Chocolate Chip Banoffee Cake with Caramel Buttercream (Vegan)

Happy Friday peoples!

It’s weekend time and that means bring it! Bring on the tons of sugar, and the truckloads of chocolate, and the vats of caramel, and the mountains of frosting….. Oh, and if it could all be in the form of a cake that would be awesome!

I’m kinda freaking out a little bit here. I so many things to plan for and so many things I want to make, but I feel like I’m almost more unorganized at this moment then I’ve ever been. I made it a new years resolution at the beginning of this year to get things together, but apparently I wasn’t very resolute about my resolution because it didn’t work.

Yep, I’m still just making it up as I go with hardly any planning involved. I mean, I can’t say this method of doing things doesn’t have it’s merits, but now that the holidays are just around the corner I’m going to be in some serious trouble if I don’t at least think a few things through. Speaking of the weekend, can you guys believe that it’s already so far into September? I put in a request for them to stop time for a little while and let us all catch up, but clearly it didn’t make it to the right people. Better luck next time I guess.

That’s it, effective immediately I am going to get organized. Uh huh, yeah right! No, I mean it this time. I’m always making lists and jotting down ideas or things I need to get done. Really, I’m a very talented list maker, got that part covered. My problem comes in when it’s time to actually refer to a list. Not only do I forget to do this, but I have so many lists that I usually forget which is which and I sometimes even forget why I wrote it down in the first place. The cycle of scribbling and noting repeats over and over and is always followed by me getting so fed up with the stacks of lists that no longer mean anything to me that I throw them all away and start the vicious circle over.

So yeah, I need to get it together, but it’s Friday so cake. This cake is what happens when you make too much caramel for trials of your latest recipe, you have a bunch of overripe nanners, and you live in a household that has a very high minimum requirement of daily chocolate necessary to keep the peace. The banoffee cake. It can best be described as a banana bread on steroids!

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Vegan Chocolate Chip Banoffee Cake with Caramel Buttercream

Banana bread just took on a whole new meaning. This chocolate and caramel explosion of a cake is the perfect way to use some overripe bananas!

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Cooling Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 1 cake (18 - 24 servings)

Ingredients

Cake:

• 3 large or 4 smaller overripe bananas mashed
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 1 1/2 cups coconut palm sugar or 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 1/3 cup full-fat coconut milk
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup non-dairy caramel sauce *see note
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup black coffee
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup 1 stick vegan butter, slightly softened (can replace with coconut oil or organic vegetable shortening)
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons non-dairy caramel sauce *see note
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons black coffee
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Ganache:

• 2/3 cup dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons coconut cream
• 1 ripe banana sliced
• 2-3 tablespoons more caramel for drizzling *see note

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180C) and grease 3 - 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with oil. Cream coconut oil and coconut sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add bananas and stir until combined. Stir in apple cider vinegar, coconut milk, caramel sauce, and vanilla extract, and coffee. Add in baking powder then flour one at a time until well mixed then stir in chips and divide batter evenly into prepared pans.

2. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and cakes are firm. Remove from oven and cool for about 15 minutes, then use a knife to loosen sides of cake from pans and invert cake pans onto large plates and lift off the pans. Place on a cooling rack and cool completely before assembling cake. You can wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge or freezer for an hour or two to speed this up.
3. Frosting:
4. Beat butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer until creamed. Gradually add remaining sugar and continue mixing in. Add remaining ingredients for frosting and slowly increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Assemble:
6. Place one of the cake layers on a serving platter and spread a moderate layer of frosting on top. Add second layer and repeat with frosting then cake then frosting again.

7. Melt the chocolate and cream for the ganache in a double boiler over medium heat. Stir until well mixed then slowly pour over cake and allow a bit to run off the edges. Top cake with banana slices and drizzle with caramel. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Recipe Notes

You can use any caramel sauce recipe you like but for this recipe I used this one.