Banana Chocolate Cake - Vegan and low fat

I don’t seem to tire with banana based bakes! For one, it is quite easy to prepare with no hassles and another, bananas are generally in plenty at home, and very often, it ends up unconsumed and over ripe. The best way to use it up would be to bake something with it!

And when there are so many different varieties of bakes with it, I tend to use a different recipe every time. And the main source for my bakes would be Champa’s Versatile Kitchen. She too doesn’t seem to tire with variations in banana cakes and breads and muffins :)

So this one was baked in between a very hectic schedule, just to use up some over ripe bananas. I baked it in two mini loaf pans and took one of them for a gathering. The phone in the pic below shows Champa’s blog on it - that’s how I refer to recipes while baking!

Thanks Champa!

So, here’s the recipe…

Banana Chocolate Cake - Vegan

Preparation time : 10 min
Baking time : 45-50 min

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 2 cups (I used 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup APF)
Sugar - 1 cup; don’t skimp on this; I did and mine was a little less sweet
Baking Soda - 1 ½ tsp
Salt - ½ tsp; I used only a pinch
Cocoa powder - 2/3 cup
Vegetable oil - ½ cup
Warm water - 1 ½ cups (I used ½ cup thick coffee decoction + 1 cup water for a more chocolate flavor)
Vanilla - 2 tsp
Banana puree - 1 cup (I used 7-8 of those tiny ones - elakki variety)


Method:
• Preheat the oven to 350 F
• Spray 2 loaf pans of size 8 X 4
• In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa. Set aside.
• In another bowl, whisk together oil, water or coffee, banana puree, vanilla and sugar till well mixed.
• Dump the dry ingredients to wet and whisk to combine without over mixing. Be gentle and stir or fold if needed.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn on to the wire rack to cool completely.

Notes:
• Champa says you could dust with powdered sugar or pour a simple glaze, but I left it as is.