This morning I melted butter, vanilla, and brown sugar into a sauce and pretended like it didn’t have full control of my life.
But it was a lost cause and I hereby surrender myself to the butter, vanilla, and brown sugar sauce. And as I’m typing this I’m seeing an ad on my sidebar showing an Under Armour girl doing a yoga and a head stand. I’m sorry for false advertising. I am not doing yoga and headstands today. I am eating this sauce.
This cake is so good.
I wish I had better words for it but my brain comatose with chocolate. If I were to sum up what I learned today, it’s that gooey chocolate cake should always be topped with caramelized bananas and melted peanut butter and that it should be eaten for breakfast.
But what I really learned is that Alex and Sonja (from A Couple Cooks) are on to something here. They pretend to be doing this good-hearted work that’s helping people in Cambodia, but come ON. They’re just in it for the yummy food like this cake.
(I’m totally kidding.)
Alex and Sonja recently went to Cambodia, and if you haven’t already looked at their gorgeous photos, please stop reading. Go check them out.
But besides taking gorgeous photos of this beautiful country, they are working on a unique cookbook featuring recipes from the Green Mango Cafe, which is a vocational program for at-risk women and girls. The cookbook will be a fundraising effort to help support the Center for Global Impact, which is the organization that helps the Green Mango cafe to be thriving place for Cambodian women and girls to learn and work.
I am honored that they would trust me with such a deep, dark, chocolatey, buttery, sugary task such as making and photographing this cake. Rest assured, I take my job as dessert eater veryveryvery seriously.
The Green Mango Cafe: Cooking for a Better Tomorrow will be available for you to buy in just a few short months, complete with gooey chocolate cake recipe. Follow our fearless leaders, Alex and Sonja. They will keep you informed on the cookbook and besides, they’re just plain awesome. Did I mention healthy? Yeah, they’re healthy, too. And local. I mean, they buy local produce.
Awesome, healthy, and local.
Meanwhile, I’ll be eating this chocola….
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup cocoa
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- ¾ cup chunky peanut butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 bananas, halved lengthwise
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease or butter the sides of a 9×13 glass baking dish. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, salt, and cocoa.
- In a standing electric mixer, beat 2 sticks of butter with the granulated sugar at medium speed until very fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture and the milk.
- In a small bowl, blend the remaining stick of butter with the brown sugar and spread it in the baking dish. Arrange the bananas, cut sides down, in the dish. Spoon dollops of the peanut butter into the dish and fill in the gaps with the chocolate batter. Bake for 45 minutes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges with a knife and invert in onto a platter. Let the cake cool slightly, then cut into squares and serve.
Say it with me now: I love cake. I love cake. I love cake.
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More from Pinch of Yum
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I love cake. I love cake.
There ya go!
Baahhhh these photos are so awesome! This cake sounds heavenly!
THanks Katrina! I could hardly keep my focus… the chocolate was a little distracting.
Oh my gooey! Every single part of this cake would have total control over my life. Which is pretty cool with me.
I’m not complaining either.
I really dislike the words “upside down cake” because it usually means pineapple, but chocolate and peanut butter and bananas? That’s kinda genius. Baked pineapple gives me the heebie jeebies. But this looks fantastic! So gooey looking.
Thanks Erin! I am so/so on pineapple upside down cake but this was a winner. Who doesn’t love PB, banana, chocolate, and caramel?
Wow, where are my strectchy pants. I’d eat this whole pan!
Oh goodness me, look at all that sticky melty chocolatey goodness!
There it is. Calling your name.
This is the first I had heard what Alex and Sonja are up to in Cambodia. Sounds like a great cause – it’s always nice to see motivated, hard working people putting their strengths to good use.
Oh My Gosh, your freaking cake….I don’t know what else to say other than I’d be comatose too if that thing was in my kitchen and I’d probably be spoon-feeding myself the sauce as well. Hope you had a great weekend!
Thanks Julia! As you can see from these pictures… I did.
Chocolate? Peanut Butter? Bananas? I need this cake in my life, as soon as possible.
Yes you do! Power combo.
Gorgeous cake!
Thanks Emily!
Holy moly this looks amazing. Choc and PB all gooey and drippy is my kryptonite!
Sounds delicious and addictive !
