Wholegrain Banana Cake

I saw this yummy and healthy cake recipe on a blog - Chef In You - when I was looking for an eggless banana cake to use up some over ripe elaichi bananas. I did some changes in it, like used my Granola Squares recipe to change the topping a bit & used olive oil instead of butter. The cake was moist & little chewy due to toffee chips & granola topping, and also a little heavier due to wheat flour. But everyone just loved it :)

Ingredients serves 8

Crunch Topping

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp butter, melted

1/4 cup chopped cranberries or raisins

Cake Batter

1/2 cup oat flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar

3/4 cup mashed bananas 

1/4 cup yogurt 

1 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup chocolate or toffee chips (optional)

Method

Crunch Topping 

Dry roast everything except cranberries or raisins.

Combine all the dry ingredients & add melted butter, brown sugar & cranberries.

Cake Batter

Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease & dust a cake pan.

Whisk together the flours, soda, baking powder & salt. 

Mix nuts & chocolate chips in flour & keep aside.

Cream together oil & sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Add in bananas, yogurt & vanilla. 

Add the flour & keep folding gently.

Add milk & fold, but remember to end with flour.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until the edges pull away from the pan & a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool on a rack and serve warm as it is or with ice cream.

Tips

* Powder regular oats to get oats flour.

* You can use butter instead of olive oil.

* I used small (elaichi) bananas (had over ripe ones, & its not good to waste anything), but you can use big ones.

* For crunch topping you can use my recipe of Granola Squares

* I would suggest that you taste the batter before baking & accordingly add sugar in the topping.

* You can use curds instead of yogurt, but do remember to add extra sugar if using curds.