Today I come here with an amazing recipe for a vegan banana chocolate cake. In fact the original recipe was neither vegan nor it was a banana cake. Funny isn't it, when it starts out as something and ends up totally different nevertheless ending up awesome. Many of the recipes I blog here follow that pattern.
In my previous post I mentioned about the Taste of Home website for a huge collection of baking recipes and how I like to linger around there. Another website I often visit is Weight Watchers. Whether your New Year's resolution is to lose weight or not I think it is always better to look for healthy meal ideas and what better place to look for than Weight Watchers. They have a good collection of dessert, baking recipes too. I have tried a couple of recipes from that site as well with some tweaks here and there and have liked it very much.
The following vegan chocolate banana cake recipe too is my version of the Dark Chocolate Cake recipe in that site. The chocolate cake recipe is egg free already. All I did was to substitute a cup of pureed sauerkraut with a cup of pureed banana and made it vegan by substituting canola oil for the melted butter.
I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour. What is sauerkraut? I too was not aware of such a thing until I saw it mentioned in the cake recipe. I understand that it is fermented cabbage pickle in laymen terms. For detailed information check this sauerkraut recipe, which has detailed instructions with pictures.
As for my vegan chocolate cake with bananas, it came out very well. One of the reason I chose to bake this cake was, I recently purchased a bundt pan and was waiting for a chance to use it. I saw that this chocolate cake recipe too used one and was egg free too. Another reason being, I had very ripe bananas at home which I didn't want to throw it away.
So I decided to use it in this recipe and I'm not regretting it at all. Initially I was thinking that it is going to taste more like a vegan banana cake instead of a vegan banana chocolate cake because of the bananas. Surprisingly, the flavor of bananas in the cake is very mild. The cake was moist, had a very good texture; neither dense nor crumbly, perfect for decorating for birthdays and anniversaries. The only change I would make in that case is to use butter instead of canola oil to give it a rich taste.
Recently I had some overripe bananas at home and wanted to bake cupcakes using it. I already have a plain vegan banana cupcakes recipe here in the blog. I also was in the mood for chocolate flavor. So used this recipe and baked it as vegan banana chocolate cupcakes and it's not a surprise that it turned out great!
Recipe
Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 1 and ⅓ cup Granulated Sugar (See My Notes #2)
- ⅔ cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 and ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
Wet Ingredients:
- ¼ cup Canola Oil
- 1 and ½ cups Hot Water
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Bananas Mashed or Pureed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Spray a bundt pan with non stick cooking spray.
- In a large bowl mix together the dry ingredients and keep it aside.
- I pureed 2 small size bananas with little water to measure 1 cup of puree.
- To the flour mixture add the canola oil, hot water and vanilla extract; mix well.
- Now add the pureed bananas and blend thoroughly.
- The cake batter is quite watery. Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake for approximately from 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The original recipe mentions 55-60 minutes, but mine was done after 45 minutes itself.
- At this stage I did see some cracks on the cake. Move the bundt pan to a cooling rack and let it cool for 10-20 minutes. Place a baking sheet on the pan and slowly invert the pan holding the sides of the sheet to remove the cake from the pan. Then carefully transfer the cake to the wiring rack and let it cool completely before you frost. I didn't frost mine.
My Notes
- The original recipe used all purpose flour but we did not realize that the cake was made with whole wheat pastry flour. The cake had a wonderful texture; moist but not sticky and not gritty. This can very well be a birthday cake; but I would use butter in that case.
- You could also increase the quantity of sugar to 1 and ½ cups if you are not frosting this chocolate banana cake. You could also sprinkle some chocolate chips instead. Since I wanted to make a vegan cake I did not add any. I prefer mild sweetness so the 1 and ⅓ cup was perfect.
- The cake was surely moist but I felt that it did not taste rich. The original recipe uses ½ cup of melted butter for the fat which I replaced with ¼ cup canola oil and some mashed bananas. So I think we could use ¼ cup of melted butter or margarine instead to give that richness. If you want to use entire ½ cup butter, you can reduce the quantity of mashed bananas to ¾th cup.
- Update: I did try this recipe once again with all purpose flour and melted butter and it was definitely rich and good enough to qualify for a birthday cake.
- The next time I try this recipe I'm going to use cooked beet puree instead of mashed bananas. I'm pretty sure that its going to be so good.
