Banana, Walnut and Chocolate Cake
Bananas ripen so quickly that it’s easy to find yourself with a several left over needing to be used up. Many people don’t like the taste or smell of ripe bananas though so they often go to waste. However, when baked in a cake they lose their slightly sour smell and give a subtle taste, which is particularly delicious when combined with chocolate and walnuts.
[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” class=”” width=”800″]Ingredients- 100g butter at room temperature
- 100g light brown sugar
- 25g caster sugar (white or golden)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 3-4 ripe bananas (depending on size), mashed
- 175g plain flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 100g Walnuts (Chopped or whole)
- 75g Dark chocolate chopped or coarsely grated [/box]
- Preheat the oven to 180C, 160C for fan oven or gas mark 4.
- Grease a 900g loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper.
- Cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy.
- Add the eggs and the vanilla essence and then the bananas and mix in well.
- Carefully mix in the flour and bicarb, baking powder and cinnamon so there are no lumps, then fold through the dark chocolate and most of the walnuts.
- Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 45-55 minutes until a skewer through the centre comes out clean.
- Leave on a rack until cool before serving to allow time for the chocolate to set.
- Sprinkle with icing sugar and a few more chopped walnuts.