Chocolate Banana Pound Cake

Whenever I have very ripe bananas, I start thinking about banana bread. This time, though, I found this recipe for a chocolate pound cake that uses ripe bananas. It also uses cinnamon chips, which is well worth the effort to find. The cinnamon chips really add to the flavor and melt into the cake as it bakes—it doesn’t stay in chunks the way chocolate does. This cake was nearly effortless to make and oh so moist, delicious, and beautiful!

Source: Chocolate Banana Pound Cake, Chocolate from the Cake Mix Doctor

Ingredients
Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan
Flour for dusting the pan
2 ripe bananas
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain German chocolate cake mix
¾ cup buttermilk
½ cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup cinnamon chips

Chocolate Cinnamon Glaze
½ cup sugar
5 tablespoons butter
¼ cup milk
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
⅔ cup cinnamon chips
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

Peel the bananas and place them in a large mixing bowl. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend them until mashed. Add the cake mix, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla to the bananas. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well combined. Fold in the cinnamon chips, making sure they are well distributed throughout the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven.

Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger and is just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan, 38 to 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a rack to cool completely, 20 minutes more.

Meanwhile, prepare the Chocolate Cinnamon Glaze. Place the sugar, butter, and milk in a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until the butter melts and the mixture comes to a boil, 3 to 4 minutes. Still stirring, let the mixture boil for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the cocoa powder, cinnamon chips, and vanilla until the cinnamon chips are melted and the glaze is smooth. Stir, and let the glaze cool for a few minutes, until it thickens slightly.

Spoon the glaze over the cooled cake. Let the cake rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Place the cake on a serving platter, slice, and serve.