Testing out a cake recipe.

My youngest daughter’s 1st birthday is literally next month and I feel totally unprepared for it. Back in 2013, I did a cake decorating course and loved it. Since then I’ve made and decorated all of my oldest daughter’s birthday cakes and this is something I also want to do for my other daughter. Being her 1st birthday, I don’t think the cake needs to be totally elaborate. After all, she’s only turning 1 and won’t remember at all what her cake looked like. But I still want to do something rather wonderful for her. I know she loves bananas so decided to make this banana choc chip cake.

All heavily decorated cakes need to have a solid cake to withstand the weight. A light sponge might do well with buttercream icing but not layers or fondant which can weigh the cake down. The previous cakes I’ve decorated I’ve always baked a mud cake – a cake that’s renowned for its dense chocolate yumminess. This time I want to make something a little different. So I tried this new banana cake recipe and added my own touches to it – after all, I never follow recipes exactly!  

The result was a dense and not too sweet (the lemon juice and buttermilk balance it out) cake. My own touch was the added choc chips. I had them here at home and thought I may as well pop some in.  When you read the recipe you’ll be surprised that the oven temp 135 degrees sounds quite low, however, this cake baked (and rose) beautifully in my oven at this temp. I really don’t know if putting the cake into the freezer made it moist but I did it – and yes, the cake was really moist and yum.  

I found that this cake tasted better each day it sat. For Emma’s birthday, I plan to make the cake 2 days in advance so that will leave me one full day to decorate it before her birthday party.   Overall, I was extremely pleased with this cake and will be making it over & over again! So glad I came across this recipe on another website.  

Birthday Cake Update

We had my daughter’s 1st birthday early January and I can confirm that I made this cake. Not only was it exceptionally moist, it also received raves reviews. This is an excellent cake to make when decorating with icing and fondant. I will definitely be making this cake again, with or without choc chips.

For the shown cake, I cut it into two layers and sandwiched them together with icing before covering the outside in icing and finally in fondant. I found that only using one cake worked well for my purposes. If you want extra height then you will need to double to batter and bake two cakes.

Banana Choc Chip Cake

Nearly everyone loves banana cake and with the added choc chips, this cake is sure to be a winner. I made this cake for a birthday cake but it is just as nice served for afternoon tea or as dessert after dinner.

Afternoon Tea, Baking, Cakes, Chocolate, Fruit

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Servings 12 serves

Ingredients

 

• 1.5 cups bananas, ripe and mashed
• 1 cup chocolate chips, dark
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 cups flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 large Eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1.5 cups buttermilk

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 135 degrees celsius.
• Grease and flour a 23cm cake tin.
• In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
• In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup of butter and all the sugar until light and fluffy.
• Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 teaspoons of vanilla.
• Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
• Stir in banana mixture.
• Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (could take up to 1hr 20min depending on your oven).
• Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.

Notes

• I didn't have buttermilk at home so made a buttermilk substitute using milk and lemon juice. This worked a treat!
• Don't skip the last instruction above - this definitely sealed in the moisture into the cake.

Keyword Afternoon Tea, Baking, Cakes, Chocolate, Fruit