Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Filling

by byn on June 12, 2019

in Cakes, Cupcakes & Icing

Last week I took my first true vacation since starting my (not-so) new job last Fall. I went to LA for a quick visit to see my friends Christine & Daryl (lots more on that soon!) and then was back home in time for a super fun charity event with my co-workers, Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals, my niece and nephew’s birthday party and a very nerdy (in the best way) NBA fundraiser hosted by Kevin O’Connor from The Ringer. It was a busy week, so I spent my Sunday afternoon winding down by working on this Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake.

I came home from LA to some freckly bananas on my counter, so I knew it was finally time to make this cake that I’ve had bookmarked for years. There’s a lot happening here: hydrated banana chocolate chip cake + sweet cream cheese filling + brown sugar streusel topping (can’t get enough). It took a while to make and used all my big bowls, but I was excited to use my TUBE PAN which doesn’t get enough love in my kitchen and pull it all together.

All you need to know is that is hands-down the most well-received treat I have brought in to this job. The entire thing was gone before the end of the day. My one little Gen Z co-worker ate FOUR slices. A direct quote from another team member: “HOW IS THIS SO GOOD?”. I got a text at 5:30pm from my cubicle neighbour who said she waited all day to have some and was so sad went she went over to the snack station and it was all gone.

What more can I say, except this is a winner!

Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee with Cream Cheese Filling

Source: Carlsbad Cravings

Ingredients

Streusel Topping

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, cold, cut into cubes

Cream Cheese Filling

  • 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup reserved banana cake batter

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

  • 2 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 bananas, depending on size)
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups sour cream, room temperature
  • 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips (plus a few extra for sprinkling on top)

Directions

  1. For the streusel topping, stir together the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Add the cold butter and cut it into the mixture with a fork or pastry cutter, until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is the size of peas. Put the bowl in the fridge.
  2. For the cream cheese filling, mix together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Set aside (you’ll add some of the banana cake batter later).
  3. For the banana cake, first stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl and set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined, then add the bananas and mix until just combined (the mixture might look a bit curdled at this point, but it’s fine).
  5. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the sour cream, mixing each time until just combined. When done, measure out 1/4 cup of the batter and add it to the reserved cream cheese filling, and mix that until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips to the remaining banana cake batter.
  6. Preheat the oven to 350° and spray a tube pan with non-stick spray.
  7. Measure out 1 cup of banana cake batter (this will be the top of the cake) and pour the rest into the tube pan. Use the back of a spoon or a spatula to smooth out the batter, then make a slight “moat” all the way around. Spoon the cream cheese filling into the “moat”, taking care that the filling does not touch the sides or centre of the tube. Spread the reserved 1 cup of batter over the top of the cream cheese and smooth out carefully. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the top of the cake.
  8. Bake for 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. I baked mine for an extra 10 minutes just to make sure it was baked all the way through. Sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips on top while it’s still warm, if you want.
  9. Let cool in the pan for half an hour or so, then carefully remove from the tube.

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Baked Sunday Mornings: Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Swirl

by byn on June 2, 2019

in Baked Sunday Mornings, Cakes, Cupcakes & Icing

One of my personal rules at work is to never schedule meetings before 9am or after 4pm unless absolutely necessary. I just feel that before and after those hours you’re never getting people’s full attention, and I personally like that time to prepare for/wrap up my day, so I like to keep it free if I can.

However, a couple of weeks ago, not only did I have to schedule an 8:30am brainstorming session with my team, but 8:30am on a MONDAY. Yikes. Obviously I sweetened the deal for them with the promise of baked goods! I consulted our Baked Sunday Mornings schedule to see what we had coming up.

This is another one of those recipes from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking that I’ve always been interested in, but have never made. Probably because I’m never motivated to make a recipe that isn’t accompanied by a photo. In any case, I’m so happy I finally made this. The cake turns out super hydrated because of all the sour cream in the batter, and I love that when you slice it you see defined stripes of cinnamon sugar. The brown sugar pecan streusel on top is the perfect finishing touch.

The only note I have on this thing is that it is HUGE! It makes a big 9×13″pan and is almost 4″ high. I called it the never-ending cake because I kept bringing containers of it into work for the rest of that week.

You can find the recipe here!

More Baked Sunday Mornings here!

