maple•spice: Chocolate Banana Loaf Cake

Once again I found myself with some over ripe bananas that needed using up! I know what you're thinking, why doesn't she just buy less bananas?? Truthfully, I think on some unconscious level I buy extra just so they'll go black and I'll be forced to bake with them ;-)

This time I wanted to try something different than the plethora of baked banana goods I have on the blog and loved the idea of a simple chocolate banana loaf cake. I've based this one my Chocolate Zucchini Bread but have swapped the zucchini with banana and the homemade egg replacer with simple plain soy yogurt.

The end result was a deeply chocolate flavoured banana cake with a beautiful texture whilst still being wonderfully moist. It's really perfectly sweet as it is but if you want to take it to another level some vegan chocolate chips added to the mix would be fantastic!

Chocolate Banana Loaf Cake:

300-400g peeled weight very ripe bananas (about 5 small/med.)

140g / 1 cup plain flour

45g / ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

120ml vegetable oil

200g / ¾ cup + 2 Tbsp golden caster sugar (can use regular granulated)

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g / ½ cup plain soy yogurt

125g / ½ cup vegan chocolate chips - optional

Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C and grease a 9x5x3" loaf pan then line the bottom with baking paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sifted cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar.

In another bowl mash the bananas really well. Add the oil, vanilla and soy yogurt and whisk well.

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and use a rubber spatula to fold it in until there is no more flour showing. Do not over mix and keep it gentle! If using, fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour and scrape the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and pop it in the oven. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out fairly clean.

Transfer to a wire rack to fully cool in the tin then remove from the tin, slice and serve.