Chocolate Hidden Banana Cake

I made this cake based on a few recipes,  the cake was Rose Levy Beranbaum's, the idea of the hidden banana was Sonia's and the outlook was inspired by joyofbaking.

Creams made with dairy cream are always lighter than buttercreams, and how I wish that I can use dairy creams on "non sponge cakes", and in our weather, dairy creams just can't be kept out from the fridge for long. If you use when cakes made with butter or oil(in the usual way) and deco with dairy whipped cream, the cake will defiantely turn hard when kept in the fridge, but if you bring the cake out to soften up a bit, the cream starts to weep and melt in our over 32C weather..

Such headache,
hard cake-soft cream
soft cake-runny cream.
Pathetic.

It's either 10C or 32C. We can't be anywhere in between unless the house is fully air conditioned (lower than 20C), then maybe the cake will be soft and the cream stays as cream. But this headache was gone after I found this "soft in fridge chocolate cake". I can just tweak the cake to be this and that to my fancy. Keep in the fridge or out of fridge, it stays soft with whatever topping I like to use.

The Cake-33gm cocoa powder
-59gm boiling water
-37.5gm all purpose flour
-37.5gm cake flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-½ tsp sodium bicarbonate
-150gm sugar 
-1/8 tsp salt
-2 large egg yolks
-54gm corn oil
-½ tsp vanilla extract.
-2 large egg whites
A few bananas (hard to tell how many as bananas comes in all different sizes here, some are as long as 8 inches, some 2 inches)


1. In your mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder and boiling water to a smooth paste and set it aside, let it cool down.
2. Preheat your oven at 175C. I did mine at 160C. Line a 9 inch square pan.
3. Combine all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, sodium bicarb, sugar and salt. Whisk it.
4. When the cocoa paste has cooled down, put in yolks and oil and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
5. Put in vanilla and beat for a few seconds.
6. Put in half the dry ingredients (3) and beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Put in the balance and beat on high speed for 1 minute.
7. Put in egg whites and whisk on high speed for 2 minutes.
8. Pour batter into lined pan. Cut bananas so that they stick out about 1 inch high from the batter. (I cut mine to short, cos I only had a few). Arrange them in a way so that when you slice the cake, each piece of cake will have one banana hidden. If you plan to cut 16(4x4) pieces, then cut 16 pieces, and if you want to serve 25 (5x5), then cut 25.
9. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean
10. Leave cake to cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan to cool down completely on cooling rack. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes, or just freeze it for 10 mins before frosting.

The Ganache (You can do this before the cake)
100gm dark chocolate
100gm whipping cream

1. Break chocolate and put into a small whipping bowl.(big enough for you to use the mixer with)
2. Heat whipping cream until there are bubbles along the periphery.
3. Pour scalded cream onto chocolates. Leave for 1 minute.
4. Gently stir the chocolate until a smooth ganache is achieved.
5. Leave to cool, coverand chill in fridge until time of use. Chill the beaters too.
6. When the cake is cool, remove ganache from fridge.
7. Beat ganache until it turns light in colour, like Milo. Do not overbeat.
8. Spread whipped ganache onto cooled cake immediately.
9. Slice cake and serve.

** Cake can be kept for a few days in the fridge, and you can enjoy the cake, directly cold from the fridge, it won't harden at all, just like Designer Chocolate Baby Grands. The whipped ganache may turn darker in colour (when left at our room temp) but it's still fine.

Do not think that the banana's flavour is hidden by the chocolate. When I brought the cake to neighbour Maria's place, her workers asked me whether was it Banana Cake, (They haven't see what was in my hand) and said they could smell it the moment I came though the door. I gasped!!!!