Peanut Butter Banana Cake

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• 📋 Notes about this recipe
• 🥣 Make an easy frosting
• 🍴Serving and storage
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

This peanut butter banana cake recipe will become your new favorite snacking cake. Made with vanilla yogurt, bananas, peanut butter, and chocolate chips these little cakes are moist, sweet, and great for an after school treat. Annnddd they might remind you of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups 🧡.

When I first start out with this recipe, my intention was something that was low sugar and relatively healthy for the kids after school. But I think I've over done the chocolate chips and I just can't call them "healthy" anymore. But I'm okay with that. The way the chocolate cracks on the top after they have completely cooled just might be the best part of your day.

Sure, there are 3 whole bananas in there (and those bananas keep these moist for days) .. and I didn't add any extra sugar, but I'm not fooling anyone. This cake is a cake. That is all.  So eat the cake.

📋 Notes about this recipe

This banana cake was made to keep in the refrigerator for a few days for quick grab and go snacks or after school treats. So to make sure it holds up and does not become a dried out mess I focused on ingredients that will help keep the cake moist and dense.

I also wanted to keep keep the sugar and added fat in check. And while these are certainly not low fat or sugar-free, I did not add additional oil, butter, or refined sugar to this recipe.

Here is how I did it:

Bananas - serve many purposes here. You will need about 3 medium bananas to get 1 cup of mashed banana. Bananas add sweetness, moisture (so these cakes will keep for the week), and are a good fat-free substitute for butter or oil.

Peanut butter - obviously for the flavor. But also for a good plant-based soure for both fat and protein. I used unsweetened, natural peanut butter. But use what you have on hand. Without other oil or fat in these cakes, the peanut butter serves that purpose as well to keep these cakes moist and soft.

Vanilla yogurt - for the vanilla flavor and sugar and moisture. I used low fat, stirred yogurt (not greek-style).

Eggs - just one in this recipe. Helps hold everything together.

Chopped peanuts - for texture, roasted, salted or unsalted. Up to you.

Chocolate chips and Peanut butter chips - for fun! I like a few sprinkled inside the cake and for the topping (see notes below). Feel free to use all milk chocolate or all peanut butter chips, or dark chocolate for that matter. It really is up to you. Peanut butter chips just add more peanut buttery-ness and take the peanut butter cup flavor to the next level.

Tip: If you can find them, use Reese's peanut butter chips mixed with milk chocolate chips to make a peanut buttery, chocolatey, and crunchy topping. Most stores carry them right next to the chocolate chips in the baking section of the store.

For the topping, I've simply sprinkled milk chocolate and peanut butter chips on top of the hot cake. They will melt and spread to fully cover the cake and then harden when cool. The little crunch of the hardened chocolate is so, so good.

🥣 Make an easy frosting

I've used half Reese's peanut butter chips and half milk chocolate chips. You can use all milk chocolate if you like. Reese's peanut butter chips just give you more peanut butter. 🙂  And today I'm all about that.

Right out of the oven. Let the chocolate and peanut butter chips sit for a few minutes and soften. After a few m minutes, use an offset spatula to spread them evenly on the top of the cake. They will then spread easily.

Be gentle and if the chips still seem too hard, or not soft enough to spread evenly, just wait a few minutes longer. eventually, they will completely warm up from the hot cake and will spread nice and smooth.

More treats for after school snacks you might want to try next:

• Cranberry Ginger Snack Cakes {vegan}
• Blueberry Banana Snack Cakes {vegan, g/f}
• Apple Pie Bread {vegan}
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

🍴Serving and storage

I like these banana snack cakes best once the chocolate has gotten hard again. I like the way it cracks and reminds me of biting into a good chocolate bar. But of course, you can eat them while they are still warm.

Bake the cake in an 8x12 inch baking tin to make little, mini cakes. Short and thin with a crunchy coat of chocolate on top. I cut them small, so they are only a bit or two.

I like this 8x12 cake pan.

The snack cakes cut better once fully cooled and the frosting has gotten hard again.

Once cakes are fully cool they can be stored. Cakes will be kept in an air-tight container and refrigerated for about a week.

📖 Recipe