Chocolate Banana Cake

What's better use of over-ripe bananas than in baking? Though I'm not quite a "banana" person, I do like the combination of banana and chocolate, especially in cakes. So rather than wasting those over-ripe bananas that were sitting in the kitchen, I decided to look up new recipes on bananas and chocolates. I wanted to try something different though I have my heavenly Awfully Dark Chocolate Banana Cake and delicious Banana Chocolate Chips Muffins recipes ready on hand. And I came across this recipe for a chocolate banana bread. But a look at the ingredients and instructions suggest that it's more like a cake than a bread. And I wonder if it's called a bread because it's baked in a loaf pan? Anyway, I was curious how the recipe would turn out and decided to give it a shot.

Chocolate Banana Cake

I tried out in a square pan instead. And the verdict... it turned out to be everything in-between! The crust is somewhat similar to a soft french bread, and the bite and texture is somewhat similar to a brownie, yet it's not dense and gives a soft "cakey" chewy bite. I know this may sound confusing, but I really like this cake I'd call it, though I must admit I wasn't impressed (by the colour and appearance) when I un-moulded it from the cake pan. And the English idiom that goes, "Don't judge a book by its cover" definitely hit me hard here. After all, how wrong can banana and chocolate pair go, right? ^_^

I am sharing this Chocolate Banana Cake with blog event, We Should Cocoa (May 2015: Vanilla) organised by Choclette of Tin and Thyme and Chele of Chocolate Teapot and guest hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage for the month of May 2015;

I am also sharing this recipe with Best Recipes for Everyone (May 2015 Event: My Favourite Desserts) organized by Fion of XuanHom's Mom and co-hosted by Aunty Young. 

And last but not least, I'm sharing this new exploration from a bread-turned-cake recipe with monthly link up party, Our Growing Edge (May 2015) hosted by Jordan and Cindy from My Daughter and I, an event that aims to connect food bloggers and inspire us to try new things.

Chocolate Cream-filled Profiteroles (Chocolate Cream Puffs)

"No, egg yolks are bad and we should only eat the whites". This is what my husband always insist whenever I fry him an egg. All these years, I have long given up proving to him with health articles about the benefits of egg yolks, or at least the harmless of eating egg yolks and "coaxing" him into eating the yolks. I know very well that it's just his plain excuse for not eating the yolks, which he claimed has a funny taste, when he refuses to accept that egg yolk has its beneficial contents. That's also his way of refuting my claim that he behaves just like a big kid picking on his food. And for that reason, we always have leftover egg yolks which I sometimes have to throw away if he is eating eggs too often. >,<

But fortunately or unfortunately, the leftover egg yolks prompted this bake when I decided to turn the yolks into pastry cream. And my immediate association with pastry cream are these delicious cream puffs, a French dessert otherwise known as Profiteroles.

Chocolate Cream-filled Profiteroles (Chocolate Cream Puffs)

This French dessert may be delicate, but they are definitely not difficult to make. I have adopted the same pastry dough recipe that I'd used for my mini Chocolate Eclairs since it was an easy and successful recipe. Looking back at my post archives, I then realised that those were made almost a year ago. *Gosh~ how time flies! Anyway, I find it really interesting how two different desserts could be formed from the same recipe when they just appear in different shapes (and sizes). ^_^