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]

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, 160C for fan oven or gas mark 4.
2. Grease a 900g loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper.
3. Cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy.
4. Add the eggs and the vanilla essence and then the bananas and mix in well.
5. 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.
6. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 45-55 minutes until a skewer through the centre comes out clean.
7. Leave on a rack until cool before serving to allow time for the chocolate to set.
8. Sprinkle with icing sugar and a few more chopped walnuts.