- Recipes
- Desserts
- Cakes
Emma Christensen
Emma Christensen
Emma is a former editor for The Kitchn and a graduate of the Cambridge School for Culinary Arts. She is the author of True Brews and Brew Better Beer. Check out her website for more cooking stories
updated May 1, 2019
Be the first to leave a review!
reviews
Jump to Recipe
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
For our dinner party menu from Ina Garten’s new book, Make It Ahead, we knew we needed a classic Ina dessert — something easy and relaxed, but totally showstopping. When we flipped to the page with this chocolate banana cake, we knew we’d found it.
And when Faith talked to Ina, she also got an ingenious tip for not only making this cake ahead, but also making it even more moist a day later.
About this cake, Ina says, “When we tested this recipe, we all couldn’t stop eating it! The combination of banana, chocolate, and streusel is irresistible.” Um, yes.
And a cake like this is the perfect choice for a dinner where you want to make everything ahead. Not only is it easily made ahead, but Ina let us in on a tip she learned while at her store, Barefoot Contessa. “When you are making a pound cake or banana cake,” she told Faith, “if you wrap it well and refrigerate it it gets moister. It actually gets better!”
So give it a try with this cake! Bake, cool, wrap, and refrigerate, then take out about an hour before dinner, and serve at room temperature with homemade whipped cream.
Read more: 7 Essential Tips for Making (and Storing) Better Whipped Cream
Tester’s Notes
This was such a tasty, decadent way to eat banana bread! It stayed moist when stored in an airtight container and was delicious even days later.
To make the cake easier to remove from the pan, place a sheet of parchment paper like a sling into the bottom of the pan before greasing and flouring it. In Ina Garten’s book, this cake was pictured baked in a metal pan, but I baked it in a ceramic baking dish. I think a metal pan would have helped the cake rise and bake a little more evenly, but ceramic is fine if it’s all you have! If you bake it in a ceramic dish, add another 10 minutes or so to the baking time.
Mashing the bananas with a dinner fork was a fast, easy way to get them mashed up!
– Christine, April 2015
Serves 9
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 1/4 pound
(1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup
granulated sugar
- 1
extra-large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon
pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups
mashed bananas (3 to 4 very ripe bananas) (see Recipe Notes)
- 1/4 cup
sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups
all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon
baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon
baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt
For the streusel topping:
- 3/4 cup
light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1/2 cup
all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons
ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon
kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons
(1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 ounces
bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 3 tablespoons
sliced blanched almonds
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8x8x2-inch square baking pan.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on high speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer on low, beat in the egg, vanilla, banana, and sour cream and mix until combined. Don’t worry—it may look curdled. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ones. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
For the streusel, combine the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a medium bowl and pinch the ingredients together with your fingers until the mixture makes crumbles. Add the chocolate and combine.
Distribute the streusel evenly over the batter, sprinkle the almonds on top, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan and serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe Notes
I mash bananas on a cutting board with a dinner fork.
Make ahead: Bake the cake, wrap well, and allow to sit at room temperature overnight.
Reprinted from Make it Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. Copyright © 2014 by Ina Garten. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC.
→ Buy the Book! Make It Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten
Filed in:
baked goods
Baking
Breakfast
Cake
children
Chocolate
