Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Cake
A moist, balanced Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Cake recipe with cream cheese frosting; the perfect way to use up old browned bananas.
For our 30th anniversary this year, I asked our daughter Abby to make us a cake. Well, this is worth posting about, because it’s an amazing Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Cake, with incredible cream cheese mascarpone frosting. We served it to guests, and I think we’ll be hearing about this cake recipe for a long time. Hopefully you’ll be inspired to make it for company, too. It’s too good to not share with your friends or neighbors!
Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Cake
Banana cakes and breads have been a staple dessert in my house since I can remember. There are numerous variations and ingredients, but, by far, my favorite recipes involve sour cream, because of the texture and flavor it brings. You may have already tried my very popular Sour Cream Banana Bread recipe. It’s been pinned on Pinterest over 124,000 times, and shared on Facebook with 2,100,000 views! WOW!
Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Cake TIPS:
This cake is comprised of tangy cream cheese frosting, rich cocoa, fruity banana, and buttery bites of dark chocolate chips; a cake perfect for any time of year.
- When preparing the batter, it is important all ingredients are room temperature, to ensure a smooth, homogeneous batter.
- A tip for bringing sour cream to room temperature is to use the microwave on 20% power, and heat in 10-15 second intervals.
- You can also substitute creme fraiche for the sour cream.
- Lastly, you can use a regular cream cheese frosting if you prefer.
Ingredients for best banana chocolate cake with sour cream
- Flour
- Cocoa powder + espresso powder
- Kosher salt
- Unsalted butter
- Neutral oil
- Baking powder + baking soda
- Sour cream or creme fraiche
- White sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Very ripe bananas (the riper, the more banana-y flavor!)Dark chocolate chips or chopped baking chocolate
- THIS frosting
What is neutral oil?
You may already have these oils in your pantry. A neutral oil is vegetable oil or canola oil. These both work great for most cooking and baking needs!
What icing goes with banana cake?
Cream cheese frosting or a vanilla buttercream frosting pair deliciously with banana cake. But we find that a good old-fashioned cream cheese frosting, or my new favorite Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, is the best.
What’s the difference between banana cake and banana bread?
Banana cake is typically made like a butter cake–creaming the butter and sugar, then adding in the eggs, etc. Banana bread is like a quick bread, and instead of being cakey and soft, it’s firm and dense. This recipe is a combo of both!
30 years together
Actually, we’ve been together 31 years this year, married in 1991! We are happy to say, these have been the best years of our lives, as we continue to grow, love, and of course accept the challenges in life that come our way. There is no perfect marriage, and this quote is right!
“A great marriage is not when the ‘perfect couple’ comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.”
— Dave Meurer
Life is full of twists and turns, painful and hard times, but also beautiful, loving, tender moments. Sometimes it’s the small, routine-like, little things that make an impact on our lives and bring us joy! [Did you happen to see our Bermuda Escape trip in September?)
Last time we served this cake, we licked our plates clean!
ENJOY!
Here are some more banana cake recipes to try:
Sour Cream Banana Cake Recipe (a bundt cake with my mom’s banana frosting)
Zucchini Banana Cake with Maple Frosting (oh, my!)
Banana Walnut Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe (my dad’s favorite)
Get the Recipe:
Sour Cream Chocolate Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp espresso powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ c neutral oil
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ c sour cream or creme fraiche, room temperature
- ¾ c white sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅔ c banana, 2 very ripe bananas, mashed
- 4 oz dark chocolate chips or chopped baking chocolate
- Mascarpone cream cheese frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and prepare two 9 inch cake pans with butter and parchment rounds. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sifted flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, salt, butter, and neutral oil. Mix until the flour is paste-like and smooth, then mix in the baking powder and baking soda.
- Separately, in a medium size mixing bowl, combine the sour cream, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth, then add the mashed banana. Mix, then transfer into the butter and flour mixture. Fold in the wet ingredients until just combined, then add in the chopped chocolate and fold once more.
- Evenly divide the batter between the cake pans, smoothing out the surface into a flat layer. Tap the pans on the counter a few times to release air bubbles, then place on the center rack of the oven. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the cake begins to pull away from the edges, and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes or so, before transferring out of the pan onto a cooling rack to cool completely. To make the assembling easier, I freeze my cake rounds, so they don't tear when I spread the frosting. So I recommend transferring to the freezer while you make the frosting. You can also store in the freezer overnight and assemble the cake the next day.
- Insert or link to FROSTING RECIPE directions
- For a firmer, spreadable frosting, refrigerate for about 30 minutes before frosting the cake.
- To assemble, remove cake from the freezer and place on a stand or wide, flat plate. Add about half of the frosting to the center and spread just to the edges. Place the top layer on and continue frosting the top—put a large dollop in the center and use a mini offset spatula to push out and down the sides. I’m not much of a baker, so a rustic look is perfect if you don’t want to cover the sides completely.
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