Nutrition
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Suvarna Shilpa S says
It dint taste good
May be because of too much of cocoa powder
Shraddha says
I baked using this recipe today. I used all purpose flour instead or whole wheat flour. It turned out to be amazing! The cake was soft and moist. I used butter instead of oil. Had a question - can we add chopped apples or nuts to this recipe? If I add chopped apples, should I change proportions of any of the other ingredients? Thanks!
Madhuram says
Thanks for the feedback, Shraddha. You can add up to a cup of other add-ons without altering anything else
is my guess.
Aimee B. says
This was amazing! My whole family enjoyed it. Didn't need frosting or even a dusting of powdered sugar because it was perfect as is. 🙂
Aimee B. says
Forgot to say that I added in a tablespoon of instant coffee with the dry ingredients.
Madhuram says
Thanks Aimee.
Amy says
I love this cake. I have made it twice. The second time I made it with coconut oil instead of canola oil and it was just as good. I have a question: I think the first time I made it I used a vegan chocolate icing that I thought was linked to this recipe but I can't find it. Anyone have a good recipe. I want it to be able to drip onto the bundt cake - so not frosting.
Madhuram says
Thanks for the trying the recipe Amy. You can make a vegan ganache by melting vegan chocolate chips and little vegan butter and non-dairy milk and drizzle it over the cake.
Chaitali. says
Hi, wheat pastry flour mean wheat flour?.
Madhuram says
Check this: Whole wheat pastry flour.
SARAH says
This is my favorite way to use up old bananas. I have made this recipe a few times and I will often make this into cupcakes instead, I can get about 18 cupcakes out of the batch. No icing needed! I'll leave them out on a plate to share and I've actually had non-vegan housemates leave notes in reply, saying "I'm not worthy!" and "oh emm gee, the CAAAAAKE!" and then I tell them these are vegan, and their minds are blown. They always get excited when I mention that I'm thinking about baking another batch.
Talk about feeling proud of something I made 🙂
By far the best combination of banana and chocolate. The ingredients are affordable and I usually always have them on hand. The cupcakes travel well, and get better with time. Great for a college student! These are my go to, always!
Madhuram says
Thank you very much Sara for the amazing feedback. Now I cannot try to wait to bake it as cupcakes.
Seeta Dash says
Can I use all purpose flour instead? I don't have any whole wheat pastry flour, but I do have all purpose whole wheat, and all purpose cake flour. Which would be best?
Madhuram says
Yes you can. Or else you can also use a mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.
Maggi says
Thanks for the recipe. The cake came out very well as you have mentioned. But i get the smell of wheat flour in the cake while eating. I have followed the recipe to the T without any deviations.
Can you please suggest how to avoid the wheat flour smell in it?
Madhuram says
Mmm...is it the first time you are baking with whole wheat flour? In that case yes you will need to get used to the taste. Depending upon the brand of flour you are using the flavor can be robust sometimes. Or you can try using a different brand the next time. I hope the cake was cooked well enough. Did the toothpick come out clean?
Cecile says
First vegan cake I have tried that doesn't taste like a vegan cake. It's good! Very easy to make.
Thank you for the recipe!
Madhuram says
You're very welcome Cecile.
Kim says
Thanks for the amazing recipe. The cake came out very well. I sprinkled nuts on the top which gave it little crunchy flavor.
Thr only thing which I think wasn't right that the cake turned little dry next day..maybe there is a way to store them..please suggest me how should I store cakes muffins for next day? Because I always bake in the evening
Madhuram says
You're welcome Kim. Hmm...maybe you baked it for just a bit longer? I usually store it in air-tight container in the fridge and microwave it for few seconds before serving, of course not frosted cakes/cupcakes.
Rachael says
Hello, thank you for this, I tried it out twice with a normal pan and bundt pan as well, with oil and margarine too on the separate occasions. The rise is good but it's a bit fudgy, the toothpick/knife does not come out clean after 1 hour of baking......what could i be doing wrong?
Madhuram says
Is the oven hot enough to begin with? Are you preheating it? Do you think that there could be some issue with the oven wherein the temperatures fluctuate dropping down? How does your other recipes bake in the oven? I'm wondering if it's the temperature.
Rachael says
Thank you for your response, other recipes bake well, not had an issue with temperatures before
Gina says
This was good but it needed baking powder instead of baking soda. Or an acid added to the baking soda. It was sunken in the middle. The taste was very good though xx
Madhuram says
Hmm..it didn't sink for me as shown in the picture.