When I was coming of age in Idaho, during the weekends my friends and I would hang out at coffee shops. It wasn’t like how people hang out at coffee shops now, where they essentially go there and work. We would hang out there and basically do nothing, because there was nothing to do. I remember we all got chai lattes, because coffee was still pretty gross to us. In fact, I think chai was my bridge to coffee. As soon as I went to college and had to pull all nighters all the time, the chai latte morphed into a dirty chai and just kept getting dirtier and dirtier. I don’t really drink chai lattes ever anymore, but I still love them. So when we decided to make this Banana Chai Cake I was really excited. I love banana bread, and banana dessert in general, so this Banana Chai Cake is like a really awesome food marriage that would have ideally existed back when my friends and I were coffee house loiterers. We like to serve this with whipped cream, or ice cream. Plain is good too though!
♥ Teri
More recipes you might like:
Chai Banana Cake
INGREDIENTS
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon your favorite chai tea
- 3 medium (over-ripe) bananas
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, salt, allspice, and nutmeg together, into a mixing bowl and set aside.
- Pour milk and chai into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and steep for 20 minutes, discarding the used chai. Then in a small bowl, mash bananas with chai milk. Set aside.
- In another mixing bowl cream together butter and sugar, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl and add mix in eggs, one at a time.
- Stir in the vanilla and banana mixture, until just combined.
- Add in flour mixture and stir together until fully combined.
- Grease an 8″x8″ baking dish or an 11″ (oval) baking dish and pour in banana cake mixture.
- Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the bread.
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 20 minutes before removing and allowing bread to cool completely. Slice and serve.
NOTES
- *Makes 1 (9”) loaf or 5 (3”) loaves
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What do you mean by chai in the recipe? Chai tea, already brewed?
Your favorite chai tea mix (loose leaf or from a tea bag, etc) before it’s brewed!
Does it need to be whole milk or could I substitute a non-dairy milk such as almond or cashew milk?
you can sub in non-dairy milks!
Hey so for the chai, can you just rip open a tea bag?
Totally :)
Hi, what exactly are you referring to when you list “1Tbsp of CHAI”? Are we talking, loose leaf tea? Maybe a Tbsp of tea that’s been steeped? Or powdered Chai mix…
Please clarify! I love the idea of this recipe and can’t wait to try it!
What camera do you use? Great pictures! Makes me wanna try out your recipe even more so :)
Two of my favorite things, bananas and cardamom! Can’t wait to try out this recipe!
P.S. I’m the same Sarah L. who commented weeks ago, when I was baking this for the first time. I still haven’t made my chai whipped cream accompaniment. Amazing how quickly a recipe can become a staple. :)
Hi! I’m just dropping by to tell you I’ve made your recipe three times. It’s great! I have made it once as written, once with twice the chai, and once with the addition of 1/4 c. cocoa powder and a splash of milk. My favorite version is the double-dose of chai one — it mellows out just right if you eat it the morning after baking. Thank you for the delightful recipe!
Banana cake is the love of my life! You have just added a new dimension to our relationship *_*
Oh so making this for a meeting I have!! Was wondering could I make this is small muffin tins?? For tea cake size..
Definitely! You just need to adjust the baking time!
Made this earlier in the week. It was quite good, definitely a lighter alternative to the typical thick banana bread. I don’t think the chai flavor was strong enough. I took it to work and most people couldn’t detect it. Maybe the tea i used was not strong enough. If i were to do this again I might use 2 tea bags or something.
spicy chai seems like it would be the perfect accompaniment for bananas – i can’t believe i’ve never had them together before!
Sorry, I didn’t reload the page after I first clicked through last week. Please ignore my previous comment.
I, too, am all set to make this cake—could you add the missing ingredients? Thanks!
Yummy! I want to taste it! Lovely pictures, but now I’m hungry :p
Hi! I am in the process of baking the cake right now. It looks delicious.
In place of serving the cake with regular whipped cream, how about making a Chai whipped cream?
Right buying banana’s today just so I can bake this cake. Can you use any loose leaf chai tea for this? Where did you get your chai that’s pictured?
Yes you can! I picked mine up from my local farmers market, from a small company called ‘Zen House’…they have a website!