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!
If you tried this Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake recipe, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
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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
Check out these delicious cake recipes as well:
Cludia says
Congratulations!
I made this recipe for a birthday's cake and the result was excellent!!
thanks!!!
Claudia, from Barcelona, Spain.
Madhuram says
You're welcome Claudia.
Chinmayee says
Thanks so much for the recipe, i had over ripe bananas and was looking for something different. I made these into muffins and varied the proportions a bit, but the taste was just as you have mentioned. My daughter, my biggest critic loved it and i was glad to use whole wheat flour in it. Yummm.....
Madhuram says
You're welcome Chinmayee.
Lisa says
This looks so good I think I'm going to use this recipe for my overriped bananas tomorrow. Do you think I could substitute the sugar for agave nectar instead?
Madhuram says
I have not tried that substitution myself but I think it should work fine.
Swasthi says
Hi Madhu!
Iam glad that i tried this wonderful recipe. the results were awesome, tried the original one too. Made few variations to the subsequent trials, used 1 tbsp vinegar, used palm sugar and reduced the cocoa. link to my post is below. Thanks for the wonderful recipe. your recipe deserves 5 stars.
http://swasthfreak.blogspot.sg/2012/09/vegan-chocolate-banana-cake-using-palm.html
Madhuram says
Thanks Swasthi.
anna says
Hmm.. I tried this cake today, sadly it was not fluffy at all even though I reduced the baking time to 40 min at 150C.
Madhuram says
Hi Anna, cakes with a lot of mashed fruit and especially bananas will not be light and fluffy. Instead it will be moist and dense. You can see that I have not mentioned that this cake was fluffy. Maybe you could try adding 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of baking soda and see if the texture varies.
Thess says
I wanted to try this as my daughter likes cakes a lot but I have only Microwave Oven. Do I need to preheat as it was instructed in the beginning? Please give me some idea using microwave oven as it's my first time to use this 🙂 Thanks.
Madhuram says
Check this link to know more about baking in a microwave oven: http://chefinyou.com/2010/08/baking-in-microwave-mode/
sara says
hi,
a basic question?
did you measure pureed banana in a liquid measuring cup?
would be helpfull if you could clarify this.
thanks
Madhuram says
I use the dry measuring cup for solids and semi-solids. So for pureed bananas, applesauce I use the dry measruing cup only. Thanks for bringing this to my notice. I'll put a note hereafter. Actually I used to mention it before but stopped it recently.
Anotherjenn2 says
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.
Madhuram says
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?
Anotherjenn2 says
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.
Madhuram says
Thanks for the reply Jen.
supriya says
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?
Madhuram says
You're welcome Supriya. You could add some chocolate chips, or melt a couple of chocolate squares and mix it with the wet ingredients.
PSG says
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!!
Madhuram says
Thanks for trying it PSG.
supriya says
Thanks Madhu. What if I use milk insead of hot water won't it become richer?
Madhuram says
Yes, milk should make it even better.
supriya says
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?
Madhuram says
You should be fine using your 10.5" pan. This cake can also be made in a 13x9" pan.
dipika says
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.
Madhuram says
Thanks for giving it a shot Dipika.
Hubbaby says
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.
Madhuram says
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.
hubbaby says
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!!
vinu says
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
Madhuram says
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/
Jovani says
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.
Madhuram says
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.
Hubbaby says
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!
Madhuram says
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.