I have had an inexplicable craving for coffee cake lately. Like having dreams of coffee cake, resisting ordering coffee cake for lunch every time I go to my favorite cafe, saving recipe after recipe for coffee cake, and convincing my mom that I should use at least three of the aforementioned Costco bananas to make a banana coffee cake instead of the banana bread or more banana scones she requested.

And then I go and post the resulting recipe on my blog with a (about to come) tangent about Mother’s Day being the perfect excuse to make this not-the-banana-bread-my-mom-wanted banana chocolate chip coffee cake. I’m a horrible daughter. Blame coffee cake!

But the truth is, Mother’s Day (in the US, sorry to all UK and Aussie readers) is this weekend. I’ve been trying to figure out why brunch seems to be the standard Mother’s Day outing, while Father’s Day tends to be more steakhouse dinners and BBQs. The cynical part of me says it’s because doing something for Mother’s Day in the early afternoon allows Mom to sleep in, get treated to a nice breakfast, and then still gets her home in time to make the family dinner. Not cynical part of me says it’s because brunch is elegant and a great excuse for floral anything and nice china. And tea. What is Mother’s Day without tea?

Last year I worked at a teahouse for Mother’s Day and let me tell you, mothers and grandmothers love tea. This year my family is going to a baseball game and everyone will be getting scones for their present (errrr just like last year). But back to brunch, and coffee cake, and specifically this coffee cake.

Banana, cinnamon, chocolate chips, walnuts…this coffee cake is the motherlode of banana affinities. The cake itself looks like it would be dense, but it is really just so moist from the mashed bananas, creamed butter, and yogurt that it melts in your mouth. Don’t judge a coffee cake by its weight: nothing is heavy in this streuseled beauty. Oh, I didn’t mention that the cinnamon, chocolate, and walnuts are a streusel? Yeah that’s because I wanted you to read this post instead of skipping straight to the recipe, salivating.

The middle layer of streusel melts into the banana cake, so every bite has some cinnamon chocolately goodness. There is A LOT of streusel, therefore a lot of cinnamon so if you aren’t a cinnamon fan feel free to reduce it. (Coffee cake seems to require the use of cinnamon.) No matter what, this cake is decadent and sweet and moist and fluffy and the perfect thing to make for your Mother’s Day brunch on Sunday. Or really any brunch, but I promise Mom will love this as much as she loves you.

Even my mom loved it enough that she forgave me for it not being banana bread. I’ll make that for her on Sunday…as well as another round of banana chocolate chip coffee cake. She’ll love me double!

banana chocolate chip coffee cake

adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction

ingredients

cake

• 190 grams (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 100 grams (1/2 cup) white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 large, very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup plain greek yogurt

streusel

• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 50 grams (1/4 cup) packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional, or sub pecans)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish with nonstick spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (paddle attachment…or if you don’t have a stand mixer use a large bowl and a handheld mixer), cream butter on high for 1 minute. Lower speed to medium and beat in sugar until combined, scraping down sides and bottom as needed. Add egg and vanilla extract. Add mashed banana and yogurt; beat mixture on high for 1 minute until creamy (mine was really liquidy and splattering so I covered the mixer with a dishtowel to preserve to new cabinets).

Remove bowl from mixer and slowly add flour mixture, folding it in until just combined and there are no more streaks of flour. Sigh, I guess you can keep the mixer together and add the flour into the bowl, mixing on LOW until ingredients are combined, but you’ll lose the love that only comes with mixing things by hand (this is for Mom, remember?). Do not over mix or cake will be dense.

In a small bowl, combine ingredients for streusel. Pour half of batter into prepared baking pan, sprinkle half the streusel on top, then cover with the remaining batter. Then cover the top of the entire cake with the rest of the delicious streusel.

Bake for 40-50 minutes (mine was done 40 minutes flat), covering cake with aluminum foil after 25 minutes of baking. You don’t want the top to burn. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!