Looking for a way to use up 5 bananas that have gotten too brown to eat? This Chocolate Chip Banana Bundt Cake is the perfect recipe for you! It's super easy to whip up and will leave your house smelling amazing! The brown butter in the batter pairs incredibly with the bananas and the sour cream helps give it the most tender crumb. This delicious cake is my favorite way to use up my overripe bananas!
If you love these flavors and have sourdough discard you want to put to good use, try my Sourdough Discard Banana Bread recipe! Perhaps you want an extra fruity banana bread? Then my Blueberry Banana Muffins are for you! Or, if you enjoy bananas with chocolate hazelnut spread, check out my Banana Nutella Muffins!
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Why We Love This Banana Bundt Cake Recipe
- This is a great recipe to turn your brown bananas into something super delicious!
- This banana cake can be enjoyed any time of day, whether it be for breakfast, brunch, dessert or a snack.
- It has chocolate chips for an extra sweet banana chocolate treat, but can also be made without them!
- It's very simple and doesn't require any special baking equipment.
Looking for more delicious banana recipes?
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Sour cream
- Overripe bananas
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
See recipe card below for quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
Feel free to use chopped walnuts, dark chocolate chips, or a different mix-in other than semi-sweet chocolate chips.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you replace or add any ingredients, please let us know how it turned out in the comments below!
Equipment
- A 10-12 cup bundt pan is needed to bake the cake in. This pan is the one I used!
- Use a medium non-stick skillet to brown the butter.
Step by Step Instructions
Step One (Picture 1 above) - Before you start baking, brown the butter in a skillet over medium/low heat. Continuously stir it with a spatula until the boiling calms and it gives off a nutty aroma. Transfer it to a heat-proof bowl and let it cool. While it's cooling, mash the bananas in a medium bowl with a fork or masher.
Step Two (Picture 2 above) - In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
Step Three (Picture 3 above) - When the browned butter has reached room temperature, add it to a large bowl and whisk in the sugars really well. Then mix in the eggs, vanilla extract, sour cream and mashed bananas.
Step Four (Picture 4 above) - Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until the flour streaks disappear. Finally, stir the chocolate chips into the cake batter.
Grease your bundt cake pan super well (get all the nooks and crannies) and then pour the batter into it. Bake the chocolate chip banana bundt cake at 350°F until a toothpick comes out clean (about 45-55 minutes). If it seems like the top is browning too quickly, place a sheet of aluminum foil over it while it finishes baking.
Expert Tips
Tip #1 - Weigh dry ingredients with a scale. It's really easy to measure inaccurately in cups since flour is packable. Even if it doesn't seem like you've packed the flour, it can be off by quite a bit! Over-measuring can yield cake that is too dense or dry. Use a food scale to accurately weigh it in grams to eliminate this issue.
Tip #2 - Coat your bundt pan with non-stick baking spray that contains flour. I swear by this spray - my bundt cakes always come out perfect when I use it! Be sure to spray the entire inside of the pan.
Tip #3 - Don't over or under-bake the cake. As soon as a toothpick comes out clean in all areas of the cake, remove it from the oven. If there's still a lot of raw batter in the middle so that the toothpick is goopy, it's under-baked and you may have a bit of rawish cake after it's cooled. On the other hand, if you bake it for too long, it'll dry out or burn.
Tip #4 - Be careful flipping it out of the pan! Cake shrinks a bit as it cools which allows it to pull away from the pan. You want to give it enough time to cool so that it isn't sticking or super fragile. When the pan is just warm to touch, place a cooling rack or plate on top and then invert them so that the cake falls onto the plate in one piece. Let it finish cooling on the wire rack.
Tip #5 - Make the cake the night before and enjoy it for breakfast the next day! Letting it sit overnight brings out the brown butter and banana flavor even more!
Recipe FAQs
Instead of non-stick flour spray, you can coat the pan with soft, unsalted butter. Use a paper towel to wipe it around the inside of the pan, coating all of the cracks really well. Then, sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar inside so that it sticks to the butter.
No, feel free to use melted butter instead. It won't be quite as flavorful without the browned butter, though!
Absolutely! This recipe is delicious as a plain banana bundt cake as well.
Of course! I'd suggest cream cheese frosting, chocolate ganache or brown sugar glaze.
Storage
Room Temperature - This banana chocolate chip bundt cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days.
Refrigerator - Storing cake in the refrigerator can dry it out, but this can be kept here in an airtight container for 1 week.