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May on Planet Byn {2019}

by byn on May 31, 2019

in Monthly Recaps

My life truly revolved around the Raptors playoff schedule this month, more so than any other year because they just MADE IT TO THE NBA FINALS for the first time ever (refer to my Drake on Cake pictured above)!!! Here’s what I ate between games:

  • There was actually one event that was more important than any of the Raptors games this month, and that was my parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary! We celebrated with a special blessing at their church followed by brunch at the Glen Abbey Golf Club. I didn’t want to roll in there with my own cake, so instead I made these cute little take home treats that my niece handed out to everyone before we left. I used this recipe for the cookies which I love, and Annie’s classic recipe and tutorial for the icing. I didn’t really think through what would happen when I added gold lustre dust to the icing, but it made it a soft peach which I paired with navy detail and ended up loving.

  • I didn’t eat out much this month, but Heather introduced me to a hidden gem in Mississauga over the long weekend: Istanbul House. We shared the most delicious, rich and smooth hummus with pillowy housemade flatbread, and then I tackled a truly gigantic platter of chicken doner, rice and salad. I ate about half and then brought the rest home. New fave!
  • Claire made gourmet Doritos. Enough said.
  • I cooked a bunch at home this month, and these were the new things I made that I really liked: Thai Panang Curry with Tofu, Baked Pesto Rigatoni, Crispy Roasted Broccoli with Tahini Sauce. I also made the best Sloppy Janes from the archives, and my first Breakfast Crisp of the season with rhubarb and blueberries.
  • No Mother’s Day recap this year as my Mom & Dad were on their anniversary cruise, but we’re going to have a re-do this summer!

Other non-foodie stuff I was obsessed with this month:

  • I spent the entire month in a Raptors playoff frenzy, and was lucky enough to go Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Milwaukee which we WON!!! Shout to my friend Ryan for selling me his seats for the game! The Finals are now underway and I’m hoping for some really BIG RINGS!
  • My favourite show is back and I am not ashamed to admit was I 100% wrong about Hannah as Bachelorette. I am LOVING her! She’s awkward, dorky and has no filter, which is making for a supremely entertaining season so far! We had our draft at work and my team got Peter, Tyler C., Garrett and Cam (now replaced with Dylan) while the other team got Luke P., Jed, Connor S., and Mike. It’s going to be a battle.
  • I binged Dead to Me on Netflix with Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini and really liked it. If you can handle a VERY dark comedy, I recommend it.

Flashback!

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Baked Sunday Mornings: Honeycomb Bars

by byn on May 19, 2019

in Baked Sunday Mornings, Bars & Squares

Even though I’ve had Baked: New Frontiers in Baking for about 10 years, I’ve never even thought about making these Honeycomb Bars. Something about all those almonds and dried cherries just never appealed to me. But that’s the fun of Baked Sunday Mornings! Not only making things you’ve been meaning to try forever, but giving these overlooked recipes a chance.

So what’s happening in these Honeycomb Bars? The base is a thin, crisp layer of shortbread that’s topped with a soft honey caramel filled with toasted almonds and dried cherries. It’s easy to make (you just need a candy thermometer for the caramel), but I have to say I wasn’t blown away by these. I probably have the biggest sweet tooth of anyone you know, and even I found these to be too sweet! I’m bringing them in to work tomorrow, so we’ll see what my taste testers have to say.

You can find the recipe here!

More Baked Sunday Mornings here!

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Baked Sunday Mornings: Milk Chocolate Malt Ball Cake

by byn on May 5, 2019

in Baked Sunday Mornings, Cakes, Cupcakes & Icing

Malt Ball Cake

Sometimes the Baked cakes seem like too much work when you don’t have a special occasion to bake them for, and this is when I like to bust out my set of 6″ cake pans. Many years ago I learned (from Smitten Kitchen) that any recipe for a three layer 8″ or 9″ cake can be halved and will fit perfectly into 6″ pans for a cute little mini cake. We’re welcoming back a team member from mat leave this week, and I thought this cake would be perfect for her first day back.

Malt Ball Top

This cake is basically a Whopper (or Malteaser) in cake form: very hydrated malt flavoured cake layers with a super rich milk chocolate frosting. I was happy to see that the icing recipe in the book isn’t one of the Baked boys’ cooked frostings (which I’ve had trouble with in the past). Instead it’s a whipped ganache frosting with a whole bunch of butter. It’s super smooth and shiny and looks great, but I find it almost slippery to work with since I’m so used to traditional buttercream.

Malt Ball Slice

This was a gigantic hit with the team, and we’ve now reached the point in my tenure where people are starting to complain that their clothes are getting too tight because of all the treats I’ve been bringing in!

You can find the recipe here!

More Baked Sunday Mornings here!

