Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Few Surprises!

Did you know the Bundt cake pan was developed in Minnesota? It’s true. You betcha. And guess what? This Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake was, too. By moi! It has a surprise inside: a Rum spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel. And to take it to the next level, it has two glazes, and not your ordinary plain old tired glazes. Nope, nope, nope! This one has a Chocolate Ganache Glaze topped off by Rum Vanilla Glaze. Uff-dah!

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

That this is one of the best bundt cakes you’ve ever tasted will have to be up to you to judge, but it is rich, full of chocolate flavor, not too sweet and supremely fudgy. You’ll have to clean your knife between cuts kind of fudgy.

I love a cake with a lot of interest and this one has it. You’ll be alternating between the chocolate banana cake and the creamy filling, and when you get to the edges with those glazes…each bite will be better than the last.

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

Notice the little bit of fussiness in the ingredients for the cream cheese tunnel – that’s how you get the cream cheese to stay put and not sink into the cake or squish, ooze or collapse when the cake is cut. It’s almost like a bit cheesecake tucked inside.

The glazes are rich and thick and gorgeous on top, and just take a minute or two to mix up. The cake will be just fine without any glaze at all, though, if you’d like to go simpler. Maybe a little powdered sugar?

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

What I didn’t do here, and should have, was to use my Miracle Goop Pan Release. I had a bit of sticking and lost a very thin layer to the pan. Let that be a warning to you –  use Pan Release whether you buy it or make it!

Miracle Goop Pan Release

Miracle Goop Pan Release

I had a thought I might remake the cake to show it at it’s best, but it’s a large one and that would just be too much cake to eat! Did I really just say those words?

By the way, if you don’t care for Rum or don’t use alcohol, don’t despair! A little vanilla is fine here, and there’s no reason a lot of different flavors of alcohol wouldn’t be scrumptuous in this. Amaretto comes to mind immediately! There is something about Rum and Banana that floats my boat, though.

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked Cream Cheese, Chocolate Chip Tunnel, Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Rum Glazes

Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Rum Spiked, Chocolate Chip and Cream Cheese Tunnel

  • Servings: Serves 12 to 14
  • Difficulty: easy
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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

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Happy Belated Halloween to everyone! I thought I would show a few of our very “candid” shots!

My

My “Dripping Bat” pumpkin. I had to lighten up the pic, that’s when I saw the dogs in the background…

We kept having to adjust

We kept having to adjust “Mabel” the moving, screeching witch. Her eyes light up eerily! Everyone here sits outside and passes out the candy and the folks have quite a display!

Tonight, I’ll be linking up to Throwback Thursday, of which I am now (Yay!) a cohost! Stop over and see all the great recipes and party ideas and check out the other co-hosts, too: Quinn of Dad Whats for Dinner & Alli of Tornadough who started it all and Meaghan from 4 Sons are Us. See ya there!

I’m also dropping by to Angie’s Fiesta Friday! I’ve already seen some of the great recipes featured there this week! Wow! Thankyou, Angie, for putting on this extravaganza! She’s been hosting for 92 consecutive weeks!

I’ll bring this by to Freedom Fridays, too, hosted by Love Bakes Good Cake (that’s so true, isn’t it?) She’s teamed up with My Turn for us and With a Blast to bring you the best “no rules” party around!

This is also my first time linking to Saucy Saturdays – a food and craft link party!

42 thoughts on “Chocolate Banana Bundt Cake with a Few Surprises!

  1. I made this and it is soooooooo much cake…it’s delicious but it is A LOT of cake. One note- there are instructions to add espresso and vanilla to the batter but there’s no vanilla noted in the batter ingredients (I added a teaspoon). =)

    • Thanks so much, Lori, I’ll take a peek and correct it! I think it would freeze very well, and it does stay moist a long time, but you’re right. There’s something about a bundt cake that makes it seem like so much!

      I hope you greased your pan better than I did and didn’t have any trouble with sticking!!

  2. I love the way you have combined the decadence of chocolate with the goodness of the humble banana cake turning it into something very rich and sumptuous! I am saving this recipe!

  3. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! I mean winner, winner, bundt cake killer 😀 Of course I wouldn’t mind having it for dinner, either. Why are you so awesome? And make stuff like this all the time? 🙂

  4. I usually don’t like bundt cakes as often times there isn’t frosting or just a little bit of glaze, and they can be kind of dry. Your bundt cake solves all those problems for me! 🙂 2 kinds of frosting and a tunnel of goodness – oh my! I am pinning this to make soon. Thank you!

    • Thanks, Shari! Of course, the chocolate ganache glaze was the best part, and it could easily be doubled. My problem is I usually don’t like the white glazes, but the bit of butter and the rum changed it up for me!

    • Thanks, Juju! I had a lot of fun with the pumpkin and my Da helped, too. We used a kit, though that has tools and templates. Sometimes I make my own designs, when I have enough time. They make it so easy. Then we just wash everything and put it in a ziploc and use it again next year.

      The pups did so well and were so polite with all the visitors – Gibson always is, but Cody is young and prone to be rambunctious – I think Gibby is a good influence on him.

  5. what an epic cake! Am loving the secret tunnel stuffed full of yumminess 😉 I love bundt tins. We are heading to San Fran laster this year and it is a given that I will be buying new tins at Sonoma Williams 🙂

    • I know a lady who collects them and has a whole kitchen wall devoted to them! Too much to clean, for me, tho! I am still meaning to get a donut pan! It’s on my next purchase list in my head!

      Oh, my gosh, that sounds like such a fun trip. I have some family there but haven’t been there for years. We were wading inthe ocean last time, too cold to swim, and the dolphins came in. My husband was convinced they were sharks and bailed out of there so fast – and yet left me…haha!

      Thanks for all the compliments, Mum!

      • Oooh, a wall of bundt pans sounds fun! You have just inspired me. I think I shall start eyeing up space for a bundt wall in the kitchen 🙂 I adore dolphins! And I adore SF! We saw all the seals at SF last time but I don’t know that they will be there in winter.

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