Freezing Instructions - Let the cake cool completely and then wrap it tightly in a freezer-safe bag or plastic wrap. I recommend slicing it up and wrapping the slices individually so that they're easier to serve and don't stick together when frozen. The cake can be frozen for up to 1 month, just let it thaw at room temperature or in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before serving.
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📖 Recipe
Chocolate Chip Banana Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Bundt cake pan
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring cups/scale
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Small-medium saucepan/pot
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 2¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup+2 tablespoons sour cream room temperature
- 2¼ cups (~5 medium) bananas mashed
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a bundt cake pan extremely well.
- Brown the butter in a small-medium saucepan or pot over low-medium heat until it bubbles to brown bits and gives off a nutty aroma. Remove it from the heat, transfer it to a large mixing bowl, and let it cool. (You can set it in the refrigerator to help speed up the cooling)
- While the butter is cooling, mash your bananas and, in a separate bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt).
- When the butter is about room temperature, whisk the sugars in really well (~2 minutes). Mix in the eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla and sour cream. Stir in the mashed bananas.
- Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until the flour streaks have all disappeared. Then, fold in the chocolate chips.
- Evenly pour the batter into the bundt pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
- Bake the cake until the top is light brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (about 45-55 minutes).
- Let the cake cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. If it looks like it stuck to the sides a bit, carefully run a butter knife around the edges. Then, with a cooling rack on top of the pan (upside-down), flip the cake so that it comes out of the pan and is sitting on the cooling rack.
Brittany says
Banana bread is always a winner, but the brown butter and cinnamon take this one to the next level. I also love that it's a bundt cake which makes it a little more special! I did have to bake mine about 15 minutes longer than instructed. Thanks for a great recipe!
Kayla Burton says
Thank you for trying my recipe and sharing this feedback, Brittany!! 🙂
Marsha says
Hi Kayla…making this right now; it’s in the oven (smile)! I had some bananas browning and wanted to bake something a little different. I also added some pineapple tidbits (didn’t have crushed), a little chunky apple sauce, and milk chocolate chips (didn’t have semi-sweet). Very easy to make, and it smells awesome in my kitchen! I’m gonna share with grands…thanks!
Kayla Burton says
Hi Marsha! I hope you and the grands enjoy it!! I'd love to hear how it turned out with the pineapple and applesauce additions 🙂
Natalia Angelova says
I absolutely love baking bundt cakes and recently came across this recipe. Banana flavour is my sons favourite. I had to substitute the sour cream with Greek yoghurt as it was what I had at home but the cake turned out just as fluffy. Chocolate chips can be optional. Very straight forward instructions, only used hand whisk.
Kayla says
Thank you for sharing these notes, Natalia! I'm so happy it worked with the Greek yogurt and you & your son enjoyed it!
Miriam says
I am making it for the second time in a month. The first time it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS and fell out of the bunt without a hitch. Making it again for weekend visitors. I totally love this cake!!! THANK YOU!
Kayla says
Ah this makes me so happy, thank you Miriam!! I hope your guests enjoy it as well 🙂
Cheryl says
I made this tonight, just took it out of the oven actually. Looks and smells absolutely, perfectly delicious and I'm sure it will be. I'm not sure if it's me that's just getting old, (and I haven't worked in 4 years either), so I'm sure my brain is slowing down somewhat but, I thought the directions were a bit hard to follow. I mean, not hard to understand, just alot of directions for something that seemed so simple. I've been cooking and baking since I was a teenager and I'm almost 60 so....I actually messed up a couple times because the directions were saying one thing and I thought it was another thing and I found myself getting confused and having to go back over and over and over the same steps again and again. Maybe I'm tired too. I don't know. I'm going to re-write the directions for myself in a simpler version. No offense to you at all, please. I'm sure it's me. Anyways, when all waset done it all came together anyways and like I said, LOOKS AND SMELLS GREAT! Just sitting here waiting for it to cool enough to try. Before I poured the batter into the bundt pan I through some brown sugar in the bottom of the pan, just sprinkled it around the bottom and then took my cinnamon sugar mixture that I have made up for toast and gave the bundt pan a good coating all around the sides of the pan above the brown sugar. We'll see how that goes as far as getting it out of the pan. I also sprinkled brown sugar over the top of the batter after I got it into the pan before baking. I'm a brown sugar and cinnamon addict. I usually add both of those ingredients to my banana bread also before baking and everyone loves it.
Kayla says
Hi Cheryl! I'm so sorry my directions were a bit confusing but I'm glad it all worked out in the end! The brown sugar and cinnamon sounds like a lovely addition! I also like to coat my pan with cinnamon sugar when I make cinnamon streusel bundt cake 🙂 Thanks for making my recipe, I hope you're having a great weekend!