Banana Walnut Choco Chip Cake

Though I bake everyday, it has been ages since I posted anything new on my blog. Last year saw lots of changes in my life and somehow I lost the drive to type and type and post. I had to close down my website due to maintenance issues. Got back to blogger platform. And then yesterday I received a message on fb messenger. Someone had bookmarked my website and naturally she could not find it anymore. She asked me if I was still baking. Yes, I am always baking but had somehow lost the will to post them. Her sweet words made me realise that there are people out there who love my recipes and are looking forward to them. It was a great lift-me-up. So now I am back to posting and I will really try to be regular about it.

Starting off the new year with a Banana cake. A rich one too!! And of course a yumm one!

Ingredients

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

½ cup choco chips

1 cup walnuts, roasted and pounded ( should resemble pebble shape)

1 cup oil

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed

2/3 cup yogurt

1 tbsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius. Line and grease a loaf tin.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add the choco chips and pounded walnuts and mix well.

Beat together sugar and oil for 2 minutes. Add one egg at a time and keep beating well till the batter looks pale and fluffy. Add the mashed bananas and beat. Add the yogurt and vanilla essence and beat well again. Fold in the flour mix. Pour the batter into the loaf tin. Bake for 40 minutes.

3 Chip Brownie

There is something about Brownies. Whenever I see one in a shop I have to try it out. Whenever I see a new recipe I have to bake it. For someone who loves chocolate a brownie is the ultimate decadence.
I have often been asked what the difference is between a brownie and a chocolate cake. Both have flour, eggs and cocoa powder. The difference lies in the proportion which changes the texture. You might have noticed that brownies are denser and fudgier while cakes are lighter and spongier. Generally brownies have more cocoa powder or chocolate and cakes have more flour. The brownies are dense in the middle and tend to be heavy.
Since chocolate is a key component in brownies I decided to make most of it. Instead of just dark chocolate I used 3 kinds of chips- dark choc chips, white choco chips and butterscotch chips. This made the decadent brownie “decaden-ter”!! if you don’t have choco chips you can simply grate the two kinds of chocolates, melt them in a double boiler and add to the batter. Top with cashews if you want. I have added the cashews to the batter


Ingredients

100 gms dark chocolate chips
100 gms white chocolate chips
½ cup butterscothch chips
½ cup oil
½ cup butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup castor sugar
4 eggs, beaten
½ cup cashews, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix together sifted flour, baking powder and sugar.
Melt the dark choc chips with butter and oil on a double boiler. Whisk well and keep aside. After it cools down a bit add the beaten eggs and mix well. Fold in the flour mix, butterscotch chips and chopped cashews. Pour batter into a cake tin. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.