Twisted Chocolate Banana Cake

The very first layered cake that I've ever baked was this Chocolate Banana Cake. It tastes exactly or relatively close to Secret Recipe's Chocolate Banana Cake. It's one of my personal favourties that I can hardly get sick of. However, the cake's relatively rich and decadent chocolate cake. So this time round for Ben's family's birthday celebration, I suggested a plain sponge cake to go with the cake in place of a chocolate sponge. This way, the cake is less sweet and less rich. I name this Twisted Chocolate Banana Cake.

This cake will take about 3 hours to bake and assemble and ranks 4/5 in terms of difficulty.

Twisted Chocolate Banana Cake Recipe

This recipe yields one 7" round cake

4 eggs

100g plain flour

100g unsalted butter

100g fine sugar

400g whipping cream*

300g dark coverture chocolate

2-3 bananas

70ml whipping cream*

175g dark coverture chocolate

1/2 tbsp unsalted butter

20g white compound chocolate (Decor, optional)

*I used Phoon Huat's non-dairy whipping cream

Steps

Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius. Melt the butter on medium heat for about a minute in the microwave oven. Alternatively, you may double boil it till it's melted.

Sift the plain flour.

Butter and line the baking tin with baking paper.

Add the fine sugar to the eggs.

Whisk till you get almost stiff peaks. You should be able to see tracks in the batter.

Fold in the flour and melted butter into the cake batter. 

Pour it into the baking tin and bake for 20 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean and dry when inserted into the middle of the cake.

Invert and peel of baking paper before flipping cake back into position. Allow to cool completely in a cake caddy to prevent loss of moisture.

Microwave the chocolate (300g) on medium heat for about a minute.

It should be shiny like this. Then, stir it till it's all melted. Allow to cool.

Whip up the whipping cream (400g) till stiff peaks are formed.

Add the chocolate to the whipping cream.

Stir well to 'loosen' up the whipping cream. Ensure that there are no clumps of chocolate in the cream.

The chocolate cream will 'deflate' a little after a while.

Cake has been cooled..

Slice off the top of the cake (the crust) as this part will make the cake taste dryer than it should be. 

Slice the cake into 3 layers.

Using a bottle spray, mix 1 part hot water to 1 part sugar to get a sugar solution. Spray this between layers before adding the cream to ensure that cake stays nice and moist.

Apply about 1/8 (thin layer) of the cream on the first layer. 

Add sliced bananas! Slice the bananas only when you're assembling each layer to ensure that they don't oxidise and turn brown before you slap on the next layer of cream.

Apply another 1/8 of the cream on top of the bananas.

Add the middle layer of cake.

Repeat for next layer. Do remember to spray the sugar solution before you slap on the cream.

One next layer has been assembled, use the remaining 1/2 of the chocolate cream to cream the exterior of the cake.

Creamed! Place in freezer for about 5 minutes while preparing the chocolate ganache.

Double boil the coverture chocolate.

I used two Daiso pots to do my double boiling. The water in the pot below SHOULD NOT touch the pot on top.

Add in the whipping cream and mix well till' all's dissolved.

Turn off the heat and stir in the butter.

Allow mixture to cool. To speed up the process, you may place a basin of cold/iced water under the pot of ganache to allow it to cool down to room temperature a lil' faster.

Pour the chocolate ganache on the cake.

Spread out the chocolate ganache. Cover the sides of the cake too. Be as even as possible in your creaming.

Coated! Clean the sides of the cake board!

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave for about a minute on medium heat till' dissolved.

Stir well. Scoop out 1/4 of the chocolate and place into a piping bag.

Snip off a small tip and pipe lines onto the top of the cake.

I drew horizontal lines first.

And then vertical lines.

Add a lil' teal (or your preferred colour) to the remaining whipping cream and use it to pipe your well wishes on the cake board.

Chill cake in refrigerator till you're ready to serve! This cake being plain sponge with the whole chocolate ganache and banana concept makes it less sweet and less rich for those who like it lighter. This cake was made for Ben's family and I'm glad that they liked it! 

Do try baking this if you're into Chocolate Banana Cakes but want a less sweet/rich version!

I'd love to see the bakes or stuff you've cooked using the blog's recipe! Do share photos of stuff you've baked or cooked using the blog's recipe with me either via FB message to http://facebook.com/limcynthia OR http://facebook.com/thebakingbiatch OR via email at cynthia.lim.hl@gmail.com! I look forward to hearing from you! (: