue if it's food grade. Don't do that. Buy a roll of acetate from Amazon.
• mini offset spatula: I love my mini offset spatula from Ateco and I use it all the time when I am making cakes. You can buy it on Amazon! Tosi actually uses a spoon that she's bent to assemble cakes. That's another option if you don't mind bending one of your spoons.
• quarter sheet pans with rims: I like these Nordic Ware quarter sheet pans on Amazon, which are like the ones Tosi recommends. I actually bake the sheet cakes in a 10x15 pan from Chicago Metallic. The darker finish of this line of baking pans means you have to watch the baking time because cakes brown faster in darker pans

If you are a fan of Milk Bar's baked goods, here are some other Milk Bar recipes to explore:

How to store this cake

Given this banana split layer cake is made with fruit filling, it's best to store it in the fridge. If you've cut into the cake, just cover the cut edges with pieces of parchment to prevent them from drying out. Place the cake in the fridge until the frosting is firm and cold, then cover the whole thing with aluminum foil. You can store this cake for up to a week, or freeze slices for later.

For a detailed explanation, read about how to store cake.

Notes on this recipe

For this three-layer banana split cake recipe, it's very important to follow the directions, especially when it comes to the mixing times for the cake batter and the frosting.

The cake batter is high in fat and sugar, and you need to beat it for several minutes at specific stages in order for the ingredients to emulsify properly. Otherwise, your cake may be heavy or greasy.

The same goes for the frosting, which contains a higher amount of butter than most American buttercream frostings. Make sure to beat the butter and the sugar for a long time to lighten the mixture, incorporate a ton of air and improve its taste and mouthfeel of it.

For the filling components, you might have a little leftover chocolate fudge sauce, for example. Save it in the fridge to top your next bowl of ice cream! All you have to do is warm it in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute to warm it up so that you can use it.

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Banana Split Cake

Learn how to make a banana split cake from vanilla sponge cake stacked with chocolate fudge sauce, banana compote, and peanut crunch with this layer cake recipe.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 hours hours

Cook Time 45 minutes minutes

Freeze time 3 hours hours

Total Time 8 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Calories 1143kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• OXO kitchen scale
• 6-quart KitchenAid Pro mixer
• 10x15 sheet pan
• Food processor
• Acetate
• 6-inch cake ring

Ingredients

Vanilla sponge sheet cake

• 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 250 grams granulated sugar
• 50 grams light brown sugar
• 3 large egg(s)
• 110 grams buttermilk (1 % fat)
• 75 grams canola oil
• 15 mL pure vanilla extract
• 185 grams cake flour
• 5 mL baking powder
• 5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt

Chocolate fudge sauce

• 60 grams dark chocolate (70 % cocoa content)
• 36 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
• 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 200 grams Wilton glucose
• 50 grams granulated sugar
• 110 grams whipping cream (35 % fat)

Peanut crunch

• 125 grams chopped toasted peanuts
• 40 grams canola oil
• 20 grams light brown sugar
• 2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 60 grams feuilletine

Cherry frosting

• 115 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 95 grams icing sugar for a sweeter frosting, use a little more
• 10 grams freeze-dried cherries more or less depending on how much flavour you want
• 5 grams freeze-dried strawberries more or less depending on how much flavour you want

Banana compote

• 30 grams unsalted butter
• 60 mL light brown sugar
• 4 ripe banana(s) sliced

Soak

• 30 grams cherry pomegranate juice
• 30 grams maraschino cherry syrup strained from a jar of maraschino cherries

Toppings

• 8 maraschino cherries

Metric - US

Instructions

Vanilla sponge sheet cake

• Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).
• Combine unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Cream together on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, then increase speed and mix on medium–high again for 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once more.
• On low speed, stream in buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Continue mixing for 4 to 6 minutes, until the mixture is practically white, twice the size of your original fluffy butter-and-sugar mixture, and completely homogenous. Be patient and don't rush the process! It takes a long time to force so much liquid into an already fatty mixture that doesn't want to make room for the liquid.
• Stop the mixer and use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
• With the mixture on low speed, add cake flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Mix for 45 to 60 seconds, just until your batter comes together and any remnants of dry ingredients have been incorporated. BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERMIX. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl — if you see any lumps of cake flour in there while you're scraping, mix for another 45 seconds.
• Prepare a quarter sheet pan by generously spraying with cooking oil and line with parchment. Lightly spray the parchment as well.
• Using a rubber spatula, transfer the cake batter to the sheet pan, spreading the cake batter in an even layer in the pan. Give the bottom of your sheet pan a tap on the countertop to even out the layer.
• Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes. The cake will rise and puff, doubling in size, but will remain buttery and dense. At 30 minutes, gently poke the edge of the cake with your finger: the cake should bounce back slightly and the center should no longer be jiggly. Leave the cake in the oven for an extra 3 to 5 minutes if it doesn’t pass these tests.
• Take the cake out of the oven and cool on a wire cooling rack. The cooled cake can be stored in the fridge, wrapped in plastic wrap, for up to 5 days.

