Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
When those overripe bananas on your counter are begging to be used, make this Banana Chocolate Chip Cake! It’s an 8×8 banana snack cake that’s moist and tender in every bite. No mixer required!
When I meet up with friends, especially those I haven’t seen in a long time, I usually bring dessert to share, whether it’s leftovers from the blog (hey someone has to eat it) or I made especially for them.
However I have a few vegan friends and seeing how much butter, eggs, and milk I go through each year, it’s not always easy to bake for them.
One time I almost fed them something with marshmallows in it, which are not suitable for vegetarians let alone vegans.
Even though they tell me not to worry about making anything, I wanted to figure out what I can make; why should they be excluded because of their lifestyle?
My goal was to make a cake that both vegans and non-vegans will enjoy with everyday ingredients, which is exactly what I accomplished with my Banana Chocolate Chip Cake.
It’s an 8×8 banana snack cake that’s so moist and packed full of chocolate chips, you can’t tell it’s a vegan banana cake.
In fact I took it to a coworking place I go to as a social experiment and didn’t tell anyone because I wanted natural reactions. Nobody noticed as everybody raved over it.
But don’t let the V word fool you! There are no specialty ingredients to buy like flax seed or vegan butter; it’s all basic pantry ingredients including vegetable oil for the fat.
And if you’re not vegan, you can still use dairy milk instead of soy as this banana cake recipe is super versatile.
Plus it’s so ridiculously easy, you don’t even need a mixer! Measure everything into one bowl and whisk by hand.
Unlike my small banana cake, you don’t even need to frost it as the chocolate chips are plentiful (although you can certainly decorate it with chocolate frosting or peanut butter frosting).
Served straight from your 8×8 pan, you can easily take your banana chocolate chip cake with you to potlucks, birthday parties, and visits with friends.
Ingredients For Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
Here’s what you need to bake your eggless banana cake:
- All-purpose flour: Standard baking flour to balance the liquid ingredients
- Sugar: Sweetens the cake
- Baking soda: Leavening agent that helps the cake rise
- Cinnamon: Spice to help flavor the cake
- Salt: No bland cake batter here!
- Milk: Helps smooth out and moistens the batter
- Vegetable oil: A neutral oil used for fat. Don’t have oil? Use an equal amount of melted butter
- Vinegar: Because there are no eggs in this recipe, the vinegar reacts with the baking soda, helping it rise more.
- Banana: Use brown overripe bananas for best flavor
- Vanilla: Really brings out the banana and chocolate chip flavors
- Chocolate chips: Use semisweet or dark chocolate.
Are chocolate chips vegan?
Some chocolate chip brands are vegan while others are not. Make sure you read the label as cheaper brands tend to use milk fat.
How To Make Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
Making your banana snack cake is so easy, you don’t even need a mixer!
- Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add milk, oil, banana, vinegar, and vanilla then stir in chocolate chips until moistened. Transfer to 8×8 pan.
- Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Do you need to frost banana snack cake?
Because of the amount of chocolate chips I added, your banana chocolate chip cake doesn’t need frosting.
However, if you’d like to frost it like I did with my strawberry snack cake and pumpkin poke cake (especially if it’s going to be a birthday cake), you absolutely can!
Go for a classic banana pairing with small batch cream cheese frosting, chocolate cream cheese frosting, or peanut butter cream cheese frosting.
Or try it with cinnamon buttercream or coconut frosting
More Banana Recipes
Enjoyed this banana chocolate chip cake? Check out these other recipes using banana:
Banana Snack Cake
When those overripe bananas on your counter are begging to be used, make this Banana Chocolate Chip Cake! It’s an 8×8 banana snack cake that’s moist and tender in every bite. No mixer required!
Ingredients
- 1 + 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1/2 cup soy or almond milk (or whole dairy milk for non vegan cake), room temperature
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or melted butter for non vegan cake)
- 1 cup mashed banana (roughly 2 medium overripe bananas - please measure this as bananas vary in size)
- 1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips* (see Note about vegan)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8x8 inch square pan.
- In a large bowl, sift the flour then whisk in sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a large measuring cup or another bowl, whisk together the milk, oil, banana, vinegar, and vanilla.
- Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently whisk everything until is moistened, being careful not to overwork the batter.
- Switch to a rubber spatula and stir in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
- Transfer the batter to the pan then top with remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (it may have some chocolate on it). Cool completely before serving.
Store leftovers at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
- *Some chocolate chip brands do contain milk fat, so please read the label to ensure you are using dairy free chocolate chips if making this cake vegan.
