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Banana crumb cake combines the comfort of banana bread with the indulgence of a sweet streusel center and topping found on coffee cake. The recipe is perfect for a sweet bite at breakfast, mid-day snack or an after-dinner dessert.
The Cake
The banana crumb cake’s texture is identical to that of a traditional coffee cake. It’s dense yet moist and holds up well to the crumbly topping. The cake is sweetened with a combination of granulated sugar, maple syrup and four ripe bananas. Eggs, butter, half & half and vanilla round out the wet ingredients while the dry ingredients include flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Everything is baked together in a 9×9 pan.
The Streusel Center & Topping
The decadent topping is a combination of brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and melted butter. The melted butter makes mixing the streusel much easier. It becomes like wet sand and is placed in the freezer to harden. When taken out of the freezer and broken up with a fork it creates the perfect crumbs. When the cake bakes the topping melts together but then regains it’s shape once completely cooled.
Banana Crumb Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 4 bananas ripe and mashed
- 2 c flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 tbsp salted butter softened
- 3/4 c sugar
- 1/4 c maple syrup
- 2 eggs large
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 c half & half
Streusel Topping
- 2/3 c flour
- 2/3 c brown sugar
- 1/3 c sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 6 tbsp salted butter melted
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Start with the streusel topping. Mix cooled melted butter, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, salt and flour in a bowl using a fork. It will resemble wet sand and will clump together. Place in the freezer while you work on the cake.
- To a bowl mash 4 ripe bananas with a fork. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl sift together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Set aside.
- To a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer beat softened butter, sugar and maple syrup together for one minute.
- Add the eggs, vanilla and mashed bananas and beat until combined.
- With the mixer on low alternate adding the dry ingredients and the half & half to the wet ingredients until you're out of both.
- Mix until everything is well combined. Scrape the bowl down and mix again.
- Remove the streusel topping from the freezer and break it up with a fork. You want varying sizes of crumb.
- Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper.
- Pour half the batter in the bottom of the pan and spread out. Cover with half of the streusel mixture. Cover that with the rest of the batter and carefully spread out. Top with the rest of the streusel topping.
- Bake uncovered in the middle rack for 50 minutes.
- Cool completely before cutting. Best served at room temperature.