Zombies And Chocolate Chip Banana Peanut Butter Cake

Those of you who watch AMC’s The Walking Dead know that it’s a show best enjoyed with others. There’s just something about sharing the massacre of zombies with close friends. And so I was thrilled when my friend and co-worker Stacie offered to host us at her place tonight for the Season 3 premiere of The Walking Dead.

The only thing left? Finding the perfect sweet treat to pair with a night filled with resurrected corpses.

Obviously, I decided on a chocolate chip banana cake with peanut butter frosting.* And so, while Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and the rest of the Walking Dead crew were busy skewering zombie brains, our group munched on this deliciousness:

(*This cake has no true correlation to zombies, but I’d been wanting to try this Bon Appetite recipe for a while now and thought this social gathering would be the ideal occasion.)

Ingredients (For Cake)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups very ripe, mashed bananas
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 10-ounce bag mini chocolate chips (I used a 12-ounce bag and used the remaining 2 ounces to top the cake)

Ingredients (For Frosting)

• 2 cups creamy peanut butter (I’m sure it doesn’t make too much of a difference, but the magazine recommended using Jif, so I did, and it turned out great)
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions (For Cake)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat two 8″x8″ round cake pans with non-stick spray. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper and coat paper with non-stick spray as well.
• Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
• In a mixer, beat together sugar, butter, and brown sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes).
• Add eggs one at a time, beating to blend between additions. Add in vanilla.
• Add dry ingredients, beating on low speed to combine.
• Add bananas and sour cream, beating just long enough to combine.
• Fold in mini chocolate chips.
• Pour batter into two pans and bake for about 35 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Place on a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Directions (For Frosting)

• In a mixer, beat together peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla until a light frosting forms (about 3 minutes).
• Once the cake has cooled, frost and garnish with remaining mini chocolate chips.

Note: For some reason, one of my two cake layers just wouldn’t bake completely (the middle stayed batter-y), and so my cake turned into a one-layer one, which was still completely delicious. In fact, I may halve the recipe next time in order to achieve the same outcome. It was much faster and easier to frost, too!

Any thoughts on what I should make for next week’s episode??