Chocolate fudge sauce

• Combine the chocolate, cocoa powder, and salt in medium bowl.
• Combine the glucose, molasses, sugar, and heavy cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir intermittently while bringing to a boil over high heat. The moment it boils, pour it into the bowl holding the chocolate. Let sit for 1 full minute.
• Slowly, slowly begin to whisk the mixture. then continue, increasingly the vigour of your whisking every 30 seconds, until the mixture is glossy and silky-smooth. This will take 2 to 4 minutes, depending on your speed and strength. You can use this sauce at this point or store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Peanut crunch

• Purée the chopped roasted peanuts with the oil, brown sugar, and salt in a food processor until it's the consistency of wet sand.
• Transfer to a bowl and stir in the pailleté feuilletine (or crushed Gavottes cookies). Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Cherry frosting

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and icing sugar for 5 minutes on medium–high until very light and fluffy.
• Grind the freeze-dried cherries and strawberries together in a food processor until you get a fine powder.
• Add the powder to the frosting, and stir on low to combine. Use the frosting immediately.

Banana compote

• In a non-stick fry pan, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and sliced bananas and stir.
• Bring the mixture up to a simmer, and continue cooking for about 10 minutes, stirring every so often, until the bananas are soft, but still hold their shape. The goal is to form a chunky compote while removing some of the moisture from the bananas.

Soak

• Combine the juice with the maraschino cherry syrup. Stir well to mix them together. Use immediately.

To assemble

• Prepare a 6-inch (15.25 cm) cake ring (from Amazon) by placing it on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet, lining the inside of the ring with a 20-inch (50.8 cm) long piece of acetate (also on Amazon).
• Cut out two 6-inch (15.25 cm) circles of cake, and two half circles. Fit the two half circles of cake at the bottom of the acetate-lined ring, filling any gaps with the leftover cake scraps.
• Brush the cake with half the soak (~30 grams), then smooth on half of banana compote (roughly ⅔ cup).
• Sprinkle one third of the peanut crunch over the compote. Dollop with half of the warmed chocolate fudge sauce frosting, then gently spread into an even layer.
• Gently fit a second strip of acetate between the first acetate strip and the ring to give your mold more height. Then, place the next layer of cake over the chocolate sauce, and repeat the previous step by brushing with soak, smoothing with compote, sprinkling with peanut crunch, then dolloping/smoothing with warm chocolate sauce.
• Place the final layer over top, pressing slightly. Spread with the frosting and sprinkle with the rest of the crunch.
• Freeze for a few hours to set, if not overnight.
• On the day you are serving the cake, pop the frozen cake out of the ring, placing it on a cake stand. Pull off the strips of acetate and let the cake defrost for about 3–6 hours in the fridge before serving.

Notes

• I highly recommend to use a kitchen scale to weigh out ingredients because the conversions for some to volume/cups is approximate, which is not ideal! Please weigh your ingredients! 
• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• If the fudge sauce is too thick to spread, microwave it for 30 seconds to loosen it up. I highly recommend this because otherwise, the fudge sauce will pull up the crunch layer and it will be hard to achieve the distinct layers we are looking for!
• If you can't find pailleté feuilletine, you can replace it with crushed "Gavottes" which are a thin crispy rolled crêpe cookie from France, which we can find in grocery stores in Quebec. This is what I used to make the peanut crunch.
• The banana compote may darken with time from the fruit's exposure to air. This is a natural browning process and nothing to worry about. A splash of lemon juice may help preserve the colour, temporarily. 
• For the dark chocolate, I used Cacao Barry Ocoa 70 % dark chocolate.

Nutrition

Calories: 1143kcal | Carbohydrates: 144g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 60g | Saturated Fat: 25g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 155mg | Sodium: 623mg | Potassium: 643mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 94g | Vitamin A: 1214IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 126mg | Iron: 3mg

The post Banana split cake appeared first on The Bake School.