- Enjoyed this recipe? Check out Small Banana Cake and Banana Cupcakes.
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Banana and chocolate—–so classically delicious. Great cake for those with dietary issues.
I love how you used alternatives to make it egg free, dairy free and vegan. And you certainly didn’t put the flavors at stake. And of course, it’s full of chocolate chips! Nothing is better than that. This is one great chocolate chip snack!
I’m drooling over all those chocolate chips!
Perfect for breakfast! I like how you always bring baked goods when you meet with friends :)
A snack time treat that everyone can enjoy is a great idea. You definitely can’t go wrong with all that chocolate on top ;)
I love that you doctored this recipe up to suit all of the allergy issues, Carla. It looks amazing!
My aunt’s sister is vegan so I always try to make something everyone can eat when we get together. I’m adding this delicious looking snack cake to my list of vegan approved recipes, she would love it!
Wow these seriously look incredibly perfect and delicious!
These look really good. I was just wondering if you’d be able to use skim milk instead of soy milk without altering the flavour too much?
Yes, you can use dairy milk if you don’t have soy milk. Skim should be fine.
This looks so delicious.
You are a good friend and I’m sure it’s appreciated! Vegan or not, I’d eat this gorgeous snack cake any day of the week.
If you are going to bring me healthy delicious cake like this, then I think we need to go for coffee, because this would be perfect with a few cups of it! My hubby just went dairy free and he loves anything banana, so he’ll be ALL over this! Pinned!
What a delicious looking snack cake! I love that it’s vegan and packed full of banana and chocolate flavor…yum!
I want to shove like 10 pieces in my face right now. Totally acceptable right.
Looks and sounds delish. Love all the chocolate chips on top.
WHOOOO the holy grail of sweets! I love that everyone can enjoy this cake-it looks delicious!
I love this cake. i wont give more days to try this cake. definitely tomorrow on my break time. looks so lovely for chocolate and banana lovers
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
I baked this for a bunch of college boys, one of whom has an anaphalaxis allergic reaction to eggs.
I prepared a quadruple batch (using organic whole milk) and it scaled beautifully.
All the boys were happy to try a new sweet treat, but most especially the boy w/ allergy was thrilled at the chance to have real CAKE.
Again, THANK YOU! :-)
(Next time, I might try using melted butter/vegan butter instead of oil.)
Oh that’s wonderful! I’m so glad he was able to enjoy the cake :)
I Just saw this and made it right away for my son, I swapped the Soy Milk for Hemp Milk because he is allergic to soy, among other foods. It was so easy to make and it’s in the oven as we speak, can’t wait to eat some with him!!
I hope you both enjoyed it!
Very tasty and pretty easy to make. I did have to cook mine about 35 minutes before it was done, though. All the chocolate chips are delicious!
Glad you enjoyed it! The extra 5 minutes might be because of your oven temperature (sometimes they aren’t as accurate as the temperature you set) or your bananas were a bit more than 1 cup.
Oh, that’s interesting about the bananas. I find I have to continuously add an extra five minutes when I make banana nut bread, too. I took it to work today and am getting rave reviews!
It depends on the size of the bananas you use. If I say “2 medium bananas”, your idea of medium may differ from my idea of medium. That’s why I like to include precise measurements (e.g. 1 cup) in addition to how many bananas to buy (since let’s face it – you don’t buy 1 cup banana from the store. You buy X number of bananas).
Yummy this sounds awesome. Gonna give this ok. Thanks for sharing this.
Simon
Hi I was wondering if I could use rice wine vinegar or AcC instead of distilled vinegar? Btw This looks gorgeous!! And I love how you have shared various options for different dietary needs.
I haven’t tried it with flavored vinegar. The vinegar is used to react with the baking soda and help with the cake rising since there aren’t any eggs. Since it’s a small amount, you should be ok. I don’t think it’s enough to alter the taste but again I haven’t tried it myself. You can also use lemon juice.
Love the original recipe!
How could this be adapted to gluten free? Is there a need to add xanthum gum to gluten-free flour?
I don’t have any experience converting recipes to gluten free. I’ve been told the Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour is a good substitute without making other adjustments (looks like it already includes xanthan gum), but I’m not sure if anybody tried it with this specific banana cake. It sounds like the answer is probably both GF flour and xanthan gum, whether it’s together in the 1:1 flour or you mix your own. If you do decide to make this recipe gluten free, please let me know how you made it so others with the same question can make it too.
