BANANA-CHOCOLATE CAKE

Decadence is the word when one thinks of V-Day desserts. Its the day to indulge and savour. Every year Valentine's Day is an overload of chocolates.So to ease out my guilty mind, I thought of adding some fruits to the dessert menu this year.The ripe bananas, staring at me from the fruit basket on the table, seemed to be the right choice.After all one could never go wrong with chocolates, could they?!I had to cheat my way through the dessert for the big day. Somehow did not want to knead any dough or go through lengthy prep work. It had to be an easy breezy dessert. Banana-Chocolate Cake it was.I wanted to stick to my basic chocolate cake recipe, with some mashed ripe bananas thrown in. I mean, I was hopeful it would hold together, and the cake would taste good.

Just to be on the safer side, sought some help from my saviour Stephanie Jaworski, from Joy Of Baking. Her recipe was very similar to my basic chocolate cake  recipe, and she had adapted it from some Canadian cookbook. Which just meant, that there were others who had followed the same path for an easy weekday dessert recipe. My only point of difference was the original cake had called for a larger baking dish, and the recipe was for a cake which could serve around 16 people. I wanted something for just the two of us, and which would fit in my 9" by 9" spring form cake tin.So adapted it to fit my requirements The cake worked wonders. No fancy ingredients, like expensive cooking chocolate or loads of butter, or meringue. As yet again, I did not have much of butter at home.

The cake scored full marks.It was moist,dense and chocolatey,and had just a hint of the ripe bananas.The best part is that it stayed well, for quite a few days, without any refrigeration in this mild winter that we are having this year in the Mid West. I am not exactly going in for calorie counts right now, as we can afford to indulge ourselves a bit every now and then.Even ran a few extra miles at the gym to compensate the large chunks of cake we polished off. Not to forget my Valentine loved the sweet surprise. So the midweek dessert was a hit. 

BANANA-CHOCOLATE CAKE: 

 Adapted from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateBananaCake.html

Ingredients: 
Cake: 
Flour: 1 3/4 cup
Sugar: 2 cups(granulated)
Cocoa Powder: 3/4 cup( I used Regular Unsweetened Cocoa Powder and not Dutch Processed)
Baking Powder: 1 tbsp ( I skipped the baking soda)
Eggs: 2 large
Bananas: 2 ripe ones, mashed, makes about 1 cup.
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Milk: 1 cup.( I increased the milk and reduced the water)
Warm Water: 1/2 cup
Canola Oil/Sunflower Oil: 1/2 cup
Vanilla Extract: 1 tbsp
Cooking Spray

Frosting: 
Butter: 1/2 stick: 
Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips: 8 ounces
Whipping Cream: 3/4 cup

Procedure: 


Cake: 
 Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Keep two large mixing bowls ready. One for the dry ingredients, and one for the wet ingredients.

 In one bowl sift the flour, sugar and cocoa powder one at a time. The sifting helps to red rid of lumps in the batter and aerates it well.

Mash the ripe bananas in a smaller bowl with a fork. Two regular sized ripe bananas usually make around a cup of mashed bananas. 

Add in the mashed bananas with the whisked eggs, and the rest of the wet ingredients and mix well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and integrate everything into a smooth batter. Batter will be slightly runny, so do not worry.Grease the baking tin with cooking spray and pour the batter upto 3/4ths of the tin.You could also use a larger baking dish, if you are not comfortable with the one I suggested.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool for at least two hours before you start frosting it, or else the heat of the cake will melt away the frosting. After the cake has cooled, you can remove the spring form from the sides, before you start frosting it.

Frosting: 
Place the chocolate chips in a mixing bowl. Heat the cream and the butter either on the stove or in the microwave.As soon as the cream starts to come to boil, pour it carefully over the chocolate. This will start to melt the chocolate. Wait for a couple of minutes, then stir it carefully, so as to not incorporate much air in the the frosting. Use a wire whisk if necessary to blend it all well together. Let it come to room temperature, and then use a spatula to frost the cake. I just frosted the top of the cake.

Bite into chocolatey goodness with a fruity hint. Bon Appetit !