Chocolate Hidden Banana Cake

I wish I took a better picture....:(

These past couple of month has been so stressful since its almost year end and most every other month I will be down with depression.  I try to handle it with cooking and not thinking of what has been hitting me.  Things been pretty tough but I am slowly trying to shake it off.   I have not been cooking much and all that I mostly make are cake which recently I am trying to sell them too.  I do have couple of clients and its been really fun making cakes since it is what I love doing most.

We were invited for a dinner today and I made this banana cake which tastes awesome.  Come on, banana and chocolate; they are a match made.  Topped with ganache, unexplainable.  You have to try to see what I am talking about. I have always been a fan of banana cake but when I came across this recipe with a chocolate cake and ganache, I thought I would have to do it.

Before baking

After baking

Ingredients

30gm cocoa powder
59gm boiling water
37.5gm all purpose flour
37.5gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sodium bicarbonate
150gm sugar together.
1/8 tsp salt
2 large egg yolks
54gm corn oil
½ tsp vanilla extract.
2 large egg whites
A few bananas (hard to tell how many as bananas comes in all different sizes here, some are as long as 8 inches, some 2 inches)

This is the best chocolate cake I have done...its super moist eventhough kept in the fridge for 1 day

Method

• In your mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder and boiling water to a smooth paste and set it aside, let it cool down.
• Preheat your oven at 350 degrees.  Line a 9 inch square pan.
• Combine all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, sodium bicarb, sugar and salt. Whisk it.
• When the cocoa paste has cooled down, put in yolks and oil and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
• Put in vanilla and beat for a few seconds.
• Put in half the dry ingredients (3) and beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Put in the balance and beat on high speed for 1 minute.
• Put in egg whites and whisk on high speed for 2 minutes.
• Pour batter into lined pan. Cut bananas so that they stick out about 1 inch high from the batter. (I cut mine to short, cos I only had a few). Arrange them in a way so that when you slice the cake, each piece of cake will have one banana hidden.
• Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean
• Leave cake to cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan to cool down completely on cooling rack. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes, or just freeze it for 10 mins before frosting.

Topping

100gm semi sweet chocolate

100gm whipping cream

Heat whipping cream till small bubbles appear on the sides.  Pour the hot cream over  the chocolate.  Stir with a whisk till creamy and smooth.  Let cool completely and pour on top of the cake.  This frosting is enough to cover just the top of the cake.