I just tried this recipe with King Arthur all purpose gluten free flour (Not their measure for measure gluten free flour!) and added 3/8 teaspoon xanthan gum powder. It comes out well with no further adjustments necessary.
Another note: when I bake this cake, I use a greased parchment paper sling in the bottom of the pan. After cooling, the whole cake can then be easily removed and cut into neat little squares.
Thank you for sharing your notes! This will help others who are looking for a gluten free cake as well. Great idea with the parchment paper too.
I just made this today, and it is amazing! So moist and delicious. I will definitely keep this recipe in my collection to have on hand for when I have ripe bananas and no eggs. Thanks, Carla!
Wonderful! Glad you enjoyed the recipe.
This recipe is amazing!!! Just tried it and it is perfect. Perfectly fluffy, not too sweet (just right) and great flavor. I only had 1 ripe banana so I just halved the recipe. I used dark chocolate chunks instead of chips. I’ve been vegan for many many years and this is one of the better recipes I’ve tried! Will be using this as a go to banana cake recipe to impress those non-vegans :P
Thanks for sharing your feedback! Glad you enjoyed the cake. Since you cut the recipe in half, did you use a smaller pan? Or was it still in the 8×8 pan but thinner?
This is such a great recipe! I have made this so many times and everyone has loved it! I’ve made it vegan and non-vegan and both ways have turned out incredible. Thank you so much!
Wonderful! Happy you enjoyed the recipe both ways.
WOW! My baby is allergic to eggs so I am always looking for egg free desserts. BEST BANANA BREAD!!!! Couldn’t be easier to make and such a short amount of time. Thank you!
Happy you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi! I tried this recipe yesterday and cannot wait to get back to you. Thank you for sharing this recipe. My cake turned out so yum and delicious and soft and fluffy and chocolatey! I made it double chocolate banana cake. I put 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1 cup APF instead of 1 1/2 cups APF. Less amount of cinnamon and salt too. Still it turned out perfect!
Glad you enjoyed it! Love the idea of adding cocoa to it.
This turned out perfectly. With the chocolate chips there’s no need for frosting. So very good and vegan to boot!
Glad you enjoyed the cake! That’s what I love about the chocolate chips. Built in frosting ;)
I tried this recipe and fell in love with it. I always use it when I am making a banana cake and it’s always moist and so yummy! The sugar is perfect too!
Wonderful! Glad you love the cake.
This was an awesome cake! Just the right amount of everything and super easy to make! Definitely adding this to my family’s favorite! Thank you for making smaller portions. It keeps us all in check!!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I found this recipe 6years ago when I was vegan and still to this day I make it for non-vegans, including me. Everyone loves it! Neighbors, coworkers and family can’t believe it’s vegan and love it. My husband has declared this to he his birthday cake for two years now. He has never been a vegan! I make this in two cake pans and it comes out so amazing! Thank you for this incredible recipe!
Oh yes nobody can ever tell! Glad everyone enjoys the cake.
Thanks for sharing this recipe! It has become a family favorite! Can you substitute the banana for pumpkin puree?
Haven’t tried it myself, but it may work!
Thanks! I’ll experiment and see what happens. I imagine It might need a bit more sugar as pumpkin isn’t as sweet
Let me know how it goes! It’s possible it could use more sugar, but I’d be careful adding too much. Sugar melts while baking, so it could throw off your ratio of dry vs. wet. It’s also possible you may not need extra sugar with the chocolate chips providing sweetness.
What a great recipe! Used brown sugar and a heaping cup of banana. Had to bake it for longer but it came out perfect even with the extra moisture. This is a delicious snack or dessert with very clean ingredients. Thanks for this recipe!
Glad it worked out with the extra banana in it!
While looking on Pintrest for a banana chocolate chip cake, I came across this recipe. I searched for an eggless recipe, not because I’m vegan, I’m just out of eggs right now. Well, I have to say, this is a delicious banana chocolate chip cake! I doulbled the recipe, but used 2 cups of chocolate chips rather than 2 and a half. I also used half brown and half white sugar. I baked it in a 9×13 pan at 350 for 35 minutes. It turned out perfect! Thanks so much for sharing!
Good to know it works that way in a 13×9 pan. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
wonderful! I’m so surprised how well this rises in the oven even with no eggs. looks delicious can’t wait to bring this to my friend’s vegan potluck
Yes, thanks to the baking soda! Hope everyone enjoys the cake.