Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Banana Cake

I made this in a grease 9 inch spring form pan, I lined the bottom with a piece of parchment paper and greases that as well.. I melted the butter and oil, I used vegetable oil, in a sauce pan and set aside. I combined all the dry ingredients except the salt in one bowl and mixed till combined. I put the melted butter into my KA, ( you can use a saucepan if you have one big enough, I didn’t. I slowly added the dry ingredients to the melted butter. Mix well. I then added the mashed bananas and sour cream, mixing only till combined. I whisked together the eggs, vanilla and salt and added it to the mixing bowl, whisking until the batter was smooth. I poured the batter into the pan and baked for about 50 minutes.

The cake had some cracks in the top of it, but the ganache was very forgiving and you couldn’t tell after it was frosted. After the cake was completely cooled I started the ganache. I chopped the semi sweet chocolate up, measured out 1/2 cup of heavy cream into a small saucepan and added the corn syrup. The chocolate went in next, I stirred this on low heat very gently until it was melted. I slowly filled the top of the cake with ganache and gently smoothed it working from the center outward to the sides with an off set spatula. It worked beautifully! About 15 minutes before I was ready to serve this I put it into the fridge to harden up the ganache slightly to cut it.

Wanna print just the recipe, click here!

Chocolate Banana Cake
New York Times
Nigella Lawson
Time: 1 hour plus cooling
For the cake:
Vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray, for cake pan
3/4cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 tablespoon olive oil 1 3/4cups flour
2 1/2teaspoons baking powder
1/2teaspoon baking soda
1/4cup best-quality cocoa
1 cup sugar
2/3cup sour cream
1 1/2cups mashed banana (about 4 whole bananas)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Pinch of salt
For the icing:
1/2cup heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Yellow sprinkles, optional.
1.For cake: heat oven to 325 degrees. Oil or spray a 9-inch springform cake pan and set aside. In a large saucepan over low heat, melt butter with olive oil. Remove pan from heat.
2.Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and sugar. Mix well. Add sour cream and mashed banana, and whisk to combine. In a small bowl or pitcher, whisk together vanilla extract, eggs and salt. Add to saucepan and whisk until smooth. Pour into cake pan.
3.Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Allow cake to cool on a rack for about 15 minutes, then remove springform and allow cake to cool completely before icing.
4.For icing: In a medium saucepan, combine cream, chocolate and corn syrup. Place over low heat, stirring gently with a spatula to avoid creating air bubbles, until mixture is very smooth. Place cake on a stand or a plate and spread icing over it with spatula. Garnish immediately with yellow sprinkles, if using. Yield:One 9-inch cake, 10 to 12 servings.