Chocolate Banana Cake + Pumpkin Pudding with Cinnamon sauce

Life doesn't always turn out the way you plan (and I'm glad that is so!)

Because if that was the case, I'd be an airline stewardess now (perhaps en route to Paris right this moment?)

That was the plan at age five. You see, I met this stewardess on the plane and she was the nicest person in my young eyes.

No one had ever bent down to my height, looked me in the eyes and with sweetest smile said to me those 5 magic words...would you like some candies?

I thought she was an angel! (Obviously Mother never taught me about staying away from strangers with candies.)

Since then I've gone through many strange phases and never would I have ever imagined back then that I'd be doing what I am doing now. Never.

Anyways this amazing cake.... You are not meant to be seeing this chocolate banana cake on the screen right now. But it just happened.

This was meant to be a simple banana loaf...something that's very close to my heart. And something I had planned to bake to celebrate my new life in the new kitchen. The very first baked item chez moi in Melbourne.

But half way through the recipe 2 things happened:

#1 I realised I do not have a loaf pan. Only a cake tin.

#2 I couldn't stop thinking about the cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips from Koko Black I had purchased the previous day.

So this cake here happened as a result.

Even though this is a recipe for a loaf, but it worked out beautifully as a cake - moist, simple, and so satisfying at 11pm on a weeknight. I was worried about the chocolate over-powering the bananas but the flavours turned out quite balanced (even though the chocolate is still on a stronger side.)

Chocolate Banana Cake
Inspired by How to be a Domestic Goddess
Makes 8-10 slice

• 150g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 50g unsalted butter, melted
• 50ml grapeseed oil (or similar neutral cooking oil)
• 1/4 cup yoghurt (I used greek yoghurt)
• 150g sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed
• 100g dark chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3 and get started on the rest.

2. Put the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.

3. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, grapeseed oil, yoghurt and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas.

4. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit.

5. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1 1/4 hours. When it's ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish.

6. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

I should have been patient and bake this for another 15 minutes...you can see the bottom is still a bit on the gooey side.

Oh, and remember the pumpkin pudding recipe I promised a few posts back?

Sorry for the delay...but better late than never right? I hope you make this and enjoy it as much as I did. Puddings are great...I reckon the saying should be 'a pudding a day'. Not 'an apple a day'.

Pumpkin pudding with Cinnamon Sauce

• 300g Pumpkin
• 40g Sugar
• 1 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Water
• 5g Gelatine powder

Sauce

• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
• ~1 cup water

1. Soak the gelatine powder in 25mL of water until softened.

2. Remove the skin from the pumpkin and chop into bite-size.

3. In a pot over the stove, add water, milk, sugar and pumpkins. Cook until the pumpkins are soft.

4. Use a processor or blender, blend the pumpkin mixture until smooth.

5. Once the blended mixture is slightly cooled down, add the gelatine from step 1 above and combine until it is dissolved into the mixture.

6. Ladle the mixture into ramekins or pudding moulds and keep in fridge for at least 30 minutes until the pudding sets.

7. For the sauce, put the water, sugar and cinnamon stick in a small pot and bring to boil. Let it boil for a few minutes until the cinnamon flavour is infused into the liquid.

So tell me, what did you plan on becoming? I'm curious about how many people actually become what they had dreamed of.