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Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake
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 chocolate banana cake recipe too is my version of the Dark Chocolate Cake recipe in that site. The 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 red cabbage pickle in laymen terms. For detailed information check this sauerkraut recipe, which has detailed instructions with pictures.
As for my 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 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. The flavor of bananas in the cake is very mild. I was expecting that the banana’s flavor would be dominating but was surprised that it was not so. 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.
| Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe |
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- 2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 1 and 1/3 cup Granulated Sugar (See My Notes #2)
- 2/3 cup Cocoa Powder
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/4 cup Canola Oil
- 1 and 1/2 cups Hot Water
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 cup Mashed or Pureed Bananas
- 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 “water-y”. 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.
- 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 1/2 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 1/3 cup was perfect.
- The cake was surely moist but I felt that it did not taste rich. The original recipe uses 1/2 cup of melted butter for the fat which I replaced with 1/4 cup canola oil and some mashed bananas. So I think we could use 1/4 cup of melted butter or margarine instead to give that richness. If you want to use entire 1/2 cup butter, you can reduce the quantity of mashed bananas to 3/4th 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.
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Hello Madhu
Can i substitute 2 cup wheat flour with 1cup all purpose flour and 1 cup wheat flour?
For the pan can i use for 1 9 inch springform pan? just one.
thank you
Yes Eugene, you can use part whole wheat flour and part all purpose flour. You would need two 9 inch pans.
I made this cake today and it was delicious…as you mentioned this is definitely a guiltless indulgence….I plan to make the sinful version for my son’s 6th birthday…Thank you so much for the recipe
You’re welcome SS.
Made this cake today, it was very tasty and very moist! I followed the recipe as is but used 3 small bananas, mashed, to make one cup. I also find that salt always brings decadence to chocolate cake so I didn’t even measure and just added one pinch of salt. SO GOOD!
Thank you very much Kata.
Hi Madhuram,
I made this cake yesterday but it turned out to be sticky rather than moist. I baked it for 55 mins and the tester came out clean.
Any idea what could be the reason?
Sri
If it was sticky I’m pretty sure that it did not bake completely.
Hey Madhuram,
Can i replace Banana’s with any other fruit puree(baby food)
Thanks
Ambika
You could Ambika.
hi
it looks like a really good recipe. However i need to ask you why you prefer to use whole wheat flour? to make it more healthier or because plain flour won’t give the desired texture results? Plz let me know coz i only have plain flour and wan’t to make a banana chocolate cake…
You can very well use plain flour which was actually used in the original recipe. I have the habit of substituting whole wheat flour for all purpose flour for health reasons.
Thanks for replying. I did make it with plain flour and results were great rather amazing.
Five stars!
i hv the recipe in my diary now
yummiest egg free cake i ever tasted!
Thank you very much Hadia
Madhuram, I tried this recipe for the second time and this time I used butter instead of oil, it does make a difference and I also noticed that the cake was even more moist a day after (I left it outside) I baked the cake. I don’t know if it’s bcos of the syrup I had added (the cake had absorbed the syrup??) but regardless, I just love this cake, my favorite vegan cake!! And it is so easy to make, THANK YOU!
Here is my post….
http://whatdoimake.blogspot.com/2011/08/banana-chocolate-cupcakes.html
Thank you very much for trying the recipe Anu. Yes adding butter makes a lot of difference
[...] Torta vegana cacao e banana adattata da http://www.egglesscooking.com [...]
looks so easy and healthy recipe..thanks a lot for posting your eggless cake recipe..I am going to try it right away..cant wait..
Hi Madhuram, love ur blog so much. Eggless baking is so much healthier than traditional baking. I want to try baking this cake over the weekend and would like to ask, if I prefer less sweetness in my cakes, can I just reduce the amount of sugar in your recipes? Does sugar affect the rising or shape of your cakes? Or it is just for taste? Thank you so much!
Thanks H. I think you can reduce about 25% of sugar given in the recipe without affecting the texture etc. Usually I also do not prefer over the top sweet stuff. So If I feel a particular recipe is too sweet I would have mentioned about that in the Notes section.
Hi.. looks delicious, but is there a reason vinegar isn’t used with this recipe, most other vegan choco cakes has it for the leavening?
and will it hurt to add it here… Thanks.
Thanks Jovani. The original recipe had used sauerkraut instead of the bananas I had used. Sauerkraut is like pickled cabbage which will be sour and I guess that’s why vinegar was not used there. Since pureed bananas by itself is a good egg substitute I too have not used that. But I guess that adding a tablespoon of vinegar should not hurt.
Hi,
Can I get a reduced measurement for this cake? I do not have a cake pan of this size, so it would be great if you could tell me how to half the recipe.
thanks,
vinu
You can use the following chocolate cake recipe as the base, omit the vinegar, decrease the quantity of water to 1/2 cup and use 1/2 cup mashed bananas keeping the rest of the ingredients the same.
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/02/16/whacky-vegan-chocolate-cake/
Hi Madhuram,
Thanks for ur earlier reply and I tried baking it with success. I reduced the sugar as I was baking for my dad and he can’t take sweet stuff. Would like to try again with applesauce this time round instead of mashed bananas/ banana puree. Do you think it will affect the outcome of the cake?? TIA for ur advice.
You’re welcome and could you please rate the recipe. Yes you can try applesauce instead of bananas and also add 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. You should be able to get good results.
Thank you. Will try out the substitutions as advised. Tried to rate it 5 stars but somehow am not able to click on the stars. Anyway, its definitely 5 stars or more!!
Hello,
Tried this recipe and came out very good. I reduced the quantity of ingredients 1/2 as did not want to make too much, but baking powder kept to 1 teaspoon & pinch. I had used 1/8 cup unsalted butter but felt it would taste more better with salted butter or adding pinch of salt. Had used sugar for the proportion of 1 & 1/2 cup (half of it) for me it was ok, but my husband prefers still more sweeter so next time will try with a bit more sugar in it and use some other flavour as my son does not like chocolate cake.
Thanks for giving it a shot Dipika.
I don’t have bundt pan for baking. Can I use the one I have with 10.5 inches diameter? Or will this pan be big for the cake?
You should be fine using your 10.5″ pan. This cake can also be made in a 13×9″ pan.
Thanks Madhu. What if I use milk insead of hot water won’t it become richer?
Yes, milk should make it even better.
Hi,
I tried this recipe and made cupcakes out of it!! It really came out very good. Will try the variations suggested next time I make it..Very nice recipe. I am uploading it on my blog!!
Thanks for trying it PSG.
Thank u so much Madhu. I tried the sinful version of this cake nd it turned out to be really really soft and chocolaty and the best thing is that the banana taste was also not very prominent. Madhu if I want to make it more chocolaty can u tell me some more tips?
You’re welcome Supriya. You could add some chocolate chips, or melt a couple of chocolate squares and mix it with the wet ingredients.
I wanted to use some bananas up so made your recipe tonight and got great results. I used rice bran oil, spelt flour and also added in a cup of almond meal. Came out beautifully moist. Served with fresh strawberries, blueberries and soy icecream. Even enjoyed by my vegan family member who usually dislikes cakes with bananas in because they are too heavy.
Nice idea to include almond meal. I’ll be trying it the next time I bake this cake. Did you sub it for a part of the flour or added it in addition to the flour?
Half and half I guess, I took out 1/2 cup of flour but
added 1 cup almond meal. Thanks so much for sharing
your recipes.
Thanks for the reply Jen.