There’s no wrong way to combine peanut butter, chocolate, and bananas.
Maybe one day I’ll run out of ways and ideas, but thankfully that hasn’t happened.
I love baking with bananas because everything turns out so soft and fluffy.
This easy, one-bowl, no-mixer cake is another example of how bananas are such workhorses.
I loathe dry cake and in addition to juicy bananas, there’s a single-serving container of banana Greek yogurt, a bit of oil, and peanut butter. They all help keep this cake moist, bouncy, and springy.
I used banana yogurt, which helps to boost the banana flavor profile. I’m traveling even found it in an Aruban grocery store, but if you can’t find it, vanilla or plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream) will work.
The cake has a nice banana flavor, but the peanut butter flavor also shines. There’s one-half cup of peanut butter in the cake batter, and before baking, one-quarter cup is swirled in on top.
When you’re swirling, easy does it because the peanut butter seeps down while the cake bakes and if you over-do it before baking, you’ll never see the swirls after the cake comes out of the oven.
As it is, it’s hard enough to see the peanut butter because of the chocolate chunks on top. Chocolate is a perfect pairing with peanut butter and with banana. Okay, with anything.
I just sprinkled the chunks on top of the cake because I’m not that fond of chocolate chips or chunks inside cake. I like cake interiors buttery soft and smooth, but you could stir in a handful of chocolate chunks to the batter before turning it out into the pan.
I wanted to keep the cake more along the lines of a coffee cake than an uber-decadent cake, but feel free to get more gung-ho with the chocolate.
You’ll rarely go wrong with more chocolate.
By design, you don’t need to frost this cake. I made sure there’s enough going on between the sweet banana cake base, the peanut butter swirls and rich dark chocolate on top, that no frosting or glaze is necessary, for either taste or cosmetic purposes.
It’s always a nice bonus and time-saver when you don’t have to frost a cake.
Maybe it’s because she got to eat cake for breakfast, but my 6-year old daughter gave it a 10/10. I told her that if she thought it was a 7, that would be fine, too.
And she said, It’s a 10, mom. Okay, I’ll take it.
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Banana Cake
This easy, one-bowl, no-mixer cake turns out so soft, moist, fluffy, and bouncy, thanks to a combo of bananas, bit of oil, Greek yogurt, and peanut butter, which all help keep the cake tender and springy. Peanut butter is used both in the batter and on top of the cake for swirling. Don’t overdo the swirls or they’ll seem to disappear while the cake bakes. Between the sweet banana base, the peanut butter swirls and rich dark chocolate on top, no frosting or glaze is necessary. It makes a great coffee cake, casual after-dinner cake, or make it anytime there’s ripe bananas to use.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons canola, vegetable, or melted coconut oil
- 1 large egg
- 5 to 6 ounces banana
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup mashed banana (about 2 medium, ripe bananas)
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
- 1/4 creamy peanut butter, for swirling on top
- about 4 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped (semi-sweet chocolate chips may be substituted)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8×8-inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- In a large, microwave-safe mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup peanut butter, oil, and heat on high power for about 30 seconds, just long enough to nicely soften peanut butter so it can be whisked together easily with the oil. Whisk until smooth and combined.
- Add the egg, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
- Add the mashed banana and stir to combine; batter will be lumpy because of the bananas.
- Add the flour, baking powder, optional salt, and stir until just combined; don’t overmix.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula; set aside.
- To a mixing bowl (the same one used for the cake batter is fine, no need to wash it provided you scraped it fairly well with a spatula) add 1/4 cup peanut butter and heat on high power to melt it, about 30 seconds.
- Drizzle peanut butter over cake and lightly swirl it in with a knife, going up and back in a zigzag pattern. Don’t get too carried away with swirling or peanut butter will sink into the cake while baking and won’t be visible.
- Evenly sprinkle the chocolate over the pan.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until done. The top will be domed and golden, the center set, and a toothpick inserted should come out mostly clean, or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter. At any point if your cake is getting a bit too golden or dark before the center is setting, tent with foil (lay a sheet of foil over the top of your cake; I didn’t need to, but ovens and ingredients vary). Baking times could vary from 25 to 40 minutes based on water content of the bananas, yogurt, climate, and oven variances; bake until done. Watch your cake, not the clock.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 313Total Fat: 15gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 234mgCarbohydrates: 40gFiber: 3gSugar: 30gProtein: 6g
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Made this as cupcakes for a friend’s birthday and they came out wonderful! Used applesauce instead of the egg and m&m’s instead of dark chocolate to make them a bit more festive. 15 minutes at 350 in the oven made them lightly browned on the tips of the chocolate pieces, but moist and delicious all the way through. I will definitely be using this recipe again!
Way to go for subbing applesauce for egg and the M&Ms I bet on cupcakes were adorable! Thanks for sharing what you did and happy you tried the recipe!
I made this cake last night. I used 1/2 cup oat flour and the rest all-purpose flour. I also cut the sugar down from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup. I was baking the cake for my husband and he didn’t want any chocolate or peanut butter swirl on top (crazy, I know) so I left those out/off.
