Chocolate-Coffee-Banana Cake

This blog is named after my Grandma Frida. She was a great woman and the one who taught my cooking. It all started when I was not even tall enough to see whats on the stove. She would pull a chair near the kitchen counter that I could stand on it and see whats going on ontop. Ever since I love cooking. I love baking even more and Grandma Frida is till date a great inspiration for me. But in contrast to my Grandma I am an impatient cook. I don't like spending hours in the kitchen to create a dish. I prefer simple food made out of fresh ingrediences and with little effort. 

My Chocolate-Coffee-Banana Cake is one of these. Easy to make and everybody loves it.

To start with I pre-heat the oven to 180°C. In a big bowl I mix 240g eggs, that is about 4-5eggs depending on size of the egg, with 180g sugar. Beat it til it has a pale yellow colour and of a light foamy texure.

While my kitchenmachine is doing this work I make 200ml strong espresso. As an alternative just disolve 7-8 heaped teaspoons of instant coffee powder in 200ml hot water. To it I add 150ml vegetable oil. I recommend an oil that has no strong flavour on its own like sunflower oil. And 50ml of yoghurt. Give the whole mixture a good stir.

Mash 2 bananas, approx 250g and add it to the egg mixture. Than slowly pour the coffee mixture into it and mix it all well.

In a seperate bowl mix 300g plain white flour with 50g of cocoa, preferable organic cocoa, and 14g of baking powder. Add the flour-cocoa mixture spoon by spoon to the egg mixture and mix well.

Pour the dough into a Gugelhupf form* and bake at 180°C for about 1hour. To check if the cake is done poke a toothpick or knitting needle into the cake. If it comes ou clean the cake is done. If not bake it a bit longer.

Let the cake cook down in the baking form. To take the cake out run a knife along tha upper edge of the cake to loosen it from the form. Than turn it upside down onto a plate.

The cake is yummy as it is. For special occasions I decorate it with one of the following 3 options.

A generous dusting with icing sugar or

I mix 200g of icing sugar with 3-4 tablespoons of Kahlua and pour this mixture over the cake to give it an even coating. This enhances the coffee flavour of the cake or

I melt 250g of dark chocolate. Once melted I mix in 3-4 tablespoonsof cream. Pour the mixture over the cake to give it an even coating. This enhances the chocolate flavour of the cake and is a favorite among kids.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola

*A Gugelhupf form is a round baking fish that has a hole in the middle so the cake is actually in a ring shape.