A Perfect Banana Cake (with Chocolate Ganache)
A fluffy, moist banana cake, topped with a buttery milk chocolate ganache, banana chips and chocolate shavings.
Equipment
- 8 inch / 20cm cake tin
Ingredients
Banana Cake
- 90 g neutral oil e.g. vegetable or canola
- 100 g caster sugar
- 100 g brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 large bananas mashed with a fork
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 200 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp milk
Buttery Chocolate Ganache
- 150 g good quality milk chocolate I always use Whittakers Creamy Milk
- 75 g butter
- 75 g cream
To Decorate
- 50 g milk chocolate
- 50 g banana chips
Instructions
Banana Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC (conventional oven/fan bake). Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, sugars, vanilla bean paste and salt.
- Whisk in the eggs one at a time making sure the first one is fully incorporated before adding the next.
- Switch to a spatular or wooden spoon and gently fold in the mashed bananas, followed by the baking powder, baking soda and plain flour. Finally fold through the milk.
- Pour the cake batter into your cake tin, level out using the back of a spoon or off set spatular and bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and cooked through. Pop a skewer/knife into the middle, if it comes out clean or with just a few crumbs it is ready. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin then flip the cake out, upside down, onto a sheet of baking paper and allow to cool fully. Cooling the cake upside down will give it a lovely level top ready for decorating.
Buttery Chocolate Ganache
- Break up the chocolate and place into a large heatproof bowl along with the butter. Melt together over a bain-marie while gently stirring with a spatular until fully melted. (Alternatively you can melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments mixing in between each, just be careful not to let it get too hot or the mixture may split)
- Once fully melted, remove the bowl from the heat, pour in the cream and stir with a wooden spoon or spatular until incorporated and glossy.
- Allow to cool completely until the ganache thickens, ideally at room temperature but you can pop it into the fridge if you don’t have the time. Just make sure to give it a mix every 10 minutes or so to help it cool evenly.
To Assemble
- Place the cooled cake onto a plate or cake board.
- Top with the chocolate ganache and use the back of a spoon or an off set spatular to lather it over the top of the cake.
- Decorate with banana chips then use a peeler to shave chocolate curls onto the top of the cake, then enjoy! This cake is best kept and enjoyed at room temperature.