Hello, my name is Angela and I hoard black bananas.
(Eric made me tell you this today.)
Every time I go to the grocery store, I head straight for the ‘Reduced’ produce section just so I can see if there are any bananas that I can save. I see people passing by perfectly good bananas and I want to leave a sticky note on the bananas saying ‘I’m great for BANANA BREAD!’ or ‘try me in a GREEN MONSTER!’ and then hide behind the bins to see their reactions. I’m afraid they would ban me from my beloved grocery store and that would never be a good thing for a food blogger.
When I finally admitted to Eric that I had a problem, I agreed that the bananas were beginning to pose a health risk to all parties involved. I had several spotted bananas on the counter and a stash of black bananas in a paper bag in the fridge.
Over 10 of them…solid black and starting to leak juices.
When Eric exposed my stash of bananas in the paper bag I knew it would all be over soon if I didn’t take action.
But health risk or not, these babies are at the PEAK of their lives! Yesterday morning, I celebrated by making a chocolate chip banana cake. It would taste so delicious our heads would spin.
Because you really can’t screw up a banana cake when using bananas that look like this…
It’s just not possible.
Rustic Chocolate Chip Banana Oat Cake with Peanut Butter Banana Glaze
Yield
8-10 servings
Prep time
Rest time
15 minutes
Cook time
Total time
This rustic looking banana cake blew our socks off with an intense banana flavour and sweet bites of chocolate. It has a wonderful chewy texture from the oats and a little bit of crunch from the nuts. You’d never guess it has just two tablespoons of oil and it can easily be made gluten-free by using GF oats!
Ingredients
For the cake
- 2 cups regular oats, processed into a flour
- 1/2 cup regular oats (not processed)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed firmly
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8th tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/16th tsp ground cloves (optional)
- 2 tbsp cane sugar (or regular white)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted (or other light tasting oil)
- 2 medium very ripe bananas, peeled
- 1/3 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Fold in: 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips; 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped; 1 ripe banana, cut into chunks
For the PB Banana Glaze (makes 2/3-3/4 cup)
- 1 ripe banana (but not too ripe, you still want it solid!)
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (I used White Chocolate Wonderful flavour)
- 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
- Pinch of kosher salt, to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and lightly grease a 8 inch (4 cup) casserole dish or 8” cake pan. Take 2 cups of regular oats and process them in a food processor until flour like in consistency.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (processed oats, regular oats, sugars, spices, baking powder, and salt).
- In another bowl, mix together the oil, applesauce, almond milk, and vanilla. Add in the two peeled bananas and smash into the wet ingredients until smooth.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until just combined. Now fold in the chips, optional walnuts, and the chopped banana.
- Spread into prepared pan and bake for 36 minutes at 350°F (175°C) or until a toothpick comes out clean. The cake must be cooled for at least 15-20 minutes before attempting to remove.
- Once fully cooled, slice and top with PB Banana Glaze (see below). Store in the fridge for up to 3 days (without Glaze).
- PB Banana Glaze: Mash banana in a bowl until smooth. Add in peanut butter and mash until combined.
- Sift in the salt and icing sugar and stir until fully combined. Makes about 2/3 cup glaze. Store in fridge in a sealed contained for 1-2 days.
Tip:
The great thing about this recipe is that I used regular oats and processed them into a flour, so this recipe can be easily made gluten-free if you use GF oats.
It also contains just 2 tbsp of oil, but it is a very moist and flavourful cake. The unsweetened applesauce and ripe bananas replace most of the oil in this recipe. This is not your average banana cake by any means.
it takes just 10-15 minutes to throw it together and pop it in the oven.
Add wet to dry:
Fold in chopped banana, chocolate chips, and nuts:
Scoop into baking dish or cake pan.
My sister Kerrie gave me this baking dish on the weekend! Does she know me or what? I’m in love. :)
Bake for 36 minutes at 350F or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes so it can firm up and set otherwise it will fall apart when you try to get it out.
While you are waiting you can make the delicious glaze.
After cooling, slice and serve!
This rustic cake turned out so much better than I thought it would, especially because I just winged the recipe by the seat of my pants. The result is a dense, moist, and extremely flavourful cake with a lovely chewiness from the oats and nuts.
Oh, and the bites of banana are out of this world!
If you want to make this into a dessert, serve it with the PB Banana Glaze.
If you want to make it into a breakfast cake, you can leave out the chocolate and use more nuts. Or just leave in all the chocolate! ;)
Eric said this one is ‘in the vault’…
Oh and I still have about 7 black bananas to use up….what to make….
Are you a banana fan? What are your favourite meals or recipes that include bananas?
This is in the oven right now and ooooooh I’m so excited to try it! :D I was telling my mom all about your blog today I literally could not stop talking about it!
Just made this for a friend’s birthday yesterday and it truly was AMAZING (and easy)! All who ate it were shocked that it was vegan and GF, which is always a fun reaction for me to witness with “non-veggies” :-). Thanks so much for this recipe…it gets an A+!
Just letting you know this was the most AWESOME breakfast cake I have ever made! I left it in the fridge so it stays nice and cold!!! I also used white chocolate instead of dark so maybe it’s not as healthy…..but loved it! Recommend any other toppings beside the PB glaze?
