This cake really is as insanely good as its name depicts it to be. If you just mention it to someone they start to drool and buy you nice things just so they can have a slice.
This cake really is as insanely good as its name depicts it to be. If you just mention it to someone they start to drool and buy you nice things just so they can have a slice. And the best bit is, it’s so puffy and packed full of delicious stuff, that it genuinely doesn’t matter whether it looks pretty or not.
I adapted this recipe from this lovely lady at this blog here. She does it as cake bars, but I found there was way too much mixture for this. If you wanted to do bars, use a much bigger and square pan and keep the mixture shallow. Or you can use it to make muffins, because it rises beautifully!
INGREDIENTS:
120ml sunflower oil
125g light brown sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
1tsp cinnamon
3 ripe bananas, mashed
150ml natural yoghurt
100g milk chocolate chips
50g white chocolate chips
100g chopped pecan nuts or walnuts
– 200g peanut butter (for the topping)
– 150g milk chocolate (for the topping)
METHOD:
1. Grease and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin. There are a ton of fancy methods to doing this (see here) but if you’re me you can just draw around the base of the tin and hope for the best. This cake is very moist so you can get away without lining the sides, as long as you grease them well. Then preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4.
2. Beat the oil and sugar together and then add the eggs one by one.
3. Fold in the cinnamon and flour, and then the banana and yoghurt. The original recipe calls for very ripe bananas, but this isn’t actually that important. As long as they’re not green, they’ll still be easy enough to mash. I actually prefer them when they hold their structure a little, as it makes the cake less gloopy.
Similarly, if you’re on a student budget and don’t want to be splashing out on Greek yoghurt just for a cake, you can use a fruit yoghurt that you have lying around. Just consider the flavour of it with the rest of the cake – something like prune would work well. Or use sour cream, if it’s cheaper.
4. Add the chocolate chips and pecan nuts. Don’t over mix the cake but do make sure there’s an even distribution of chocolate and nuts. You’ll find that the cake mix is really light and volumised because of the banana. The original recipe called for peanut butter chips, but I decided not to add them because not everyone is such a huge peanut butter fan, and the layer on top of the cake is more than enough peanut butter.
Plus, the chips are kind of hard to locate in the UK.
5. Pour into the tin/cupcake cases and bake for 35-40 minutes. If you’re cooking muffins the cooking time will be slightly less, so remember to keep an eye on them to see how they’re rising. This cake is extremely thick and dense so keep checking the middle with a toothpick. Even at the end, it isn’t going to come out completely clean, but it does firm up as it cools.
6. Once the cake is cooked, let it cool in the tin and then turn it out. Melt the peanut butter in a microwaveable bowl – 30 seconds on a low heat should be enough to make it spreadable – and cover the top of the cake. Chill in the fridge.
7. Once the peanut butter has set, melt the chocolate. In this instance it’s actually better to melt it in the microwave for a few minutes. You don’t want super glossy and beautiful chocolate here – if it’s a little bit thicker it will spread better and also set in a nice thick crust.
Try not to pour the chocolate all over the cake so it runs down the sides. You want to be cutting this beauty into squares or slices at the end. Chill the cake until it is completely set on the top, slice and then serve!
This cake is a real beauty, because it’s packed with loads of good ingredients. The layers of peanut butter and chocolate on top add a satisfying crack when bitten into, and balance out the super moist cake. It looks great and would make a wonderful celebration or birthday cake.
Don’t you love it when impressive things take all of half an hour to put together? Don’t forget to take all the credit for this one.
What do you think? Have you done this recipe? Have your say in the comments section below.
