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 upside down 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….
Chocolate PB Banana Upside Down Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12–16 1x
Description
This chocolate peanut butter banana upside down cake is easy to make, moist and sweet, and absolutely decadent. Perfect dessert!
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup cocoa
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 bananas, halved lengthwise
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
I made HALF of this amount and baked it in a smaller dish. It still took a full 45 minutes to bake through.
For an extra gooey addition: mix 4 tablespoons of butter with 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, then melt it in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time, stirring after each interval, for a total of 1 minute. Pour the warm sauce over the cake.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: upside down cake, chocolate cake, peanut butter banana cake
Say it with me now: I love cake. I love cake. I love cake.
Followed the recipe EXACTLY. Cake was a light brown color and only a slight chocolate flavor. Nowhere near the rich chocolatey-ness the picture shows. Most of the taste was banana and some peanut butter. Too bad because all of the other recipes Iāve tried on POY I love!
So sorry to hear this, Gretchen. Thanks for sharing this feedback with us!
Thanks Lindsay for sharing. This cake is a killer. I think i just went to heaven and back.
Hi, Lindsay
What a beautiful post! This all looks so delicious! My Daughter declared we needed to try some at home. This looks like just the right recipe! š Thanks Lindsay Mam…
Instead of Peanut butter I used crushed walnuts …3/4th cup…tasted yum!
Sounds yummy!
This was really good. It did have a bananas foster element to it. I used creamy PB and really thought it would have been better with the suggested crunchy PB. In any case it was tasty. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks Derek!
My kitchen smells sooo good with this in the oven! Can’t wait to try it out. I realized I only had 2 sticks of melted butter so used a combo of butter and Crisco for the choco batter. Cooking time a bit shorter. Not sure how it taste like. Smells great though!
Cake for Warren!
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?
About to make this cake, was wondering if you are recommending overripe bananas or fresh bananas?
Mine weren’t particularly overripe, just regular yellow. š
Yum
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..
This looks heavenly…I can’t wait to make it!
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.
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. š 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…
My brain comatose with butter and chocolate. Despite it being fattening, i refuse to think about it.
Good move.
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!! š
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). š
My. Goodness. This looks divine!!!
Thanks emily! It was divine indeed. š
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!
Wow. Three sticks of butter? I’m in! š
Helllllo butter.