I just made this, but I don’t love banana flavor, so I used ripe but not overly ripe bananas and omitted the sliced bananas. I also didn’t have applesauce so subbed some Trader Joe’s pumpkin butter that was waiting in the fridge. Delicious! I got my six-year-old to try a bite, but he turns his nose up at food that looks too “healthy.” ;-)
I have a problem with hoarding black bananas too!! Glad I am not the only one :)
Dear heavens. I made this tonight after a day of moving furniture, but having bananas that needed to be baked in something. It’s amazing. It’ll definitely become one of my standard baked goods.
I just wanted to let you know that this cake is by far one of my FAVORITE dessert recipes, and breakfast recipes (without the glaze and with peanut butter smeared on top) :):) I’ve made it for many of my friends who tend to be a little bit afraid of my overly healthy recipes-and they all love it too. Thanks!!
Could you substitute coconut sugar for cane or regular white? Would I use less, more?
Delicious!!! A quick question though: Are grapeseed oil/ sunflower oil alright as alternatives to coconut oil? You often use maple syrup as a sweetner so I was wondering whether agave syrup would be alright, too?
Yes I do think all of those would be fine substitutes. Goodluck!
Wow. What a huge success this was – received with raves at a work lunch, and thoroughly enjoyed personally as well.
Easy to make, not overly sweet. Wonderful flavour blend.
Made with what was on hand…substituted grapeseed oil for coconut oil; pureed an apple in place of applesauce; switched white sugar for maple syrup+baking soda; used gluten-free flour instead of ground oats; removed chocolate chips, added coconut.
Already have two requests to make more. Next time will increase the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves for a little more punch to the bread. May try a thin layer of apples through the middle for fun.
TY for another amazing recipe!
I made this and brought it to a kid’s birthday brunch. The kids LOVED it and the adults could not believe that it was vegan and healthy :) … Finally my friends are starting to believe me when I say that a vegan diet does not mean eating the same boring, tasteless food everyday, thank you for this recipe :)
Thats so great to hear! Thanks for letting me know. :)
My fiance got two cakes for his birthday – he requested Tres Leches (very not-vegan) and I decided to make him this one for breakfast. It was pretty awesome – with the glaze and all – but the next day (sitting on the countertop) it was even better! Moist and rich (without being high in fat).
I will definitely make it again and highly recommend to anyone looking for an easy, make-ahead dish to bring to brunch.
I made this one, delicious! Incredibly sweet though, which distracted me from the flavour a bit. The glaze was a great touch.
VERY *yummy*. Love it. I used more nuts (cashew and hazelnuts) and dried apricots instead of chocolate (I have an cocoa intolerance). It is soooooooo good :o). THANKS :o).
Oh wow! I used this as the basis for my banoffee birthday cake today, and it went down really well! I could big-up the vegan and lead by example :-) :biggrin:
This recipe sounds delicious but I question the amount of sugar in it. I doubt it is necessary as the bananas have a lot of natural sugars in them and so would the applesauce and of course the choc chips! I would omit the cane sugar and maybe even halve the brown sugar. This can then be a super healthy treat that we can eat with minimal guilt and still enjoy. Our palates get used to the reduced amount of sugar. Sugar is THE biggest cause of obesity and its associated health risks, but if we can retrain out palates we can still enjoy our sweet treats while running a lot smaller risk to our health.
You didn’t even make or taste the original recipe to make such comments. Why don’t you make it 1st and see before you complain! You could also use WFPB date sugar instead, For crying out loud…modify to your own preferences and relax. We don’t need you preaching about health and your own problems,
I made this for my dad’s birthday and it turned out divine! Thank you so much for the recipe! Will be making this again.
This is fool-proof! I only had two ripe bananas so I used one for mashing and the other one chopped, added two tablespoons of coconut oil and 1/3 cup of almond milk, and processed six dates along with the oats. I also halved the amount of brown sugar as my chocolate chips were very sweet. My favourite part is how crispy it gets around the sides while still being chewy and moist in the middle. Yum.
Angela!
This recipe is great, and leaves space to experiment… first time I made it according to your recipe, next time I changed four things: I replaced 1/2 cup of the oatmeal with the almond pulp of making the almond milk, made it more breakfast-approved by switching the amounts of chocolate chips and nuts (mix of walnuts and hazelnuts), cut the amount of salt in half (I used Himalayan salt, I think that it has a stronger taste than other salts but I’m afraid to experiment haha), and used a 1/3 cup palm sugar instead of the 1/2 cup brown sugar and 2 tbsp cane sugar and made up for the rest of the amount of sugar with grated coconut. It came out a little less dense than the original recipe (just a little less) but nevertheless, an 8th part still made a filling breakfast.
Question: considering the amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg and optional cloves, I’m wondering, are you replacing allspice?
xoxo!
Oh, I forgot! The second time I changed one more thing: I used two small bananas and one flax egg instead of two medium sized bananas – I think that made it a little less dense…
I have probably made this recipe 20 times since you posted it!! JUST LOVEEEE it!!! I hadn’t made it in a while, and recently found out I was allergic to dairy and gluten, was craving a treat and then I remebered this! Made it into muffins today, Thanks Angela for what has become a family favorite!!!