Vegan Banana Chocolate Cake: An All-Time Seed-y Cake Recipe
Rate it, please!
For The Love of Cakes
Cakes never fail to attract my palate. And I know, it does to you, too. The problem is, the more we eat them the heavier we become. You know heavy, heavy in pounds or in kilos! No matter how much we try to avoid them, there is this endless lines of bakeries showcasing countless colorful, creamy, sugary, moisty designer cakes taunting us to come in and, maybe, just take a look. At the end, there we are heading towards the door with a box full of sliced cakes in various shapes. Ahh, they make our eyes sparkle, indeed!
I have been there, though, on a queue, unable to select which one to take. There seemed to be so many of them. But that was 6 years ago. I stopped not because I didn't like them anymore. I still do. Moist chocolate cake still tops my favorites. I stopped because I have come to know how deadly they are.
Cakes are generally made from heavily processed, refined flours. On top of that, they almost always contain eggs and animal milk. A perfect combination for a disaster! But not as disastrous as when you have them occasionally, not the once-a-week-occasionally, but once in 15 days maybe or even once a month or perhaps longer than that. I think that's okay.
But there must be some ways to make cakes not so deadly, right? So, one idea is to replace what makes cake unhealthy with something healthier. Then, have it once in a while because, really, making cakes your meal is a very bad idea!
One of my recent homemade junks is banana chocolate cake. It's not chocolate banana cake; but it's banana chocolate cake. Hope you'll be able to figure out the difference between the two. And it has lots of seeds.
So here it is.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 2 small bowls/cups whole wheat flour
- 1 small bowl/cup all-purpose flour
- 4 ripe bananas
- 4 tbsps. coconut oil
- 4 tbsps. groundnut/peanut oil
- 1 tsp. cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tbsps. jaggery powder (cane sugar)
- 2 tbsps. palm sugar
- 2 tsps. brown sugar
- 1/2 cup cashew milk
- 2 tbsps. instant yeast
- 3 tbsps. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 tbsps. flax seeds, (ground, optional)
- 2 tbsp. watermelon, sesame, and pumpkin seeds
- 2 tbsp. raisins or munnaka raisins
- a handful of walnuts, small bits/pieces
- 2 tsp. sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp. sunflower seeds
- Soak flax seeds using half of the cashew milk for 10-15 minutes. Do the same if you're using ground flax seeds. (I generally use a mixer to grind flax seeds).
- Peel and mash the bananas in a deep bowl using fork or spatula. Add in soaked flax seeds. Mix.
- Pour in oil (coconut and groundnut oil). Add remaining cashew milk. (You can immediately add cocoa powder at this time instead of adding it with the dry ingredients). Mix this wet mixture thoroughly.
- Add the rest of the dry ingredients: cocoa powder, yeast, cinnamon powder, baking soda, and sugar (palm and jaggery). Mix properly making sure cocoa powder gets mixed without leaving lumps.
- Using a siever, sieve whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour together. This is done to get an even distribution of both flours and ensure that no lumps or small insects are in the mixture. Do not discard the brown things that comes from whole wheat. They're fibers, what makes whole wheat good.
- When this is done, slowly fold the wet mixture into the flour. Make sure that all flour is mixed well with the wet mixture.
- Add raisins, walnuts, and all the seeds. These are the keys, aside from cocoa powder, that make this recipe a healthier cake recipe.
- Grease a baking pan of your choice and transfer this mixture carefully. Evenly distribute the mixture. (Sometimes, the pan that is used in preparing the mixture can be used in baking as long as it is oven-friendly).
- Keep aside for 10 minutes while pre-heating the oven at 180 degree celcius. Once heated, bake for 35-40 minutes.
- Check whether it's done or not by poking a toothpick into the cake. Do it in two to three areas. It is done when toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool before slicing.
Notes:
- This cake isn't very sweet. It is purposely made this way because, since we went vegan, our taste buds find the "usual" sweet sweeter, the "usual" salty saltier. But, if you want this cake sweeter, you can add more sugar. Best suggestion is brown sugar or more palm sugar.
- If you like a crusty surface, bake it for 10-15 more minutes. Don't scorch it, though.
- Ground flax seeds is better, so you can try it instead of whole flax seeds. Ground flax is also great with smoothies.
- Recipes like this is one of the best way to eat more nuts, seeds and cocoa. Cacao is supposed to be much better than cocoa but cacao is not available anywhere here, and online, the price is ridiculous. They are essentials for health. So if you are not munching nuts and seeds every day, try adding them on your cake or bread recipes. Try also making chocolate drink out of cocoa/cacao powder. Make it at home. Stop buying the ones that are in pouches because they are just loaded with sugar with the least trace of the good stuffs.
- I know this recipe can be made much better. Visit again for an update.
Nutrition
The amount used and entered in cron-o-meter to measure an ingredient's nutritional value is in its closest estimation.
I hope you enjoy this recipe!
