Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Sourdough Banana Cake with chocolate chips

When I made 'Sourdough applesauce spice cake' and mentioned about different variations, I wasn't kidding at all. That recipe can be modified in many ways. For those who do not have sourdough or care about it, you can always increase the flour by 1 cup and liquid by 1/2 cup in its place. Since this recipe does not depend on yeast for rising, it works fine.
I had some ripe bananas that I wanted to get rid of. I had to feed my starter. So here is what happened with them together.

Ingredients:
Sourdough Starter - 1 cup (not fed, but at room temperature)
Vegetable Oil - 1/4 cup
Mashed banana- 1 cup (about 2 large or 3 medium)
Egg - 2 large
Whole Wheat flour - 1 1/2 cups
White sugar - 1 cup
Baking Soda - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
Chocolate chips - 1 cup (See Notes)


Method:
Grease a 13 X 9 pan with vegetable oil spray. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a 4 cup measuring cup (if you don't have one, you'll have to measure and mix in a smaller bowl), measure one cup of starter. Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 cup of mashed bananas to the same measuring cup. Whisk it. Add two eggs, vanilla extract and beat with a whisk.
In another larger bowl, take flour, sugar, salt, baking soda. Stir to combine. Make a well in the center and pour the liquid ingredients and stir till moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips. Do not over beat. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 - 35 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done exactly at 30 minutes. Cool on the cooling rack in the pan for 15 minutes and then turn it out on to the cooling rack to cool completely.
You could dust with confectioner's sugar before serving and serve as a snack cake. You could go overboard and frost this cake too.I just drizzled some caramel sauce over it and served.
See the chocolate chips at the bottom, not a pretty sight at all.

Notes:
This cake is not meant for holding chocolate chips evenly. Batter is a little thin for suspending the chocolate chips and the chocolate chips sunk into the bottom of the pan. I added one more egg compared to the 'Applesauce spice cake' recipe since I felt that cake dried in two days. To balance the liquid part, I omitted milk in this. I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour to make it a little more nutritious. All in all, a very nice way to use up your starter and make something out of it. My kids and neighbors loved it. They didn't mind the gooey chocolate on their plate I guess.This cake bakes up evenly. I was impressed with that and I probably won't add chocolate chips next time to this. I probably will use cardamom and omit vanilla, fold in some coconut for an Indian taste.


I am sending this cake to weekly 'Yeastspotting' hosted by Susan.

Happy Baking!!

13 comments:

  1. They look fabulous! Now that would look great with a cup of Tea.

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  2. Cake looks too yummy,scrumptious and prefect baked..

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  3. wow,cake looks so soft n yummy...delicious

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  4. This is a popular combo I have not tried yet, sounds great!!

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  5. Cake looks delicious and yummy!

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  6. Banana cake looks so tempting!!
    Lovely collection of beautiful dishes u have.Do visit mine when time permits.. http://padhuskitchen.blogspot.com/

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  7. What if you sprinkled the chocolate chips on top? That way they have farther to sink to reach the bottom (may stop in the middle). I am thinking of giving this a try. Thanks for the recipe.

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  8. Paula,
    Thanks for the comment. That is actually a very good idea. Do let me know if you tried that way and it worked.

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