Chocolate Banana Cake

This is one of the earliest cakes that I baked when I first dabbled in baking two years ago. I was very inexperienced and took the cake out too early. It looked baked as the top was firm and already set. But when I cut the cake, oh dear! The middle was still wet and gooey. But.....I tell you, it tasted so gooood! I could have just scooped that gooey batter and kept on eating it but I was not sure if I would get sick. I threw the cake away as it wasn't any good to keep or share an under baked cake.

Very hard to photograph brown cakes. Had to adjust the lighting during editing. This slice is plain and unadorned like Pam Anderson without make-up.

I have since baked this cake a few more times and it is one of the easiest chocolate cakes to bake. There is no need to use an electric mixer and you just mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Pretty much like making muffins.

As the cake uses oil and not butter, the cake stays soft even if you keep it in the fridge. This time, I may have used a bit too much bananas and the cake was more on the dense and fudgy side.  I was desperate to use up very ripe bananas which explains the banana overkill. 

Because ripe bananas are very sweet, I have reduced the sugar content quite drastically. The original recipe from Joy of Baking calls for 400g of sugar to 245g of flour. To me, this amount of sugar is astounding. I merely added 50g of brown sugar, taking into account the sweetness that would come from the chocolate ganache. If there was no topping, I would add about 100g of sugar.

As I mentioned earlier, I added more than the recommended amount of bananas and my cake was extremely chewy and fudgy. But this texture coupled with the very chocolaty ganache made it perfect, like eating chocolate fudge. If you add only one cup (mine was about 2.5 cups) of mashed bananas, you will get a softer texture which is better. I find that this recipe uses quite a lot of cocao powder and if you prefer a milder cocoa flavor you can reduce the amount accordingly.

Chocolate Banana Cake

Recipe source : Adapted from Joy Of Baking

Ingredients :

- 250g self raising flour

- 75 cocoa powder (I find this amount a bit too strong, please adjust according to your taste)

- 50g brown sugar (if I am not doing a chocolate ganache topping, I would up sugar to 100g)(original recipe 400g)

- 2 eggs

- 2 medium sized bananas (1 cup), mashed

- 1 cup warm water

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1/2 cup oil

- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Method :

1. Sift flour and cocoa powder. Add sugar and use a whisk to mix the flour, cocoa powder and sugar. Set aside.

2. In another mixing bowl add eggs, water, milk, oil, vanilla extract and mashed bananas. Whisk to mix evenly.

3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently fold to mix until well incorporated.

4. Pour batter into a lined 9" pan and bake at 160C for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients :

- 100g dark semi-sweet chocolate, break into small pieces

- 1 tablespoon butter

- 100ml whipping cream

Method :

1. Put chocolate and butter into a heatproof container. Set aside.

2. Put whipping cream into a saucepan and bring to a boil.

3. Pour boiling cream into the chocolate and butter.

4. Let stand for 5 minutes and stir until you get a thick glossy chocolate mixture.

5. Set aside to cool or pour while still warm onto cake.