Chocolate Banana Snack Cake

Do you ever buy a big bunch of bananas on your weekly shopping trip with good intentions to eat them all only to be left with a one or two yucky ones by the end of the week that no one will eat?  You may know that you can make banana bread with those yucky bananas, but it also takes more than one banana to make a batch of bread.  So what do you do with the one banana?

Come on!  You know the answer - Toss it into the freezer, peel and all!  When you get three or more gathered, you can defrost them and then make them into your favorite baked banana treat. 

I usually have a small stash of bananas in our kitchen freezer.  While I have a old standby recipe for banana bread that we all love, I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe that we might like to change things up a bit.  I love the way banana baked goods make the whole house smell so deliciously inviting.

I remembered this post for Black Bottom Chocolate Cake from one of my favorite food/mom bloggers who writes Mom on a Mission for Christ.  She is a busy mom who has turned her passion for cooking and using her freezer as a key component in her meal planning into a ministry of sharing her food with those in need.  Her recipes that I have tried have all turned out quite good, and I love her humility in her writing about what God has called her to do at this point in her life.  You should check out her blog.  You'll be inspired too.

Anyways, Friday afternoon I had one black banana staring at me on the counter, and I knew I had a few others in the freezer.  So, I decided to put together this chocolate banana snack cake for our dessert and/or snack throughout the weekend.

It came together in about 5 minutes, baked in 30, and will probably be gone by the time I finish writing this post!  We ate the whole first row fresh out of the oven and we only stopped eating because it was time for John and the oldest to head out the door to basketball practice.  We had several more pieces after dinner, John had a piece with his 2nd cup of morning coffee, I grabbed a piece on the way home from the 8year old gymnast's Open Gym time, and I think I heard the rattling of the cover just a few minutes ago.

Try this one with your next batch of yucky bananas.  There's nothing yucky about this cake at all!  In fact, I just may hide the bananas currently on the counter so they don't have the opportunity to get eaten this week.  It's that good!

Chocolate Banana Snack Cake

If you use your bananas in the freezer, they will look absolutely inedible when you dump them from their thawed skins into the mixing bowl.  They may look like they've separated into a liquid and a solid portion.  Don't worrry.  They'll be fine.  Trust me.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Banana Cake
1 stick softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 yucky bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 cup choc chips

1.  In mixing bowl, beat the bananas.  (I used my hand mixer, but you could as easily use a Kitchen Aid if yours is out on the counter.)
2.  Add softened butter and sugar and continue to mix well.
3.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until it's all mixed together.
4.  Add in the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt to the creamed mixture.
5.  Take half the batter and put it in a smaller bowl.  Add the cocoa to that batter and mix well.
6.  Spread the chocolate batter into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. (It will look like a thin layer; don't worry; they're more like a typical brownie in height than a piece of cake)
7.  Spread the remaining banana batter on top, swirling gently with a butter knife if you like the marbled look of a cake.
8.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.
9.  Bake for 30 minutes at 350 until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

What do you do with your yucky bananas?

Need some banana inspiration?  Check out the ideas over at Eat At Home, Ingredient Spotlight Bananas.