Cream Cheese Stuffed Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Coffee Cake

Aside from this recipe having the LONGEST NAME EVER, it was really really good. Also, I don't own a tube pan soooo...yeah I made it in a regular rectangle 9 x 13 cake pan. It worked just fine and tasted just as good. :-)

Cinnamon Walnut Streusel

• 1/2 cup walnuts (optional)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 4 Tbsp cold butter, cubed

Banana Cake

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 large ripe)
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Cream Cheese Filling

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup reserved batter (from instructions)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Vanilla Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp milk
• mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray non-stick cooking spray on all inside surfaces of a 16 cup tube pan. Dust lightly with flour.

Streusel: add walnuts to food processor and pulse 3 times. Add flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon and pulse to combine. Sprinkle cold butter over top and pulse until walnuts are chopped and mixture resembles small pebbles. Set aside in refrigerator. 

Cake: in a medium bowl, whisk together first 5 ingredients and set aside. Using a mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until the yellow disappears. Mix in vanilla and bananas until just combined. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Gradually add the flour mixture to the banana batter in thirds, alternating with sour cream between each third. Beat until just combined. Measure out 1/4 cup batter and set aside. Stir chocolate chips and walnuts into remaining batter until combined. Measure out 1 cup batter and spoon the remaining batter into the prepared pan. 

Using the same mixing bowl, add cream cheese filling ingredients. Beat on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Spoon cream cheese filling over batter in pan and smooth gently, but do not touch the sides of the pan. Spread reserved cup of batter evenly over filling (it will be very thin). 

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let baked cake cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Gently invert cake onto a baking sheet, remove pan, and invert back onto cooling rack, streusel side up. Let cool to room temperature. 

When ready to serve, whisk vanilla glaze ingredients together in a medium bowl and drizzle over cake. Store in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. 

NOTES: I did not include walnuts in my cake. Despite what others may tell you, I'm not a nutty person. Also, the original recipe listed the chocolate chips as optional. Chocolate is never optional. I removed this notation :-) I cooked my cake less than the instructions since mine was thinner than if it was in a tube pan. I just kept an eye on it as I went. I think it ended up needing about 45 minutes.

Also, as you can see from my photo above, the removal from the pan did not go as planned. I don't know if I didn't grease/dust my pan enough, if it was because I used a different type of pan than directed, or what. All I know is I'm not too shy to say it didn't work. But hey, looks aren't everything. It still tasted delicious!

Serves 12-18

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Recipe from carlsbadcravings.com/