Addictive is an understatement.
Holy yumminess, batman!
I think you should make this again, ummm, to take more pictures of it…..yeah. And I don’t want you to worry about having an extra cake laying around. Just give it to me – I will figure out what to do with it.
Ha! I loved photographing it. I just kept spooning on more of that caramel…
I am trying to resist the urge to go home “sick” just so I can make this cake…
That would be bad. In an amazing way.
holy crap Lindsay. i literally want to eat the screen right now. pineapple upside down cake is my FAVORITE, but this variation of an upside down cake looks like it would steal my heart. Yum!
I love cake. i love cake. i love cake.
This reminded me of how much I need to make a pineapple upside down cake.
These have the perfect combination of flavors!
I agree. I wasn’t sure how the caramel would integrate into all that goodness, but it was PERFECT.
I love cake! Especially with PB and Chocolate. My breakfast was good, but yours looks so much better! Can’t wait to find a reason to make this cake!
How about Monday? That’s reason enough for me!
Definitely breakfast food. Definitely. I mean, only if you want your day to be awesome.
My kinda breakfast!
Holy crap, I want to plant my face in it.
You should, ASAP.
Oh. my. goodness. Good thing I have all of these ingredients on hand because I am drooling!!
It’s totally a pantry ingredient cake. Which is my favorite kind.
This cake looks incredible!! Yummmmmy….
Thanks Sarah Jane!
delishhhh!
That looks so dangerous. I would eat the entire pan in a day. Great pictures.
Annnnd that’s pretty much what I’ve done.
I can’t “pin-it”… picture won’t come up……. found on Pinterest, brought me back to you & I still can’t pin…
THIS LOOKS SOOOOO GOOD!!!!
Weird! I just tried it and it worked… maybe try doing it from the homepage?
We knew we could count on you as our dessert eater / maker!
Thank you SO much for the fabulous job and the wonderful help on this project! The cake couldn’t look more delicious! I can’t wait to see it in print 
(Someday…!)
This cake looks absolutely sinful!
Nope. Bananas, duh. Not sinful at all.
This cake looks seriously amazing!
Thanks Lauren!
save a piece for me
Will do! Oh, wait, too late.
Wow. Three sticks of butter? I’m in!
Helllllo butter.
They looks so sinfull, I think I’ll to for the gooey version, just Because I’m worth it, thank you for the recepie and have a lovely evening!
My. Goodness. This looks divine!!!
Thanks emily! It was divine indeed.
Yum sounds wondeful! I cant wait to try it! One question though: For the Extra gooey addition, when do we add that mixture to the cake? After its been cooked or before we put it in the oven? Thanks for posting!!
I think you could do it either way, but I did it after to add a nice drizzled look (instead of a super messy gooey look).
My brain comatose with butter and chocolate. Despite it being fattening, i refuse to think about it.
Good move.
I don’t know what happened… I halved the recipe, following all directions carefully, but my cake won’t cake-ify — even after 45 minutes it is a gooey mess that is barely warm in the center.
So bummed- this looked amazing.
Barely warm in the center? Yikes, that doesn’t sound right! Would help to bake it longer? How big was your pan?
And I just double checked the recipe instructions and 350 should be right for the temperature…
Hi ,I am making a cookbook and would like to know if you would consider letting me use this cake recipe in it.Thank You in advance…Becky Hudgins
This is a recipe from another cookbook project that A Couple Cooks is publishing, so unfortunately, no, I can’t give permission to use it for your cookbook.
This looks heavenly…I can’t wait to make it!
I love Cake, I love cake, I love cake!! And you have got to be an awesome person. Into so much in life! You enjoy it for the 2 of us..seeing different countries and how the people live. And your cake looks wonderful!! Thanks for sharing..
Yum
About to make this cake, was wondering if you are recommending overripe bananas or fresh bananas?
Mine weren’t particularly overripe, just regular yellow.
My huband’s birthday is tomorrow and his two favorite desserts are Bananas Foster + any Chocolate/PB combo, so this cake sounds too perfect! I’d like to use my cake platter though so I’m thinking of using two 9″ round pans and doing a double layer version. Do you see any reason why it might be a problem or have any modifications to suggest if I do it this way?
Cake for Warren!