Weekend Baking
It’s Sunday, and you must be thinking to make something special for your family, specially the kids. And there must be some ripe bananas lying in the fruit basket, which no one wants to eat. So let’s do something with them.
At my home, ripened bananas on the kitchen shelf, means it is time to bake. So usually I bake banana cake or banana bread. But banana chocolate cake is favourite in my home. Actually it’s yummy as It blends the sweetness of ripe mashed bananas with cocoa powder. This would also be the perfect cake for family gatherings as it serves up to 12-15 people.
To prepare this cake, Fifteen minutes is all you need. It is a quick cake in that you do not use a mixer, just two bowls. One for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ingredients. The two are then mixed together and you are done. The fat is in liquid form, which gives the cake a wonderful moist texture and tender crumb that keeps the cake soft even when refrigerated. As far as the type of oil to use in this cake, I like to use canola, but safflower, vegetable, or corn oils are also good.
So let’s get started.
Chocolate Banana Cake
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups (350 grams) granulated white sugar
1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (75 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder (regular or Dutch)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium sized bananas)
1 cup (240 ml) warm water
1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
1/2 cup (120 ml) corn, or canola oil (or any other flavourless oil)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) and Butter, or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, a 8 x 8 inch pan. Set aside.
In a large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients i.e. the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients i.e. eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. You will notice that the batter is quite thin. But that is fine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. When completely cooled, cut into desired pieces.
Cocoa Powders to be used can be bought from here:
Cocoa powder (dutch processed) – https://amzn.to/2E9PNJo
Cocoa powder I used – https://amzn.to/2pWZOEH