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April on Planet Byn {2019}

by byn on April 30, 2019

in Monthly Recaps

Easter TreatsIt was a fun April over here with lots of cooking and baking at home, plus a life highlight thrown into the mix:

  • THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA came to Toronto!!! I’m going to write a separate post on the event where I try to adequately express all of my emotions about Ina, because I can’t be contained to a couple of sentences here. While I waiting for her visit, I cooked exclusively out of her books and documented everything on my Instagram stories (saved in Highlights on my profile if you want to check it out!). My favourites from what I made: Mushroom Risotto, Roasted Pepper & Goat Cheese Sandwiches, Omelet for Two (really a frittata) and Shrimp Scampi Linguine.
  • Why hasn’t anybody told me about the sheer delight of the Bon Appetit You Tube Channel? I found this via BA’s Twitter when I clicked on a link of Ina in their test kitchen making Chocolate Pecan Scones, and fell down a rabbit hole. My favourite series is Gourmet Makes, where Claire makes gourmet versions of various junk food items like Skittles, Snickers and Cheetos. I’m obsessed!
  • I met up with my friends Weedy & Krishna at Rhum Corner where we had some much needed tropical cocktails in this cold, gray, lingering Winter, plus some tasty snacks.
  • Libby organized a private dinner at Luke’s Underground Supper Table, and it was the best meal I’ve eaten this year. She wrote a post on the night and has great pictures and descriptions of all the dishes we ate, so I’ll just direct you here. Everything was absolutely delicious and it was so fantastic to be with all my foodie girls again.
  • Kristine and her siblings threw their mom a surprise 60th birthday party and I was excited to make the desserts: Coconut Cake, Lemon Squares and Marbled Banana Bread. Everything was great BUT I was annoyed that the Coconut Cake recipe I used did not even taste like coconut! WTF!
  • After missing out on Valentine’s baking this year, I was super excited to make some Easter treats to bring to work. I brought in the Rice Krispie Squares pictured above which had Easter M&Ms and Golden Oreos mixed in and they were a huge hit! I also made some Mini Egg Chocolate Chip Cookies covered with sprinkles which were pretty cute and fun.
  • Quick Easter Recap! Joel & Tara hosted this year and made the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and carrots, and my contributions were my go-to Stuffing, Green Beans with Almond Pesto (a green vegetable! and people ate it!) and Honey Corn Muffins (recipe from Baked Explorations). Dessert was the traditional Easter Fortnite Birthday Cake.
  • To wrap up, here are two new things I cooked this month that I really liked: Honey Garlic Shrimp & Hawaiian Chicken Tacos.

Other non-foodie things I was obsessed with this month:

  • It was the 25th Anniversary of one of Lydia’s and my favourite movies from high school: Reality Bites! We went to a special screening of it at the VIP Theatre in Oakville and laughed so hard. Still love Ethan and Winona so much!
  • HOMECOMING! With only one week to prepare, Netflix dropped this documentary of Beyoncé’s performances at Coachella, plus on the same day a surprise live album! I’ve been listening to it non-stop on my lunchtime walks.
  • Your Marvel Fangirls (me & Kristine) went to see Avengers Endgame on opening night and it lived up to all the hype and MORE. I laughed, cried and cheered and can’t wait to see it again (no spoilers here!).

Flashback!

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V Bucks Birthday Cake

by byn on April 25, 2019

in Cakes, Cupcakes & Icing

Well, we’ve graduated from Minecraft Cakes to Fortnite Cakes over here. It was my nephew’s 10th birthday on Easter Sunday, so our festive holiday dessert was a V Bucks Birthday Cake. I don’t know anything about Fortnite (except randomly that there are celebratory dances in it?!) but my brother and nephew explained that V Bucks are like the tokens/currency of the game.

Of course a quick Google image search showed me what they were, and many people before me have made a wide variety of V Bucks cakes, cupcakes and cookies. My friend Andrew also told me that in the game when you get V Bucks, gold coins explode everywhere. This gave me the idea for a SECRET CHAMBER in the cake filled with chocolate loonies. This idea is stolen from Yolanda from How To Cake It, who I’ve seen add SECRET CHAMBERS to many cakes on her show.

