Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Filling:

• 8 ounces, 1 package cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon Rum
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Using a whip attachment of a stand mixer or a hand-held, beat cream cheese and egg together. Add the powdered sugar, flour,  baking powder and Rum.

The mixture will appear a bit curdled, but mix until it just begins to come together. It will still appear a bit lumpy, but that’s fine – do not overbeat. Stir chocolate chips in by hand. Set aside.

Cake:

• 1 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 very ripe large bananas, mashed with a good amount of chunky pieces
• 1/2 cup sour cream, yogurt or a mixture
• 1/2 cup butter, 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 tablespoon water.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour or preferably use a mold release on a 10-inch (3-quart) bundt pan, knocking out excess flour if used.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a small bowl, mash bananas, leaving a good amount of small chunks, then stir in the sour cream or yogurt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes with a stand mixer and about five to six with a hand-held.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in espresso and vanilla. Working with alternate additions, beginning and ending with flour, add in the flour mixture and the banana yogurt mixture. Only mix in each addition until it is just mixed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl with each addition.

Spoon half the batter into prepared pan and dollop the cream cheese mixture throughout the center area, leaving space between the cream cheese and the outside edges of the pan. Top with remaining batter and without being to fussy, so as not to displace the cream cheese, gently smooth the top into a somewhat even layer.

Place pan in middle of the oven (do not use a cookie sheet under the pan or anything that will impede air circulation) for 50 minutes, or until cake springs back when gently touched in the center of the ring and pulls slightly away from the edges of pan. The top of the cake may have a few small cracks, but don’t overbake. A tester will not reliably reflect doneness.

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes and invert onto a rack to cool completely. Let cake stand, wrapped tightly, at room temperature overnight.

For a simple presentation, dust cake with confectioners’ sugar. If you’d like, use the Chocolate Ganache and Rum Spiked  Vanilla Glaze, below.

This cake was inspired by a cake from Lauren Diamond, in Gourmet Magazine, March 1996, and some of the recommendations from reviewers – along with a few of my own twists.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze:

• 4 ounces, about 3/4 cup of chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon sour cream or yogurt
• 1/2 cup milk

Place all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave at 60% power for 30 seconds. Remove and stir. If the chips do not melt in as it is stirred, continue to microwave in 10 second increments.

By gently heating, you’ll be sure to have a smooth, glossy ganache. If ganache seems to thick, thin with a little more milk by the teaspoonful.

Vanilla Rum Glaze:

• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon Rum
• 2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Place butter in microwave safe bowl and heat for about 10 seconds until just melted. Remove and add powdered sugar, Rum and milk. Stir or whisk together – the mixture will be thick and should thin as it is stirred.

Look for a consistency that slowly drips off the whisk in a stream and piles up a bit as it puddles. Depending on the humidity, it may take a little more milk or a little more powdered sugar to reach just the right consistency.

From the kitchen of http://www.frugalhausfrau.com