I have a confession..I haven't always been that enthusiastic about banana bread but chocolate banana bread is another story altogether. Yes, normal banana bread is great to use up all those mushed up bananas you have knocking around. The mushier the bananas, the sweeter the bread.
This banana bread though is so moist, so soft and so child friendly! You won't be making it to use up over ripe bananas. You will buy over ripe bananas to make this!
It is a great recipe to make with the kids especially if the banana are ripe enough for them to mush with a fork themselves.
I never quite know whether to call it banana bread or banana cake either. I mean who decided that a cake made with bananas is banana bread? Shouldn't the same rule then apply to carrots and carrot cake? Imagine saying carrot bread..
Hmm.. which reminds me. I made the most delicious parsnip and pineapple caramel cake once. I scribbled the recipe at every step as I usually do but this time I was a bit haphazard about it. You know how it is, having a kid hanging from your elbow and one at your feet is hardly conducive to writing a thorough step by step recipe down. You are bound to write down a wrong measurement or miss a step. That cake was so syrupy and sweet and scrumptious and er yeah.. I wrote the recipe down wrong. So wrong. I have tried to recreate it 4 times now and I can't quite capture the magic of that first time. Which is why i was extra careful about writing this recipe down.
Whilst i'm in hazard land, yesterday i made a lemon drizzle cake. My lemon drizzle cakes are always delicious but as soon as you are baking for someone other then yourself, it all goes to pot. It was the worst lemon drizzle cake I have ever made. Imagine a biscuity edge and a really dense middle. To top it off imagine that the drizzle isn't equally distributed. It is the first time my lemon drizzle cake has gone wrong. To be honest, I shouldn't have made it on the day I was going for a little break to my mum's house with packing/laundry/emptying the fridge etc etc. playing at the back of my mind.
People often ask me about mistakes/bad bakes and ask if they ever happen. Yes, yes they do. A few of my favourite food bloggers, actually release their food disasters once a year and I may just do the same next year!
Also, we have listened to your feedback and are working on family friendly recipes as well as everyday recipes. You also asked for chicken recipes, they are coming really soon. Keep your eyes peeled.
Chocolate Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 4 ripe bananas mashed with a fork
- 250 g wholemeal plain flour sieved
- 30 g cocoa powder sieved
- 200 g light brown sugar
- 110 g butter
- 2 large eggs
- 90 g chocolate chips
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 85 ml milk with 1 1/2 tsp lemon whisked into it
Instructions
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Preheat oven to gas mark 4
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Line a 2lb non stick loaf tin with parchment/greaseproof paper.
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Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa.
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In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using a free stand mixer or hand mixer.
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Add the eggs, bananas, milk, vanilla essence and cinnamon to the butter mixture and mix for 5 minutes.
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Fold in the flour and chocolate chips.
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Put the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for one hour.
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Check at 50 minutes by sticking a metal skewer into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If there is just a little mixture on the skewer, that is fine as it is better slightly under, then overcooked and it will continue to bake in the residual heat.
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