Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

This Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake recipe is a tasty new take on your regular banana bread. Loaded with walnuts, chocolate chips, and a brown sugar cinnamon filling, this coffee cake won’t let you down!

Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake Recipe

You know what my favorite breakfast is? A slice of coffee cake with a nice big steaming cup of coffee. This banana chocolate chip coffee cake is definitely my kind of breakfast. I don’t know what it is but lately all I want to do is make cakes because I can’t stop craving them! My dreams are made of cakes. Hmm…weird, I know. I should have been a baker.

What Is Coffee Cake?

While sometimes “coffee cake” does refer to a cake flavored with coffee, it’s usually referring to a slice of cake to be enjoyed with a cup o’ joe. That’s exactly what this recipe is! There is no coffee in the ingredients. This style of “cake” is actually more similar to a sweet bread, and is a fantastic accompaniment with your coffee (or tea!) to start your day off right.

What Ingredients Are In Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

What do you do when you have lots of over ripened bananas? Well you can make some classic Banana Bread, or spice it up and make this banana chocolate chip coffee cake, of course.

For this cake we’ll be using flour, a healthy portion of each baking powder and baking soda to create a nice and light cake, salt eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Sounds like a pretty standard cake so far!

Here’s what makes this coffee cake so superior. I always put sour cream in my banana breads and coffee cakes! It gives it such a rich and delicious consistency. But what if I don’t like sour cream? That’s okay! You won’t taste it at all. I also used applesauce in place of oil to cut down on some calories, and finally mixed in some walnuts and chocolate chips. SO GOOD!

The filling and glaze are each only 3 ingredients and so easy. These little touches really make the cake taste like it’s straight from a bakery. I used brown sugar, cinnamon, and some roughly chopped walnuts for the filling, then finished this gorgeous cake with a simple glaze of powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk.

What Else Can I Mix Into My Banana Coffee Cake

While I think the combination of chocolate chips and walnuts in this recipe is so good, you are free to make your own perfect version of banana coffee cake. You can even leave the mix-ins out if that’s what you prefer!

Try these awesome substitutes out:

Sweets

• White chocolate chips
• Butterscotch chips
• Peanut butter chips
• Toffee bits

Dried Fruit

• Raisins
• Dried cranberries
• Dried apricots
• Prunes

Nuts

• Sliced almonds
• Pecans
• Cashews
• Macadamia nuts

What Type Of Pan Should I Bake My Coffee Cake In

I used a 10 by 4 1/8 inches angel food cake pan, aka tube pan, for this recipe. But if you don’t have that, don’t worry! Here are a few other options that will work for this recipe:

• 10 x 3.5″ bundt pan
• 9 x 3″ round cake pan (springform)
• 10 x 2.5″ round cake pan (springform)
• 10 x 10 x 2″ square cake pan

Using different pans may affect the baking time, so keep an eye on your cake if you use one of these options.

How To Make Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees and generously spray your pan with cooking spray. If using an angel food cake pan or bundt pan, be especially diligent with spraying! Make sure you don’t miss the tube.

In a large bowl mix the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, walnuts, and the chocolate chips. In a separate bowl, mash your bananas. You can use a fork or a potato masher, but it really doesn’t matter. Punch the bananas for all I care; as long as they’re nicely mashed you’re good. I like to leave them just a little chunky. Biting into a nice soft piece of sweet banana is my favorite part!

Add the sour cream, eggs, applesauce, vanilla, and sugar to your bananas. Give everything a whisk until fully mixed. Pour the wet ingredients into your big bowl of dry ingredients and stir everything together using either a spatula or a wooden spoon. Mix the walnut filling together in a small bowl.

Spread 1/3 of the cake batter evenly in your baking pan of choice, then sprinkle 1/3 of the walnut filling over it. Repeat, batter-filling-batter-filling, and bake for about one hour, or until your cake is fully cooked. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

While the cake is cooling, you can make your glaze. You can adjust the milk called for in this recipe to create a thicker or thinner glaze- it’s up to you! Start with a little bit of milk and work up until you’re happy with the result. Drizzle the glaze over your cake, slice, sit back, and enjoy that first warm bite.

How To Tell When My Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake Is Done Baking

I always go for the toothpick test when making cakes, muffins, quick breads, etc. Insert a toothpick into the thickest part of the cake, and if it pulls out clean, your cake is all done. It can be a little more difficult when baking with melty fillings such as chocolate chips, because you almost always hit one when you insert the toothpick into the cake.

Take a close look at that toothpick. Do you see any lighter colored batter on it? Leave it for another 5-10 minutes at a time until no batter sticks to the toothpick. Do you just see some melty chocolate on the toothpick? Great! Your cake is done.

Tips For Making The Best Coffee Cake

1. The filling and glaze make this cake incredible, but you can cut down on those components to save calories. You can cut the filling in half and just add a small layer in the middle of the cake and on top, and cut the glaze out completely.
2. Don’t over-bake! This type of cake is a bit more dense, and can dry out if it’s left in the oven too long.
3. Let the cake cool on a wire rack vs cooling in the pan so the sides don’t get too dark.
4. Use a serrated knife to cut slices to avoid squishing your pieces down.

Yeah, this cake is all that and a bag of chips. A bag of chocolate chips, that is. Do people still use that phrase? Am I not cool anymore? I bet if you have a slice of my cake you’ll think I’m super cool.

How To Store Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

This cake will last about 2 days at room temperature, or 1 week in your fridge. Wherever you decide to keep it, make sure you wrap it well in foil or plastic wrap so that this delicious cake doesn’t dry out.

Can I Freeze Coffee Cake

Yes, absolutely! You can leave this cake in your freezer for 2-3 months. Again, make sure it’s wrapped up really well with foil or plastic wrap. Baked goods are very susceptible to freezer burn. I also like to freeze this cake in individual slices to make thawing much easier.

Other Delicious Recipes To Try

• Apple Coffee Cake Muffins
• Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake
• Easy Banana Bread
• Chocolate Zucchini Bread
• Apple Crumble
• Apple Stuffed Pork Loin
• Banana Fritters