Chunky Monkey cake, 2 Ways

Welcome to our first baking adventure! Our inspiration comes from Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream. We put a lot of time (and love) into these cakes, so we hope you like them! All the recipes are original unless we state otherwise.

Banana Cake:

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups all-purposed flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter (softened)

1 ¼ cups packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

3 bananas (ripe ripe ripe!)

½ cup sour cream

½-1 cup chopped walnuts*

*This yields 2 (as in two) round 9-inch cakes. Our original idea was to make just a banana cake, but in the last minute we decided to make it one layer banana and one layer chocolate. So please, use some simple math and divide all the ingredients by 2 if you're looking to make exactly what we did. If you like our original idea, then feel free to use the measurements above. Oh, and send us pictures of your creation!

 

 

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt into medium bowl. And by medium bowl, we mean a Tupperware container, because we don’t have money for nice bowls. In another “bowl” of your choosing, mash the shit out of the bananas. You can use a fork or, if you are a fancy lady, use a potato masher. We are using a fork.  

 

Then, in a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar together. BFF Martha taught us this trick in which you grate the butter, which makes it soften quicker!

After you cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs, one at a time while beating. Then add the bananas and sour cream. Add the dry ingredient mixture, about a half-cup at a time while beating the cake mixture. Finally, fold in the walnuts with a spatula.

 

Once everything is mixed well and you see no lumps, pour the mixture into two round 9-inch cake pans (make sure they’re greased). Put into the oven at 350F for 30-35 minutes.

 

 

  
Dark Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour 
1 cup of sugar
¾ cup of cocoa 
1 teaspoon of baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/4  teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ cup butter, melted 
1 cup of sour cream
1 ½ teaspoon of vanilla*

*Same thing as the previous recipe. These measurements are meant for 2 9-inch round cakes. Our original idea for this one was 2 dark chocolate cakes with banana curd as the filling. Feel free to use this idea if you'd like!

In a bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients (think of what a box cake mix looks like and there you go).

 

Once they are all combined, make well in the center and add eggs. Mix thoroughly and add butter, and mix. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract. Pour into 2 greased, 9-inch round cake pans. Put in at 350F for 25-30 minutes. Turn out the cakes onto a plate or wire rack and cool (or if you are impatient like us, open up the door and set them on a chair nearby). Once completely cooled, spread on icing and curd.

 

Dark Chocolate Cream Filling:

For the chocolate cream filling, we are using a recipe from this lovely lady. However, instead of using regular cocoa, we used dark cocoa to mimic the dark chocolate chunks in the ice cream. Make sure to scroll down to see the recipe, it's right after the cupcakes! 

So it comes out looking like black tar, but just let it sit and cool and it won't look as tar-y. Either way it tastes fucking delicious. CosmoCookie knows her shit.

The Banana Curd:

We used this recipe for the banana curd. However, we highly suggest that you leave out the lemon rind and use just the juice of the lemon. The rind makes it taste too lemony and we are pretty sure there is no lemon in Chunky Monkey ice cream. Once it cools you can spread it on the cooled cakes as shown below.

Banana Chocolate Chip Frosting:

Ingredients:
¼ cup of butter, softened
2 ripe bananas, mashed
½ teaspoon of vanilla
4 cups of powdered sugar
½ cup chocolate chips, roughly chopped  

Beat butter until smooth. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork or if you are a cool kid, a potato masher. Add into the butter and cream the shit out of them. You do not want to have lumpy frosting. Add in the vanilla and combine. Begin adding the powdered sugar a ½ cup at a time, beating after each increment. Four cups of sugar worked for us, but really, just keep adding until you feel you have the right consistency. Once you have achieved the desired thickness, add in the chopped chocolate chips and fold in with a spatula. Make sure to refrigerate the frosting for at least an hour!

Now that everything is baked and ready to go, assemble your cake. Hopefully you get a sexy slice like this one below. If you so desire, feel free to be a cool kid and garnish your frosted cake with some extra chopped walnuts and banana chips (as seen at the end of this post).

Our cake with the banana curd filling was being a non-photogenic bitch. It still tasted great even though it looked like a truck may have ran over it.

And that is Chunky Monkey cake 2 ways! Please leave us feedback or tell us what we should make next because we honestly do not have a fucking idea....

Love, Your Kitchen Bitches