Banana Cake with Chocolate Chunks

By using your pressure cooker for this dessert, you don't actually save any time, but this banana cake with chocolate chunks will be incredibly moist. It's a delicious mid morning or mid afternoon cake, perfect to go along with a cup of coffee.

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Banana Cake with Chocolate Chunks

  • Prep Time: 15 m
  • Cook Time: 50 m
  • Natural Release: 15 m
  • Total Time: 1 h 5 m
  • Servings:
    8

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter melted (1 stick or 4 ounces)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 4 ripe bananas mashed (about 1 cup)
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate chunks
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Butter a 7-inch cake pan.
  2. Mix the melted butter, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and bananas together in a large bowl. In a second bowl, combine the sour cream and the baking soda. In a third bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Finally, in a fourth bowl, combine the chocolate chunks, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream mixture. Pour half of the batter into the buttered cake pan. Scatter half of the chocolate chip mixture on top. Cover with the remaining batter and then sprinkle the remaining chocolate chip mixture on top. Wrap the pan completely in a piece of well-greased aluminum foil.
  3. Place a rack in the bottom of the pressure cooker and add 2 cups of water. Lower the cake pan into the cooker using a sling made of aluminum foil (fold a piece of aluminum foil into a strip about 2-inches wide by 24-inches long). Fold the ends of the aluminum foil into the cooker and lock the lid in place.
  4. Pressure cook on HIGH for 50 minutes.
  5. Let the pressure drop NATURALLY and carefully remove the lid. Remove the cake pan from the cooker and let it cool. Transfer the cake to a serving plate and serve with a dollop of whipped cream if desired.
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Comments (10)Post a Reply

  1. This looks delicious! I have an 8 qt Instant Pot and found an 8” cake pan – could I make that work? Thank you

    1. Hi Julie. As long as the pan fits in your pressure cooker you can use it for this recipe. I would reduce the cooking time by one minute since the batter will not be as high in the pan and will take a less time to cook.

  2. Hello! So I had some old bananas staring at me forlornly from the fruit bowl when I came across this recipe. I have never made a cake in my instapot and I was curious. I suspected the cake would be very pudding-like given all the steam used to cook it and when I removed the cake from the pot my suspicions seemed confirmed. But as I spooned it onto a plate I spotted light and fluffy cake. Moist – for sure – but it was decidedly cake-like. And the taste is lovely. It reminds me of the snackin cake mixes I ate when I was a kid. But better. All in all this was a nice (and delicious!) surprise! Thank you, Meredith!

  3. 5 stars
    This is very tasty. My pressure cooker used up the two cups of water before the cooking time was up. What resulted was a thick black bottom on the cake which actually peeled off with a little help. The sides of the cake were scorched and didn’t come off. I gave 5 stars because the cake is delicious. The excess browning didn’t affect the taste. I’ll make it again, with modifications to the cooking process. I also used a Gluten-free 1 for 1 flour blend. Thanks for the recipe.

    1. No, do not cover the cake if baking it in the oven. You don’t need to put it in a water bath either, just bake at 350°F for 45 to 50 minutes.

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