I baked for exactly 30 minutes at 360 (my oven is a little weak) and it. was. perfect!!! Any recipe of yours that I have ever made has not just been good, it’s been out of the ballpark good. Thanks for all your research and trial and error. I always know I can come to your website, pick anything, and find a winner.
Thanks for saying that any recipe of mine that you’ve tried has been out of the ballpark good! That’s wonderful to hear :) And glad you enjoyed this cake, too!
Hi Averie, I’ve told you so many times how much I LOVE this site. You are a God-send to happy bakers in this world.
**So last night I commented and told you I had made the loaded m&m/oreo bars. Very scrumptious!
Of course I didn’t get to enjoy those (since they were baked for others) so I got up today and made your smores cookies. OMG they deserve a moment of glory. They are DELISH. (I had 3-I know that’s really bad) :P
But wait, I’m not done yet. I had bananas lying around the house, so I did what every sane person should do and made this cake. :) I haven’t tried it yet (It’s still cooling).
You REALLY need to get on the Today show for a baking segment or guest-star on Foodnetwork. You are a genius! :)
That’s amazing that you’ve made Oreo bars, Smores cookies, and this banana cake all in just a couple days! Thanks for trying all these recipes & coming back to LMK how they went for you! Thanks for the compliments (I blush!) :)
THIS was so easy and so YUMMY everyone loved it !!!
deff keeper here thanks
Great and I’m so glad to hear everyone loved it!
I have a family of 7 so these 9×9 cakes are PERFECT for us ! no rediculas left overs
Hello from Malaysia!
I’ve made this recipe twice last week and intended to write a comment the first time around but I was too excited to make this again that I delayed it until today.
Just thought I’d let you know that this was an amazing recipe. I followed your recipe exactly but subbed regular flour for whole wheat and 1/4 cup of brown sugar instead of using all white. It was perfectly moist and sweet. I’ll be buying bananas just to make this recipe. It’s *that* good! Thank you for sharing!
Oh I’m so glad to hear you love this cake enough to make it 2x in one week and that you’re going to buy bananas JUST to make this cake. That’s wonderful & glad you’re enjoying it and that your tweaks work well for you! Perfect!
In college I lived on peanut butter, chocolate and bananas. This cake makes me nostalgic and happy! :)
Thanks averie ..I actually had to toss the entire cake out..not sure if the sour cream substitute is where it went wrong ..but it ended up in the trash..my biggest upset was I used three dark chocolate dove bars for the topping ..
I honestly don’t think it was the sour cream. I think you just needed to bake it longer. It’s sort of a hybrid of this cake https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/08/browned-butter-glaze-soaked-greek-yogurt-banana-cake.html, this cake https://www.averiecooks.com/2013/05/peanut-butter-honey-buttermilk-cake-with-chocolate-peanut-butter-streusel.html, a cake I have in my cookbook, and most any peanut butter-banana bread that’s baked as a cake rather than in a loaf pan. When working with PB, bananas, yogurt/sour cream – all these very wet and moisturizing ingredients, based on brands, climates, ovens, etc. there can be some pretty big swings in baking times so I honestly think another 10 to 15 mins or so would have helped. Sorry you lost the chocolate bars!
Thanks averie ..i still love your blog ..I’ll try again !
not sure what i did wrong ..but i followed this recipe exactly ..and it has been cooking for almost 50 minutes and the insdie is not cooked at all ..very diappointed ..i did used sourcream as the acceptable substitute …i hate baking things when they dont come out right !!
I always write this in my recipes…”, or bake until done. Watch your cake, not the clock.” I think that you just have a cooler oven, very juicy bananas, maybe your yogurt was runnier, who knows. I really wouldn’t worry about the time on the clock. Bake the cake until it’s cooked through in the center, however long that takes. If the edges are getting darker, as I stated in the post, tent with foil. Banana-based recipes can vary widely in terms on how long they take to bake.
Iv also found big difference with glass vs metal pans !
Yum, this looks so delicious and moist! I love the idea to use banana yogurt :)
Oh my gosh girl… I’m totally obsessing over this cake right now! So up my alley ;)
Wishing you a Happy New Year, too! xo
Right back at you, Ashley! xo
This cake looks fab, love the PB + banana combo and those chocolate chunks are calling my name!
Is it custard-y or do you just make everything soooo moist?
No it’s not custardy at all. It’s very moist and the pictures were taken in my un-airconditioned living room in Aruba, so it was about 90F when I took these, so everything is very soft here.
This looks soooo amazing… about perfect, really! I can’t wait to try it.
Happy holidays, Averie! xo
Thanks, Tamara! Happy Holidays to you too!
So delicious!!! Thanks again for sharing.
pb chocolate and bananas have always been and will always be awesome. LOVING this cake!
Banana and chocolate, what can be better for a person that adores pies and cakes? Is it possible to add some more fruits in this recipe or bananas only are the best choice?
You could add other fruits if you wanted to I guess but I love the flavors (and results) of what I did, so didn’t tinker with it.
Looks gorgeous! Do you think the batter would work for muffins?
Yes it probably would but you’d have to play around with baking times. LMK how it goes!
