How do you like your bananas?
For me, they can’t be brown at all. There is about a 6 hour period when bananas are perfect for me – the green is gone, but brown hasn’t touched them yet, giving them the perfect amount of sweetness. My husband is the opposite. He likes them brown. Not banana bread brown, but with way more brown than I would ever touch them.
The kids? Now I think it just depends on their mood, like most things do with kids. They can scarf down bananas like nobody’s business one day, but the next day they don’t want anything to do with them. Brown or green – they just don’t care.
Which makes banana buying difficult. I try to always have a good amount of fruit on hand, and so there are almost always bananas in the fruit bowl. Usually that bowl is emptied before the next trip to the grocery store, but sometimes we go through periods when there are always a few bananas that go past their prime.
And a girl can only eat so much banana bread. Don’t get me wrong – I love it and all – but sometimes you want something a little different. This cake came from that need to use up some overly ripe bananas, but not wanting to make another loaf of banana bread.
To be honest, I wasn’t even going to post about this. It’s super simple, nothing fancy, nothing that you would look at and go “wow!” I even thought about making a glaze to go over the top, just because it looked so ordinary to me. But I’m so glad that I didn’t. Because this cake is perfect in it’s simplicity. I think anything else would have ruined it. (Perfect, except for the fact that the middle of my cake fell – I think I checked it way too much!!)
I may hide away a few bananas to ripen up just so that I can make this cake again. And I’m sure my kids wouldn’t complain – they loved it as well!
Black and White Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8x8-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg and vanilla, then beat in the bananas.
- In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture and stir to mix.
- Spread 1/2-2/3 of the mixture in the bottom of the prepared dish. Add the cocoa to the remaining batter and gently spread over the top of the batter in the dish.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.
More uses for those overripe bananas:
Peanutty Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Around the Web:
Banana Yogurt Muffins from Averie Cooks
Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes from Life Tastes Like Food
Chunky Monkey Ice Cream from Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen
Loretta | A Finn In The Kitchen says
Blah. I totally despise over-ripe bananas. Under-ripe, and they taste too chalky. Over-ripe and they almost dissolve in your mouth. I’m not fussy about much, but this is one of them.
Good thing banana breads and cakes use the stuff I’d never eat otherwise!
Danni@SiloHillFarm says
Oh and I’ve got some bananas just waiting for this! Yumm! Love banana and chocolate together! Thanks for sharing this!
CrystelleBoutique says
Oh my! This looks so super yummy! Pinning!
hugs x
Crystelle
MCS Gal says
Recipe sounds great. I freeze “rotten” bananas for smoothies, adding to pancakes, etc. I’m going to try this recipe.
Chung-Ah | Damn Delicious says
I am the same way. I only like bananas with a little bit of green, which is hard to find when you buy a whole bunch of bananas and eat 1 a day! That being said, I usually make banana bread but yes, change is good! I’m totally swooning over this cake!
Jocelyn @BruCrew Life says
I am a very picky banana eater…they have to be just slightly green and kind of crunchy. My husband on the other hand likes the over ripe ones to eat. I love that you paired the banana cake with a yummy chocolate layer!!!
Joanne says
I am the same as you when it comes to bananas…they can be perfectly yellow but no more and no less. This cake does loo perfect!
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
I like the same kind of bananas you do, and I won’t eat them otherwise! But baking – yes. Love the black and white cake!
Ashley says
This looks wonderful! I love bananas in all forms! My dad is like you when it comes to no black or brown at all…and he prefers them when they’re cold, straight out of the refrigerator.
Anna @ Hidden Ponies says
I definitely have a very small banana window, but I love them in smoothies and cakes – this cake looks great!
carrian says
My kids are the same way! We’ve started buying them, and then going a while without just so they will want them again.
shelly (cookies and cups) says
Love this cake! Such a great idea 🙂
Averie @ Averie Cooks says
Thanks for linking up my Banana Yogurt Muffins & today I posted another banana recipe. They’re ‘accents’ though, not the main attraction. Your main attraction is PEFECT! I love cakes like this, and with the chocolate, nice. But not overly doctored up. I have to tell myself to just stop at simplicity sometimes and not be tempted to add the whole pantry 🙂 And I am a checker too and just had a massive cake fail b/c of it! Yours is nothing!
Colleen @ What's Baking in the Barbershop?! says
This cake absolutely looks great! I’m glad you decided to post it. It’s definitely right up my alley! It reminds me of this marbled chocolate banana bread I make – it’s always a hit! I bet this cake would be too 🙂
Caroline @ chocolate & carrots says
I’m glad you posted it because it looks amazing! It’s like a brownie meets a banana bread! 😀
Rosa says
It looks really tempting and delicious!
Cheers,
Rosa