Banana Espresso Coffeecake with Chocolate Chips
I commented on Dana’s blog yesterday that, when Yancey’s away and I’m not cooking dinner, I bake a lot more. Day two, second baking endeavor. If I was concerned about having any kind of rhythm here (salad, main dish, sweets, etc.) I’d be in trouble.
After Loretta went to bed last night, Wyatt and I made this together. He has gotten so studious in the kitchen, carefully measuring the flour, deftly consuming lots of chocolate chips on the sly. We had a sweet time in the kitchen. I’ve heard other moms comment on this same phenomenon–Wyatt’s not into us having an intentional chat (”Fine.” “Good.”) but he talks my ear off when we do something together. The other day, in the car without his sister (rare) he asked me all sorts of questions about war and death and what happens to people who fight in wars. Life is serious business–Wyatt knows it even at six. Baking sweet things is one of the antidotes.
This is another recipe from Baked. Sort of. Theirs is a muffin, mine is a cake. Theirs doesn’t have glaze, mine does. I am definitely not opposed to a good muffin, but I really like the idea of slicing something–the motion of it, how the rest of the loaf or cake sits on the counter with the insides staying moist, how heavy it is, how not limited to breakfast. I am exercising an extreme amount of discipline at the moment, as said cake is sitting near my left elbow and threatening to dispense the third piece of the day. Not gonna do it. At least not until my tea is ready.
Banana Espresso Coffeecake with Chocolate Chips
Adapted from Baked. I happen to have an espresso maker, so used actual espresso for the glaze. You can use strong coffee. There’s really not a good substitute for the espresso powder, though, which you should be able to find in the coffee aisle of most grocery stores. The brand sitting on my shelf is Medaglia D’oro. If you’re not a coffee lover, you could leave the coffee out altogether and do a glaze of milk and powdered sugar. If you want muffins, you can halve this recipe, halve the cooking time, and just put the batter into muffin cups, filling them almost to the top. If you do a cake, watch it so it doesn’t get cooked on the outside before it’s done on the inside. I have a convection oven so manage to avoid that problem 
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c. whole milk
2 eggs
3 c. flour
3 ts. instant espresso powder
3 ts. baking soda
2 ts. salt
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
For glaze
2 c. sifted powdered sugar
3-4 Tb. strong coffee or espresso
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together mashed bananas, sugars, butter, milk, and egg.
In another medium bowl, whisk together the flour, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the center of the oven for about 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Turn out onto a cooling rack with parchment paper below and let sit for about 30 more minutes.
When cake is barely warm to the touch, make the glaze by mixing the powdered sugar and coffee together with a whisk. You want it to be pourable, but still quite thick. Pour it over the cake, letting it run down the sides, into the middle, and onto the parchment paper below. Let harden–about 15 minutes.
I have this horrible feeling that when you showed me a picture of this beautiful cake at the playground this morning, I gave you zero response. Or something really unenthusiastic like “Oh, nice (are we done now?)…” This happens to me every now and then - I think back on talking to someone, and think… Wow, I wasn’t responding at all how I would expect myself to respond. I’m sure this is related to my chronic sleep deprivation.
So if that happened the way I think it did, SORRY! I was really happy to see it and hear about it. But I’ll probably always be a bad conversationalist when it comes to food…
Anyway, it was lovely to see you as usual, and make chit chat like we’ve known each other forever, even though we haven’t! It’s much nicer to be at the playground by myself with you, instead of by myself. You know what I mean.
No worries, Naomi. I don’t remember what your response was, seeing as I was keeping eyes and ears out for catastrophes on the playground. And I certainly don’t expect everyone to be as enthusiastic about coffeecakes (and food in general) as I am
this looks amazing! can’t wait to make it!
i REALLY considered a spontaneous drop by today to see if there was any of this left.
yum.
As my mom and I enjoyed one (or two or three) of your oatmeal-cherry-pecan-chocolate chip cookies after dinner and were chit-chatting about how much we LOVE your recipes, we looked to see what today’s update was. We read the title of the latest recipe and both thought: “Did she make this just for Laura & Hillary?” Haha…my mom and I both find ourselves drooling over your fresh, original, and gourmet recipes. I can not wait to make the banana-espresso-chocolate chip (muffins). If you’re interested in another recipe with bananas, I can send you our favorite (super-healthy) banana nut bread. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Is this as good as it looks? Wyatt you are so buff! Come to my house wyatt, and we will make cake and eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you won’t have to go to bed until midnight…..and we won’t tell your mom.
Oh dear, coffee, bananas, AND chocolate? I’m sunk, such a delicious combo. Please tell me someone scooped up some of that glaze that drizzled onto the waxed paper. I saw that and all I could think was those little pools are just begging for someone to sweep them up, leaving little finger-sized paths
Beautiful cake, and I agree, cakes are just better than a punny muffin
Love Wyatt’s look in the picture. So cute!
so, i got to try this and WILL be making it myself. D’LISH!!
Hi Sarah,
I made these in muffin form (though I prefer cake, I wanted to have extras at home) for David to take with him to the fire station today. Wow…are they yummy…the coffee adds such a…I don’t know how to describe it, almost a smokey flavor. My glaze didn’t turn out very well (my fault not recipe), but it didn’t seem to matter. Thanks again for making the food on our table and out our doors so much better than average. You are a gem!
I made this tonight for a group of college juniors that I have over weekly. We usually always have someone talking but for a few minutes everyone silently ate their cake, eventually uttering an “mmmm” or “aaah”. I imagine they’ll all be followers of your blog soon and am certain many will make this recipe. I will definitely make it again. I used milk for the glaze since we were eating it at night but I look forward to trying the espresso glaze next time, and enjoying a slice with my morning coffee. Once again, thanks for making it easy to spoil others!
Hi Kathleen. Thanks for sharing this story–I love to picture everyone mmming and ahing
This looks absolutely superb! No wonder it went down so well, for both you and Kathleen!
Rosie of BooksAndBlogs
Made this cake and it is sinfully good, so good in fact on its own that I never even made the frosting.
Thx for the great recipe.