Bananas, peanut butter and chocolate is a combo that will NEVER fail. Just never and you know that better than anyone! I just love your BP+C combos and this one looks off the charts. PLus, six year olds never lie. They always tell it the way it is, so I am positive this is perfect! :)
Being on vacay, I have to make stuff that I can buy in the local stores, I know will turn out, and that’s not complicated! So, here was another combination of PB + C!
And you more than anyone know that little kids tell it like it is!
Aruba?? I was there for Christmas 2 years ago. It was an awesome way to spend Christmas! Have fun!
Thanks! I’ve had my house here for 10 years and come every Dec and Aug for a month. My daughter loves it and so do I :) That’s wonderful you were here over Xmas 2 yrs ago – me too :)
I could use a slice of this right now!! I am working late tonight and seriously hungry ;)
Working late is my middle name. Normally I step away from my desk by 3am :) Wish I was kidding! And thus, snack cakes come in real handy!
Banana + PB + chocolate = the trifecta of awesomeness. I love adding banana to pretty much everything too, it makes it SO good and soft. Your daughter is smart! :)
We’re the banana queens. If some people didn’t dislike it so much, I’d bake it into like 90% of my recipes :)
I so want this for breakfasts over the holidays!
Thanks, Kevin! I’ve been pinning lots of your dips and appetizers to my app board lately and I seriously want one of each over the holidays :)
This just made my stomach growl– seriously. Thanks for sharing! Do you think this is a good recipe for Christmas morning?
LOL on the growling :)
Yes it would be great! Or for more breakfasty, there’s this I posted yesterday https://www.averiecooks.com/overnight-gingerbread-french-toast-breakfast-bake/
Love these flavors, and how you cut the cake into those cute wedges! Merry Christmas, Averie!!
I love that you cut the square pan into triangles – it’s more like a scone, but looks so moist!
I’m wishing I had bananas now, eeven though I don’t like them!
I make so many cakes and banana things, had to try to mix it up a little :)
Looks delicious Averie, perfect treat for the holiday season. Thanks for sharing and Happy Holidays!
Happy Blogging!
Thanks Eric! Happy Holidays to you too!
This looks amazing! Three of my most favorite things, all in one cake!
Averie– this bread looks wonderful! Let me guess.. you love peanut butter?? I’m a huge fan of peanut butter myself and love putting it in everything! peanut butter and bananas are a great combo!
all of my favorite ingredients!!
You can never go wrong with pb, chocolate, and bananas—this cake looks like a sophisticated version of banana bread! And I love how you cut this cake into wedges instead of the normal squares…so tempting!
Thanks for noticing the wedges. I tried to mix it up! And yes, sophisticated version of banana bread is accurate I think :)
I think this one’s a classic–and I love the big chunks of chocolate on top!! It definitely looks moist and has those little air pockets (making the texture just right for my taste). I also like the wedges–I’m such a creature of habit and always cut squares…need to remember to try angles!
Thanks for noticing the wedges and the air pockets – that open crumb means moist and soft! Those little details, when I’m reading blogs and see things like those too, I know whether or not something will be soft and moist enough for me :)
Wow, that overhead shot is amazing! I love how you cut it into triangles – doing that next time. I always love your pb/choc/banana recipes. This one is no exception! All those melty chocolate chunks are making me drool over here and I completely understand why this got a 10! Pinned!
Thanks for pinning and the chocolate was especially melty b/c I’m at my house in Aruba and it’s 89F in my kitchen :)
You are right ~ there is no wrong way to combine those ingredients & you did a very tempting job!
Thanks, Marla. When I’m in Aruba, I try to keep things as easy as I possibly can with everyday ingredients. Which is why I make cakes on vacation, you know, but I digress :)
I’m laying in bed, post ice storm, wishing this cake would magically appear near my face.
Waiting… waiting… waiting…
Stay warm in the ice storm! Gah! I grew up in MN and know exactly what that means….Brrr!!
You are right, there is no wrong way to combine pb, banana and chocolate. However, there are some ways that are more right than others and this cake is definitely one of those ways! I am all over using the Greek yogurt to keep it moist and fluffy plus I am totally pretending that it balances out all the chocolate on top! I need this cake in my face PRONTO! Pinned!
Thanks for pinning and the great comment, Taylor! And yes, the Greek yog totally balances out the chocoalate :)
Haha I did a peanut butter chocolate combo too for my blog today too. Intend I combined mine with Tim tams and made gluten free quinoa base. Never too much peanut butter in my books especially with creamy goodness of bananas.
Wow your recipe looks awesome! Just took a peek. Glad we both have PB + choc on the brain :)
Peanut butter + Banana + Chocolate is pretty much the best combination ever. What a great recipe Averie!! :)
You never cease to amaze me with your peanut butter banana combo! It’s been a while since I made any kind of banana/bread or cake (I had to stop buying bananas because they kept rotting too quickly) but once the holidays are over, I’ll have to make this! I’m sure Jason and I could use a slice of cake for breakfast!
When I’m down here in Aruba, there’s a few ingredients that are always available…pb, bananas, chocolate. So…I got busy with them. I so wanted to just make a smoothie but took things an extra step and you know, made a cake on vacation :)