I’ve not been on the banana bread bandwagon during this quarantine/lockdown phase, unlike many others. There has instead been cheesecake, and more cheesecake! But now, with chocolate and ground almonds, I did get down to baking with bananas. This is a dense and fudgy cake, sweetened entirely by honey and of course, bananas. It’s incredible warm, with some cream or vanilla ice cream and you muuuuust try it!
I had a small quantity of almonds in the freezer and a couple of overripe bananas so after a little hunting to see what I could do with them, I came across this recipe by Green Kitchen Stories and I was hooked. It had cocoa powder and no refined sugar and sounded exactly like the rich, dark dessert I was craving! However, since I didn’t have two whole cups of almond flour, I added all-purpose flour instead and I’m so pleased it all worked out in the end. It’s also simplified to make a one-bowl batter, yay!
Keep in mind that almonds naturally weigh down the batter so this is not a light and fluffy cake. Despite the fact that I didn’t use only almonds, the combination with bananas makes this ultra fudgy in the best possible way. I just powdered the almonds at home, but if you’re using store-bought almond flour which is finer, the texture of your cake will be a little less dense. Either way, it will taste amazing!
It has a lovely crust on top, the most amazing chocolate flavour and it’s not overly sweet. In fact, if you like your desserts sweet, you might want to even add some sugar (see the recipe notes). I tried it plain, with cream and with vanilla ice cream and still don’t know which way was my favourite! I hope you’ll try this today!
Please read the recipe notes before beginning.
Chocolate Banana Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 2 very ripe medium bananas (see notes)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup honey
- 3/4 cup ground almonds
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Sliced almonds to decorate, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease a 9" round cake tin (see notes for options).
- In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas very well, then add the eggs and vanilla. Whisk well to combine (a balloon whisk works great, or use a fork).
- Add the oil and honey and whisk again till smooth.
- Now stir in the ground almonds, then sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Fold gently to combine into a smooth and slightly runny batter.
- Pour into the prepared cake tin, sprinkle the top with sliced almonds and bake for 40 to 45 minutes until a toothpick poked in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. For safety, start checking at about 35 minutes as ovens vary and this cake is quite thin.
- Let the cake cool almost completely (it will sink as it cools) before slicing and serving slightly warm, with ice cream or whipped cream for additional sweetness if you prefer. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for about a week. Happy baking!
Notes
Made this at my cottage, with a coffee mug for a measuring cup, and it turned out delicious, with very little effort. I used maple syrup instead of honey, and orange zest because I had no vanilla extract, and I replaced a couple of spoonfuls of white flour with whole-wheat, and I used store-bought almond flour. I obtained a rich, filling, pleasant-textured cake that was perfect with coffee for breakfast or afternoon tea time. Thanks for sharing this lovely healthy recipe!
Orange zest sounds delicious! I’m glad you enjoyed this Lucie 🙂
I can’t wait to make this cake! Can I use vegetable oil instead of olive oil? Also, do the measurements you mention belong to the standard cup set we order online? Thanks 🙂
Yup vegetable oil is fine and standard cup measures are perfect 🙂
This looks so good 😍
quick question – how does the baking time change when the size or shape of the utensil changes ?
I am a very new baker so any input will be appreciated
If it’s a smaller tin your bake time will be a little longer, in general it’s best to check a couple of times with a toothpick if it’s done or not. Hope that helps !
I’ve been trying to bake healthy for my husband and I, since we have little sense of portion control. I love the notion of the not-so-sweet dessert, and I’d love to try this. Since I have no almonds to hand, I wanted to ask if omitting the almonds would significantly change the dessert. Should they be substituted with something else, or would it just end up a chocolate-banana cake (which, honestly, sounds fabulous by itself).
You would probably need to swap the almonds out with more flour, the texture will be different and you may need to add another tsp of baking powder, but it should work