​Chocolate and bananas? I was sceptical at first. By itelf, chocolate or banana cakes are are quite delicious. But I wasn't sure about combining both. My doubts were erased when I took a bite of this cake. There is something about the mellow comfort of the sweetness of the bananas mixed with the deep dark chocolate intensity, which I hadn't discovered before.

This is one of those tantalizing decadent cakes which you would keep in the freezer for the longest of times to make it last longer and longer or to spread your guilt of having such a rich cake (so me). Of course if you are a glutton who would rather have the cake sitting in your tummy then in the freezer asap, then my previous statement won't apply. I learnt to make this Choc Ganache Banana Cake recently at a baking studio. I was interested to learn more about the creaming and piping aspect of the cakes but came away with a whole lot more!! Didn't last long when I brought home as both my girls are huge choc fans, especially the rich dark choc kind!
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​To get your hands on this huge yummy Channing Tatum of cakes, firstly, make the cakes according to my earlier post Basic Banana Cake  http://www.americanmoments.net/quick--easy-vegetarian-recipes/basic-banana-cake. If I post those pics and instructions, this post will become too long. This post is just to show how to mix and get the right consistency of the ganache and decorating the banana cakes with it.

Ingredients 
​2 round 7 inch/8 inch banana cakes
500ml whipping cream
​500gm choc buttons (55% cocoa)

Method
​1) Boil the whipping cream till you can see steam misting. Keep stirring so that it doesn't stick to the base and start burning.

2) Measure out the choc buttons and place them in a metal bowl.

3) Pour the steaming cream into this bowl.

4) Start mixing from the middle using small circles till you get a smooth shiny texture. All the chocs buttons must be melted and mixed well.

5) Put this bowl in the freezer for 30mins to thicken the ganache till its spreadable consistency. Like the consistency of Nutella.  

6) Now start assembling the cake proper. Put the base of the cake onto the cake turntable. A turntable is essential as it helps in the smoothening of the ganache on the sides in a hasty fashion. On the base, drop a dollop of the ganache and spread it around into a small circle. This forms the glue to stick the banana cake to the cake base.  Place one of the banana cake over this and press a little in the centre.

7) Spread the ganache all over this banana cake using a slightly elevated palette knife. If the ganache is still too thin, pop it back into the freezer for 5-10 mins. The ganache is this pic is too thin. I popped the cake into the fridge too harden.

8) Place the other banana cake over this ganache covered banana cake and spread more ganache over the whole cake. The consistency in the pics below are better for spreading.

9) Start coating the sides of the cake with ganache too. It was already in the evening by the time I reached this stage of the cake decorating and the natural light had decreased. That explains the difference in the colour of the ganache.

10) Use a plastic icing smoother for smoothening the side of the cake. 

11) Place the little matte gold balls in a string along the top rim of the cake. Then,  just toss more of these balls over the top randomly. I did a bit of piping at the inner edge of the cake, but it looks quite amateurish as I'm so new to piping. 

12) Serve cold with a nice cup of plain English Breakfast Tea, my favourite! 

Best way to use over ripe bananas? In a cake or bread loaf of course! The recipe below is an easy fool proof recipe for a very basic banana cake. Just involves whisking and mixing and baking! I will post about finessing this cake into a luxurious knee buckling pretty sinful Choc Ganache Banana Cake in the next post.

Ingredients (for two 8 inch or three 6 inch round cakes) 
250gm self raising flour
1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda
150 gm caster sugar

4 over ripe bananas (roughly 480gm in weight with skin)
​130gm/ml vegetable oil (canola/grapeseed/sunflower)
3 eggs, beaten

​Method
​1) Preheat oven to 180 deg C fan mode. First peel and mash the bananas into a soggy mess. The bananas must be quite over ripe. The riper they are, the more fragrant and delicious the cake. 

2) Into this, add the vegetable oil and beaten eggs. Whisk them together and set aside.

3) Sieve the flour and baking soda first and then add the sugar. Mix well.

4) Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

5) Prepare 2  of 8 inch springform baking tin. Line the tins with baking sheet. I was making a double layered choc ganache cake today which explains why I have two tins lined with baking sheets. If you are using this recipe as a single cake, just pour the whole banana batter mix into one baking tin and bake (baking tin is slighly longer though at 40 -45 mins). For two cakes, measure the whole amount of batter without the mixing bowl and then divide by 2. Pare the kitchen scale  and then pour half of the amount into each tin. So for example, if the total amount of batter is 1060 gm, each baking tin should have 530gm of batter.

6) Bake at 180 deg C for 25-30 mins Fan mode.​

7) Use a slighly angled palette knife to loosen it on the sides and then disengage the base of the springform tin. Tip the cake over and place it right side up on a wire rack to cool.