Here’s the breakdown of how I did it, should you have the need for a Fortnite Cake in your life:

  • For the cake, I baked the best chocolate cake recipe in one 8″ round pan and two 8″ square pans (jk, I don’t have two square pans, so I baked one layer at a time). I filled the round pan a little more than the square pans to make sure I had a nice thick layer for the V Bucks token.
  • I mixed up a batch of My Favourite Buttercream and tinted about half bright orange (for the square cakes/platform) and the rest a light gray for the V Bucks token.
  • I used a round cookie cutter to cut a circle out of the centre of each cake, setting the small cut-outs aside (you’ll need one later).
  • To assemble, I placed the first square layer on a cake board, and spread orange icing over the top. I placed the second square on top, matching up the cut-outs nicely to form an empty SECRET CHAMBER. I crumb coated the entire square cake in a thin layer of orange icing, then chilled it for 30 minutes. I also placed the round layer on another cake board and crumb coated it in gray icing and chilled that too.
  • I removed the cakes from the fridge and added a final, thicker layer of orange icing to the square cakes/platform. I then carefully lifted the crumb-coated token and placed it on top of the platform, lining up the holes that form the SECRET CHAMBER. I filled the SECRET CHAMBER with chocolate loonies, leaving about half an inch of space at the top. Then I took one of the small circle cut-outs of cake, trimmed it to a half inch thickness and fit it into the top of the SECRET CHAMBER. I crumb coated the top of that and chilled the whole cake again for 15 minutes. When that was chilled, I added a final, thicker layer of gray icing to the token, and placed it in the fridge to chill while I worked on the fondant.
  • I made myself a template by tracing the 8″ cake pan on a piece of paper, and drawing the V and the three bracket kinda shapes that go around it. I cut those out, rolled out my white and blue fondant, placed my templates on top and used a sharp paring knife to cut out the shapes. I placed them on top of the token and pressed down ever so slightly, and there you have it! V Bucks Cake!

This wasn’t a hard cake to put together in theory, but now that I’m writing this out, I’m realizing it was just very time-consuming. I was really happy with the way it turned out, and it was super fun to cut that first big slice and watch the kids get so excited as the gold tokens came tumbling out!

Matthew’s Previous Birthday Cakes:

  • 9th (I was in New Orleans so didn’t get to make his cake)
  • 8th (Krabby Patty Cupcakes)
  • 7th (Minecraft Checkerboard Cake)
  • 6th (Lego cupcakes – not blogged – they were vanilla cupcakes with Lego block candy on top)
  • 5th (Wrecking Ball Cake)
  • 4th (Front-End Loader Cake)
  • 3rd (Dumptruck Cake)
  • 2nd (School Bus Cake…reigns supreme as most popular post on Planet Byn)

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Baklava Babka

by byn on April 23, 2019

in Bread

Baklava Babka
For the past 5 or 6 years, my friend Danielle has been making me the cutest Christmas gift: a calendar with pictures of all the treats I made throughout the year. It makes me so happy, and now that I have a cubicle again, it has a prominent spot on my wall. When I turned the page to April 2019, there was a big photo of my favourite baking project of last year: Chocolate Babka. It reminded me that I always meant to follow it up with the Baklava Babka on Smitten Kitchen, and I immediately selected that as my Yeaster baking project for Good Friday.


I found this babka dough easier to make than last year’s, primarily because I didn’t have to use all my muscles to blend in 2/3 cup amount of softened butter by hand. Instead this dough uses melted butter, which just gets whisked in at the beginning, so it was super easy.

The filling is where the baklava components come into play. There’s a cinnamon sugar mixture that gets topped with chopped pistachios and walnuts. You can also add some optional flavours here such as rose water or orange blossom water, plus cardamom or cloves, but I left all of that out.

First Rise
The shaping part went somewhat smoothly, except that once I sliced my babka logs in half lengthwise, the layers immediately started to spread apart. I had to work quickly to wrap and shape them and get them into the pan. I’m also noticing now that Deb had many more layers to her babka, so I think I should have rolled the dough out to be be much more thin, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.

Once the babkas are baked, they get saturated with honey syrup, which doesn’t make the loaves soggy, just gives them that syrupy baklava flavour and texture.

This babka is a labour of love, but worth every minute. It’s sweet, syrupy and nutty, plus has all the warm spicy goodness of the best cinnamon roll. I might give a slight edge to the Chocolate Babka, just because I’ll always pick chocolate over everything, but this Baklava Babka is right up there with it.

Babka Slice
One note: my instructions below are for making the babka in two loaf pans. You can also make it in a tube pan; click the link below for instructions on how to do that.


