diff -u b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php
--- b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Component/PhpStorage/FileStorage.php
@@ -70,11 +70,13 @@
    *   The directory path.
    * @param int $mode
    *   The mode, permissions, the directory should have.
+   * @param bool $is_backwards_recursive
+   *   Internal use only.
    *
    * @return bool
    *   TRUE if the directory exists or has been created, FALSE otherwise.
    */
-  protected function ensureDirectory($directory, $mode = 0777) {
+  protected function ensureDirectory($directory, $mode = 0777, $is_backwards_recursive = FALSE) {
     // If the directory exists already, there's nothing to do.
     if (is_dir($directory)) {
       return TRUE;
@@ -84,17 +86,18 @@
     if (is_dir($parent = dirname($directory))) {
       // If the parent directory exists, then the backwards recursion must end,
       // regardless of whether the subdirectory could be created.
-      if (mkdir($directory)) {
+      if ($status = mkdir($directory)) {
         // Only try to chmod() if the subdirectory could be created.
-        chmod($directory, $mode);
+        $status = chmod($directory, $mode);
       }
-      return TRUE;
+      return $is_backwards_recursive ? TRUE : $status;
     }
-    // If the directory does not exist and could not be created above, walk the
-    // requested directory path back up until an existing directory is hit, and
-    // from there, recursively create the sub-directories. If that recursion
-    // succeeds, create the final subdirectory.
-    return $this->ensureDirectory($parent, $mode) && mkdir($directory) && chmod($directory, $mode);
+    // If the parent directory and the requested directory does not exist and
+    // could not be created above, walk the requested directory path back up
+    // until an existing directory is hit, and from there, recursively create
+    // the sub-directories. Only if that recursion succeeds, create the final,
+    // originally requested subdirectory.
+    return $this->ensureDirectory($parent, $mode, TRUE) && mkdir($directory) && chmod($directory, $mode);
   }
 
   /**