I don’t know about you but I always seem to find that we have bananas that are past their best and need using or chucking away. I hate wasting food and decided to spend some time coming up with a few different recipes to use up those brown spotty bananas. In fact, in the case of this cake, you literally want them as far gone as you are personally happy to use them in order to give you that sweet, silky banana flavour.
In return you will get a deliciously moist banana cake with melted chocolate splodges and just a touch of warming cinnamon. This is a great cake for a cold wet autumn or winter afternoon with a cup of tea or coffee… or just because it’s been a long day and you’re fed up and want some cake – sadly, this happens to me frequently!
This is one of my favourite cake recipes for a few reasons. I don’t know if you find the same but I think that some of the best recipes I have come up with are ones that were created from situations like this – it was just before shopping day: I had bananas that really needed using but had only scraps of this and that in the house (they do say that necessity is the mother of invention). This gives the cake the added bonus that it’s pretty much just made with stuff that you have in your fridge and cupboards. Plus it’s just a really nice cake!
I couldn’t tell you exactly how long it will keep because to be honest it doesn’t ever last very long in our house! It will definitely keep for 2 days stored in a cake dome or airtight container but I would imagine that chances are, it probably won’t keep much longer than that in your house either.
I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent here about food storage. I’m a fairly late comer to the wonderful world of lock and lock containers, having only recently discovered them. But my goodness, now I have discovered them, my kitchen (and indeed some of the rest of the house) is full of them! Prior to discovering the virtues of these wonderful things, my kitchen storage pretty much consisted of a cheap set of metal cake tins, Ziploc freezer bags and those flimsy plastic containers you get Chinese takeaway in! Now my cupboards, fridges, freezers and drawers are almost exclusively lock and lock zones.
I have bought so many different sets that I’ve lost count and because I sometimes use them without the lids just to organise cupboards and drawers, we also have a fairly sizeable collection of tub-less lids. And yet I still find myself looking online at least once a week to see if they are on any offers or deals anywhere – I think I might have a problem!
I have to admit there are cheaper storage solutions out there (hence why I only buy sets of lock and locks when they are on sale/discount/deal). But I would have to say that while there may be cheaper options, in my opinion, there aren’t any better things to store food in than the genuine article. I bought a few of the cheaper sets from places like Wish which looked great in the picture and I thought I was getting a right old bargain. Sadly they turned out to be flimsy, a lot smaller than they looked and, invariably, not airtight.
I tend to start waxing lyrical when I feel strongly about something – so sorry about that! But if you are a stranger to these fabulous storage solutions and the wonderful world of lock and lock airtight storage in general, have a look and see what you could add to your kitchen. I started with something like these to organise my baking cupboard and store flours and sugars in but if you feel like splashing out on something a bit more expensive, have a look at this! Just remember when you have 50 lonely and unused lids, you’ve gone too far like me and may need an intervention staged!
So anyway, back to the cake – get the kettle on and try a slice! Please do let me know what you think in the comments section or by using the contact form. Enjoy! DDx
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Banana and chocolate loaf cake
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
A lovely moist banana loaf cake with chocolate chunks and a hint of cinnamon.
Ingredients
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 3 overripe bananas
- 100 g caster sugar
- 50 g soft light brown sugar
- 225 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 110 ml vegetable oil
- 100 g milk chocolate chips (or 100g of chocolate squares smashed up)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180℃ / fan 160℃ / 350℉.
- Mash the bananas and mix together with both sugars.
- Add the remaining ingredients and mix well – you should have a fairly thick cake batter.
- Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking paper and pour in the mix. Gently bang the bottom of the tin on a flat surface to spread the mixture evenly in the tin.
- Bake for 50 mins until the top is just firm to the touch (SEE NOTES SECTION)
- Cool in the tin for about 15 mins and then transfer carefully to a cooling rack.
Notes
- This is a very moist loaf cake and will appear a little undercooked after 50 mins. This will just give you a delicious moist banana cake with bits of melted chocolate in the middle.
- Try swapping the chocolate for raisins or sultanas!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
Nutrition
- Calories: 266.7kcal
