This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
One of the (many) things I've been craving since I moved is cake, specifically a comforting banana snacking cake like this. 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 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, just to make sure. 
This coffee banana cake has the perfect texture, and it's not too sweet. It's just right for a thick slather of milk chocolate frosting made from the best chocolate for baking, Cacao Barry Alunga milk chocolate, also known as the milk chocolate for dark chocolate lovers. Trust me, Alunga is a great milk chocolate and makes milk chocolate frosting, whether it's for a simple banana snacking cake like this coffee banana cake 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 too.
I baked this banana cake in a square pan so that I could cut it into square portions for a fun afternoon snack. 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, line the bottom with parchment, and then flour the sides. This way, the cake can be unmoulded and frosted very easily.
Coffee banana cake with milk chocolate frosting
Ingredients
For the coffee banana cake
- 115 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 100 grams (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 100 grams (½ cup) light brown sugar
- 2 (2) large egg(s)
- 1 ½ cups (1 ½ cups) mashed banana, from 3 large bananas, frozen then thawed
- 60 ml (¼ cup) sour cream (14% fat)
- 2 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
- 188 grams (1 ½ cups) bleached all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) baking powder
- ¼ tsp (¼ tsp ) baking soda
- 1 ½ tablespoon (1 ½ tablespoon) ground coffee beans
- ¼ teaspoon (¼ teaspoon) Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
For the milk chocolate frosting
- 58 grams (¼ cups) unsalted butter
- 65 grams (⅓ cups) Cacao Barry Alunga 41% milk chocolate
- 140 grams (1 cup+1 tbsp) icing sugar, sifted
- 23 grams (3 tablespoon) Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder
- ⅛ teaspoon (⅛ teaspoon) instant espresso powder
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) pure vanilla extract
Decoration
- 30 grams (⅓ cups) candied nuts, chopped, or toasted nuts chopped
Instructions
To make the coffee banana cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease a 9x9-inch metal brownie pan (I used a Chicago Metallic pan you can find on Amazon). Line the bottom with parchment and flour the sides. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, 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.
- Mash together the bananas with the vanilla and the sour cream. Add this to the mixer bowl and beat it in. Scrape down the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, the coffee grounds, and the salt. Add the mixture to the mixer and mix it in, just until combined.
- 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
- Smooth the frosting over the cake and decorate with candied or toasted nuts.
Notes
Nutrition
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 for Kitchen Heals Soul. As always, please know that I wouldn’t work with a sponsor nor recommend a product if it wasn’t worth it.
Please note this post contains affiliate links to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy a product I recommend, I will get a small commission, and the price you have to pay will not change in any way.
elodiesucree says
Waou!!! fabuleux quelle belle gourmandise!!! merci pour ce gourmand partage!! gros bisous et très bonne fin de semaine!
Janice says
Awww, merci beaucoup!
Natalie Dawn says
Do the bananas have to be over ripe or does freezing and thawing them make them mushy enough?
Janice says
Hi Natalie,
Better to use ripe bananas. Using frozen bananas is fine, but best to freeze riper bananas for the best texture in the end. I think "less ripe" bananas have more starch in them and this can have an impact on texture and flavour, even if they were previously frozen. Sometimes grocery stores sell overly ripe bananas for very cheap. Those would be perfect for this!
Laleh says
Hi Janice.
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us. I would like to try it but if I would like to replace the types of sugar that you have used by dark brown sugar, should I still use a total of one cup? Also, in that case, would I need to change the amount of butter or can it still stay the same? The reason is that I am trying to fix a similar recipe that was similar to this except that I wasn’t happy with it’s structure and it wasn’t sweet at all. Below is the recipe, I would appreciate it if you could help me fix it please.
Ingredients:
Butter 125
Dark brown sugar 120g
2 large eggs
Mashed bananas 270g
Self raising flour 240g
Baking soda 1 tsp
Sour cream 180
Milk 1 tblsp
Janice says
Hi, The proportions and ratios in your recipe are quite different than what I've been using, so it's hard for me to say how to fix it. It seems like you may have too much fruit+sour cream and not enough sugar, which could lead to structural issues or make the cake too wet.
To answer about your question about using dark brown sugar: yes, you can definitely replace both sugars with an equal amount of dark brown sugar, by weight! Your cake will likely be slightly darker inside, but I think that would taste veryy good! Hope that helps!