Baklava Babka

Source: Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

Dough

  • 6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
  • 3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
  • 3 1/2 tsp instant yeast
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 4 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt

Filling

  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups nuts (SK used 1 cup pistachios + 1 cup walnuts, so I did too), toasted
  • big pinch salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 5 tbsp butter, melted

Honey Syrup

  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 3/4 cup water
  • big pinch salt

Directions

  1. For the dough, mix the butter, milk, yeast, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add the flour and salt and stir until the dough comes together. Dump dough onto a floured counter and knead for about 5 minutes. Dough will be sticky, but try to add as little flour as possible so it doesn’t get tough. Divide the dough in half and form into balls.
  2. Coat two separate medium sized bowls with very thin coatings of vegetable oil. Place one dough ball in each bowl and turn it to coat in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for two hours.
  3. For the filling, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add the nuts, salt and vanilla to a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely chopped. Set aside 1/4 cup of this mixture.
  4. When the dough is almost done the first rise, get the pans ready. Line the bottom of two loaf pans with parchment paper and then grease the sides and bottom with nonstick spray or butter.
  5. Remove one of the dough balls from the fridge and place on a floured surface. Roll out dough to a 10″ x 10″ square (or as close as you can get, doesn’t have to be perfect). Dab water along the far edge of the dough, about 1/2″, then brush the rest of the dough with melted butter. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar filling over the dough, then cover with half of the nut mixture.
  6. Starting at the side closest to you, roll the dough up into a tight log, and seal the damp end. Rest seam side down on a plate/cutting board/baking sheet that can fit in your freezer, and place in the freezer while you repeat this step with the other dough ball.
  7. When the second log is prepared, add that to the freezer, and remove the chilled log. Trim 1/2″ from each end, then gently cut the log in half lengthwise, and place the two halves next to each other, cut sides up. Pinch the top of the halves together, then twist the halves around each other, trying to leave the cut sides facing out as best you can. Place in one of the loaf pans and set aside. Repeat with other dough.
  8. Cover loaf pans with plastic wrap, and let rise again for 45 minutes.
  9. Heat oven to 350° and when loaves are done their second rise, sprinkle with the reserved nut mixture, then bake for 30-40 minutes or until the tops are a deep, golden brown.
  10. While babkas are baking, make the simple syrup by stirring the honey, water and salt sugar together in a small saucepan, bringing to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to medium and let the mixture simmer and reduce by about 1/3 (SK says to just eyeball it).
  11. As soon as the babkas come out of the oven, brush the tops with the honey syrup. Wait until one coat sinks in, then add another coat, repeating until the simple syrup is gone. (This seems crazy, but just trust the recipe. It does NOT make the bread soggy). Let cool for 30-45 minutes in the pans, then remove loaves to finish cooling on a backing rack. Slice and serve!

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Baked Sunday Mornings: Pecan and Almond Chocolate Toffee

by byn on April 21, 2019

in Baked Sunday Mornings, Candy

Happy Easter, bakers! This week our assignment was to whip up some delicious toffee, which was fun for me as I like any excuse to use my candy thermometer.

I first made toffee years ago using this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, and I was amazed at how easy (and dangerous) it was to essentially make Skor Bars at home. The Baked version has nuts both inside (pecans) and on top (almonds), which I enjoyed, but don’t find 100% necessary.

This is a perfect recipe for candy-making beginners. It really is just a matter of heating butter and sugar to 300°, pouring it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and covering it with chocolate. Once it chills, you just snap it into pieces and you’re done! If I were to make this again, I would definitely toast the almonds so they have a little more golden colour.

You can find the recipe here!

More Baked Sunday Mornings here!

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Baked Sunday Mornings: Chocolate Chip Cookies

by byn on April 7, 2019

in Baked Sunday Mornings, Cookies

The Baked CCC

I can’t believe that I’ve had the Baked: New Frontiers in Baking book FOR TEN YEARS, and have never made the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! Blasphemy! That’s why I was so excited when our Baked Sunday Mornings group announced we’d be going back to the Baked boys first book; there are still so many recipes I haven’t made from it*.

CCC Stack

This a straightforward CCC recipe. You don’t have to brown the butter. Or make a special trip to the store to pick up bread flour. Or bang the pan in the oven every 5 minutes (although I do want to try that recipe!). The only extra step is to chill the dough for six hours (or overnight) before baking, but that’s the standard for all Baked cookies.

These baked up nicely, with golden brown edges (maybe too brown? I lowered the oven to 350° after the first tray). They reminded me of the chocolate chip cookies we used to eat from my high school cafeteria, with crispy edges and gooey centres.

CCC Packages

*The ones I’m looking forward to the most: Peanut Butter Crispy Bars, Root Beer Bundt Cake, S’more Nut Bars, Classic Diner-Style Chocolate Pie.

You can find the recipe here!

More Baked Sunday Mornings here!

More Chocolate Chip Cookies:

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