Ultimate Chocolate Banana Cake
Enjoy a delicious banana and chocolate cake
Ingredients
Chocolate banana cake:
150g dark cooking chocolate, roughly chopped
125g butter, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
¾ cup soft brown sugar, tightly packed
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 medium-sized ripe Dole bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1½ cups standard flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
Chocolate mousse filling:
3 tbsp boiling water
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp icing sugar
100g dark cooking chocolate, roughly chopped
1 cup cream, whipped
Chocolate icing:
1½ cups Chelsea Chocolate Icing
2 tbsp melted butter
¼ cup boiling water
To decorate:
Donovan’s Manuka Honeycomb chocolate, broken in shards
Donovan’s Velvety Chocolate or Russian Fudge
Method
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line the base of 2 x 20cm springform cake tins with baking paper and grease the sides of the tins. Melt chocolate in a double-boiler or in a microwave. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool a little.
2. In a bowl, beat butter and sugars together until creamy. Beat in melted chocolate, then vanilla and the bananas. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift together into a separate bowl the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and stir gently just until combined.
3. Divide mixture evenly between prepared cake tins. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean but with a few moist crumbs attached. Leave to cool completely in the tins.
4. To make the mousse, combine the hot water, cocoa powder and icing sugar in a small bowl and stir until smooth. In a double-boiler, or in a microwave, melt the chocolate and then stir until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the melted chocolate and stir to combine. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Add the whipped cream to the chocolate mixture and fold in until completely combined. Mousse can be made 2-3 days in advance and refrigerated until ready to use.
5. To assemble, place one cake layer onto a serving plate. Spread with mousse and then sandwich the second cake on top. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Make the warm chocolate icing while the cake is in the fridge. Combine the chocolate icing mix with butter and boiling water and stir until smooth. Remove cake from fridge and very slowly pour the chocolate icing over the top, letting some drip down the sides. Decorate the top of the cake with chocolate shards and fudge.