This was my birthday cake. And yes, I baked it myself. For the first time in forever (you can tell that my daughter is still having Disney Frozen fever), I baked myself a birthday cake. It was a spur of the moment decision really. I bake my childrens’ birthday cakes, I bake my husband’s birthday cake, I even bake my friends’ children’s’ birthday cake, why shouldn’t I bake my own birthday cake? My hubby didn’t agree though – he said I deprived him of a chance of buying me a cake. 🙂
So happy me got to bake TWO birthday cakes for myself. Well, theoretically this is the birthday cake but I had a staff workshop in the morning and baked a simpler chocolate banana cake (the non-layered type) for my colleagues. But let’s talk about this cake instead. I love the Secret Recipe chocolate banana cake. On the rare occasions that I’m there, that’s the cake I always order. Unfortunately, it’s expensive. Well, most cakes are these days. And so when I saw The Baking Biatch’s Chocolate Banana Cake, I decided to try my hand at making the cake. I didn’t end up using her recipe, as I wanted a more chocolatey cake (her sponge cake is a lighter chocolate cake with less cocoa content), but inspiration came from there.
Essentially, I used my favourite Chocolate Devil’s Food cake (recipe modified from Munira’s chocolate devil food cake) as a base, filled the in-between layers with chocolate whipped cream and bananas, and covered the cake with chocolate ganache. I used Valrhona chocolate for this cake (which really made a difference), but you can use your favourite good quality chocolate. For the many who have been asking for the recipe, here goes…
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 cup plain flour
- ¾ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1⅓ cup Demerara sugar
- 2 eggs (room temperature)
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup buttermilk (Add 1 tbsp white vinegar and add milk to form 1 cup)
- 1 cup hot coffee (1 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in hot water)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 85g couverture chocolate (dark or milk, your preference)
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 120g dark chocolate couverture (I used a mix of milk and dark couverture)
- 1 cup whipping cream
- Simple sugar syrup (optional)
- 3-4 large bananas, sliced
- Preheat oven to 170°C.
- Grease and line three 8 inch cake pans (you can use one large one and split the cake up as well)
- In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
- In another large bowl, combine the wet ingredients.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and using a whisk and starting from the centre, slow combine till you get a smooth batter.
- Divide among the cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Turn the cakes out of the pans and cool on racks completely.
- Wrap cakes in cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes or more to allow for easier frosting.
- Melt chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler. Allow it to cool for 15 minutes or so.
- Meanwhile, whisk whipping cream in the bowl of a standing mixer till it forms stiff peaks. (I chill the bowl and the whisk before use)
- Add ⅓ of the whipped cream to the melted chocolate to lighten it.
- Then pour the chocolate mixture into the remaining whipped cream and fold gently to combine.
- In a small pot, heat whipping cream till bubbles form at the side. Do not allow it to boil.
- Pour hot whipping cream over chocolate and whisk till chocolate melts.
- Allow it to cool slightly and thicken before use.
- Spray the first layer of cake with sugar syrup (optional)
- Spread whipped cream on the cake and top with sliced bananas
- Top with more whipped cream and place the second layer of cake above it.
- Add whipped cream, bananas and more whipped cream.
- Top with the third layer of cake.
- Ice the top and sides of the cake with more whipped cream.
- Place in the fridge to chill till firm.
- While the cake is chilling in the fridge, you can prepare your ganache.
- Place chilled cake on a rack.
- Pour ganache over the cake and allow it to flow down the sides.
- Chill cake till ganache sets.
- Slice, serve and enjoy.
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