Fat Free Almond and Banana Bundt Cake flavoured with Cardamom

I've been baking with bananas so regularly these days that if I say it's banana bread my daughter say can't U make a regular cake like chocolate cake. So this time I baked it in regular size bundt pan & didn't forget "not to mention bananas anywhere", so..... it's cake with chocolate chips......served with some freshly whipped cream and did I mentioned it's cardamom flavor, again something NOT to be mentioned(to her) and yes, no mention of whole wheat flour either & wait there is more almond meal & flax seed.....let me give you the whole recipe but before that another look while cake is cooling down.

No!No!No! it didn't stick to the pan, but....

A Mouse in the House now the recipe.....

What I used :

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour(I use atta available at Indian grocery stores)
• 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal(grind almonds using a spice/coffee grinder)
• 2 tablespoon ground flax seeds/flax meal
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 egg
• 3 over ripe bananas
• 4 green cardamoms/choti illachi (seeds taken out & crushed into powder,)
• 2 tablespoon of dark brown sugar
• handful of chocolate chips

See it didn't stick to the bottom

What I did :

1. Grease 6 cup capacity bundt pan. & heat oven to 350 degree F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients,including sugar & cardamon powder, making sure there are no lumps.
3. Mash the bananas to smooth paste, add egg, mix it together.
4. Mix dry ingredients to wet. Mix everything together & finally fold in handful of chocolate chips.
5. Bake till toothpick comes out clear, mine was done in exact 30 minutes.

Note :

1.  Don't throw the outer shell of green cardamons, use them for flavouring tea or rice.
2. I used 6 cup capacity bundt pan as I wanted to test my new pan(yes I'm addicted to bundt pans now, first I got the baby ones then med. size & this is the new addition to the collection) but I believe this recipe would fit in the 8" or 9" square or round pan also.
3. If  U don't like cardamom flavour replace it with vanilla.
4. I tried same recipe egg less also by replacing egg with 1/4 cup buttermilk & increasing baking soda with around 1/4 of tsp. came out good.
5. I'm not using any butter or oil in this recipe & believe me we didn't miss that, bananas work good as butter substitute also.
6. Also it's not very sweet but sweetness from bananas & little brown sugar was perfect for our taste buds, but for those who love their cakes more sweet, quantity of sugar can be increased.

 And finally the Mouse is caught in action

did I mentioned she was born in the year of Rat as per Chinese zodiac....so basically she is just doing what she is suppose to do and not giving up any of her mousy tricks....and btw my little mouse had big serving of this cake as her lunch that day....off it goes to Champa for her weekly bake-off.

For other recipes for baking with bananas like cake/biscotti/muffins/bread U can click here.

Eggless Chocolate Banana Cake with Toffee Bits

As the name say it's a Chocolate Banana Cake, but believe me it taste like chocolate cake only...moist & chocolaty. If you are like me who's not a big fan of baking with banana(b'coz they over power all other flavors) than this cake is for you. Even after eating 2 slices each DH & DD didn't noticed that cake has banana in it. You might be thinking if I don't like baking with banana than why did I baked this cake.........I froze 4 bananas couple of weeks back, as the whole family was under the attack of cough & cold & no one was eating them.....so took out two to make banana oat muffin & then came the sweet request "can U make chocolate cake instead, so that we can eat like cake slice". So here comes the cake......

What U need :

• 1 & 3/4 cup Cake flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tap. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 Tblsp. cocoa powder
• 3 Tblsp. light brown sugar
• 1 cup + 1 Tblsp. milk
• 4 Tblsp. vegetable oil
• 4 Tblsp. semi sweet choc. chips
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

optional for filling & decoration :

• handful of semi sweet choc. chips
• handful of toffe bits

icing/glaze

• 4 Tblsp. cocoa powder
• 5 Tblsp. icing sugar
• approx. 4-6 spoons of warm water

What U do:

• Sift all the dry ingredients. Add sugar to it & mix it.
• Using microwave melt 4 Tblsp. of chco. chips along with 1 Tblsp. of milk. Stir it to make sure all the chips are melted. Let it cool.
• Add all the wet ingredients to the above melted chocolate.
• Now mix wet ingredients into dry ones & mix them gently, until well combined.
• Pour the batter into prepared deep round 8 in. cake tin or into two smaller cake tins(I used two 6 in. round pan).
• Bake at 325 degree F for about 1 hr.(do the toothpick test to check the doneness) if using deep pan. In case of smaller pans check around 22 min. or so, mine were done in 24 minutes.

After cake is cool, mix cocoa & icing sugar with warm water to make thick or thin icing as u like. Use less water for thick consistency.
Spread half of the icing on one layer of cake, spread it, spread  choc. chips & half of the toffee bits.
Stack the second layer on it & pour the icing on top of it & decorate with remaining toffee bits.

Note : 1) Cake is not very sweet as the amount of sugar used is very less but if U are planning to use icing than it's perfect.

2) Quantity of icing is not too much, it won't cover the whole cake(i mean all sides) but for our taste it was good enough, just to give you that little extra sweetness.

Needless to say half of the cake was vanished quickly, it was still warm when we ate it....yes I didn't had patience to wait for it to cool down completely, so I pour the icing when it was still warm & once it's ready it's hard not to eat...... so we had dessert before lunch......and we all loved it. Most important of all, other than me no body noticed(from the smell & taste) that it's a BANANA cake. And those two bananas in the picture are still waiting in the freezer for their turn, they only came out for the picture shoot.