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Banana Cake
Recipes
The banana cake recipes below are are made with white whole wheat
flour. It is lighter and milder tasting than regular whole wheat flour.
The cakes contain a
small amount of natural fat from whole foods, but no
added free fats.
These healthy banana cakes are
also naturally sweetened with bananas,
dates,
and other dried fruit. We had fun creating a sugar free cake that
doesn't
contain refined sweeteners or artificial sweeteners.
Bananas
are a perfect sweetener. They are gooey enough to hold baked
goods
together. They help keep oil-free goods moist. When you
see ripe
bananas on sale, buy a lot of them. Peel and cut them into
chunks, and
freeze the chunks on a cutting board. Once they are frozen
solid, store
the frozen chunks in big ziploc bags. Just remove the amount you need. 
You
can use (thawed) frozen bananas in these banana cake recipes. Weigh the
frozen
chunks, and after they thaw, be sure to include any liquid from them
in the recipe.
We always use Rumford baking powder, because it does not contain
aluminum. You can find it in most health food stores.
Moist Banana
Cake Recipe
9 servings
The first of these banana cake recipes yields a dense,
moist cake. It is the best banana cake if you want something
with a traditional banana flavor.
 4
oz soy milk
3 oz dates, pitted and quartered
2 oz applesauce
6 oz white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
13 oz very ripe banana chunks
2 oz raisins
1 Tbsp flax seed, ground
Line the bottom of an 8 x 8 glass baking dish
with parchment paper. Lightly oil the sides of the dish. Preheat oven
to 350 degrees.
In a blender, weigh soy milk. Add pitted dates and applesauce. Set
aside for dates to soften while you prepare the other ingredients.
Set a medium straight-sided bowl on the scale, rest a sifter in the
bowl, and turn on the scale. Carefully spoon in the flour. Remove bowl
and sifter from scale and add baking
powder and baking soda. Sift the three dry ingredients together into
the
bowl. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice and stir all
together very well.
In a large wide bowl, weigh ripe banana chunks (or thawed frozen
bananas. Mash with a potato
masher or fork until you have a lumpy paste.
In a large straight-sided bowl, weigh raisins. Use a rubber scraper to
add mashed bananas to raisins.
Blend the date mixture until smooth. Add it to the banana-raisin mix.
Add the ground flax seeds and stir the moist ingredients together well.
Add dry ingredients to wet and stir just enough to combine. Do not
overmix. Spread evenly into baking dish on top of the parchment.
Bake for 50 minutes. Cool in dish for 10 minutes.
Use a sharp knife to loosen the sides of the cake. Place a small
cutting board over the cake and turn the baking dish, cake, and cutting
board upside down together. The cake will fall out of the baking dish
on to the cutting board. Carefully remove the parchment from the cake.
Put a cooling rack over the cake and grasp the cutting board,
cake, and cooling rack together. Turn upside down again and
remove cutting board. Cool cake on rack. When cooled, return cake to
baking
dish and cut in nine pieces. Garnish the cake
with fresh banana slices, or with any kind of fresh fruit.
Comments:
These are big pieces of cake. If you prefer to cut the cake in 12
pieces, they will contain only 121 calories each.
We
love this cake so much that we always make a double batch. We bake
it in a 9 x 11 glass dish for 60 minutes.
Yield = 9 servings 1 serving = 2.95 oz
Calorie density = 55 calories/oz
Calories
per serving: 162 Fat: 1.4 g
(6.0%) Protein: 4.2 g CHO: 37
g
Chocolate Banana Cake
9 servings
The second of our banana cake recipes is chocolate-flavored.
This chocolate banana cake recipe provides a
healthy way to eat chocolate without getting a lot of
saturated fat and sugar.
4 oz soy milk
3 oz dates, pitted and quartered
2 oz applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
5 oz white whole wheat flour
1 oz cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
13 oz very ripe banana chunks
2 oz dried cherries
1 Tbsp flax seed, ground
Line the bottom of an 8 x 8 glass baking dish
with parchment paper.
Lightly oil the sides of the dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a blender, weigh soy milk. Add pitted dates, applesauce, and
vanilla. Set aside for dates to soften while you prepare the other
ingredients.
Set
a medium straight-sided bowl on the scale, rest a sifter in the
bowl, and turn on the scale. Carefully spoon in the flour and cocoa
powder. Remove from scale
and add baking
powder and baking soda. Sift the four ingredients together into the
bowl, then stir all
together well.
In a large wide bowl, weigh ripe banana chunks. Mash with a potato
masher or fork until you have a lumpy paste.
In a large straight-sided bowl, weigh dried cherries. Use a rubber
scraper to add mashed bananas to cherries.
Blend
the date mixture until smooth. Add it to the banana-cherry mix. Add the
ground flax seeds and stir the moist ingredients together well.
Add
dry ingredients to wet and stir just enough to blend. Do not overmix.
Spread evenly into baking dish on top of the parchment.
Bake for 50 minutes. Cool in dish for 10 minutes.
Use
a sharp knife to loosen the sides of the cake. Place a small cutting
board over the cake and turn the baking dish, cake, and cutting board
upside down together. The cake will fall out of the baking dish on to
the cutting board. Carefully remove the parchment from the cake.
Put a
cooling rack over the cake and grasp the cutting board, cake,
and
cooling rack together. Turn upside down again and remove
cutting board.
Cool cake on rack. Return cooled cake to baking dish and cut in nine
pieces.
Comments:
Garnish with fresh or frozen cherries. If you prefer not to eat
chocolate, use carob powder instead of cocoa.
You can modify these banana cake recipes for special occasions. Stir an
ounce or more of chopped walnuts in with the wet
ingredients before you add the dry ingredients. Be aware that nuts will
increase the fat content and the calorie density somewhat.
Yield = 9 servings 1 serving = 2.95 oz
Calorie density = 55 calories/oz
Calories
per serving: 161 Fat: 1.8 g
(9.0%) Protein: 4.3 g CHO: 36
g
All of our recipes
are written by weight. If you don't know how to measure food with a
kitchen scale, please read
these instructions before you start to measure any
ingredients!
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