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Brown Butter Banana Coffee Cake
Soft and moist banana coffee cake that is so rich with flavor from brown butter and has the most lush texture! It has a gooey cinnamon brown sugar swirl, buttery crumb topping and vanilla glaze. I promise this will become your favorite coffee cake!
Ingredients
Streusel topping:
- ⅓ cup (50g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (55g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoon (42g) salted butter, very soft
NOTE: I like a modest amount of crumb on this cake, but if you prefer a thicker topping then simply double the recipe.
Cinnamon sugar:
- 3 tablespoon (45g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
Cake batter:
- 1 ¼ cups (180g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (240ml) mashed banana from about 2 medium ripe bananas
- ⅔ cup (145g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup (80g) full fat sour cream, at room temperature
- 6 tablespoon (84g) unsalted butter, browned
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
Vanilla glaze:
- ½ cup (60g) powdered confectioner's sugar
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) whole milk
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven the 350 degrees F and line an 8x8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing the paper to hang over the sides about 2 inches for easy removal.
- First brown the butter. Follow the instructions in this post here to learn how to brown butter. It’s easy!
- Make the streusel. Combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl so it is evenly blended and there are no lumps of brown sugar. Add soft butter and rub it in evenly until it forms soft crumbs. Cover the bowl and set aside.
- Make the cinnamon sugar mixture. Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and cocoa powder and set aside.
- Make the banana batter. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly. Add mashed banana to a large mixing bowl and whisk in brown sugar until smooth and glossy. Add egg, sour cream, cooled browned butter and vanilla and whisk together until evenly combined. Add the dry ingredients and gently fold them in using a rubber spatula.
- Spread two-thirds of the batter evenly into the pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over top to cover it entirely. Dollop remaining batter on top and then gently spread it out evenly. It may be difficult to spread the thick batter over the dry sugar layer, so what works best is spread the batter dollops into each other first so they are touching (this helps build more tension), then continue to spread out to the sides and into the corners. Crumble the streusel on top in an even layer.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.
- Make the glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and cinnamon in a small bowl. It should make a glue-like consistency. If it’s too thick, add ½ teaspoon of milk at a time until it turns smooth. Drizzle the icing on top of the slightly warm cake and enjoy!
