Banana—Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter—Cream Cheese Icing

Name: Banana—Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter—Cream Cheese Icing
Yield: makes 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients: 2 1/2 cups cake flour; 3/4 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 2 large); 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract; 3/4 cup buttermilk; 1/4 pound plus 4 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter; 1 cup sugar; 3 eggs; 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, plus 1/4 cup for garnish; 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter; 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened; 1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; (makes about 2 1/2 cups, enough for 1 two-layer cake)

December 14, 2011

I developed this recipe—in very small increments—for a newspaper article celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Easy-Bake Oven. My first impulse was to create something very sophisticated, but then I thought I’d appeal to the kid in everyone with bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter. I have since used this cake recipe with a strawberry-cream cheese icing, with great success. And yes, I did have an Easy-Bake Oven when I was a kid!

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