Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, and Sugar-Free Banana Chocolate Cake!
I love healthy cakes 🙂 What about you? And what if I told that we’re gonna make a healthy chocolate cake? 🙂 I’m sure there will be many more than eager to try. Of course, we should enjoy them in moderation 🙂
What I did here was I took the traditional recipe and transformed it into – obviously – a healthy one which remains true to my nutritional philosophy. I eliminated gluten and dairy products, and added bananas, which are ideally suited for this type of cakes. The recipe is very simple and quick. You can serve this cake to your friends when they drop by on a Saturday afternoon or snack away on it with your family during a Sunday picnic 🙂
Preparation
First, use a fork to mash the bananas in a small bowl. Next, place the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl, mix them, and add the banana you have just mashed. If you want to use chia seeds instead of an egg, then mix together 2 tablespoons of seeds with 4 tablespoons of hot water. When finished, place the dough in a small mould you have greased beforehand, and bake for around 40 minutes at 180°C.
How ripe the bananas should be
Spotted, soft, the ones nobody wants to eat raw any more. Their starch has turned to sugar by then, which is where most of the sweetness in this cake comes from, and they mash to a smooth pulp instead of leaving lumps that stay wet in the baked crumb.
Firm yellow bananas make a noticeably drier and blander cake, and no extra sweetener fixes the texture. If yours are not there yet, put them in a paper bag with an apple for a day, or bake them whole in their skins at 180°C for 15 minutes and let them cool before mashing.
Rice flour is not wheat flour
Rice flour has no gluten, so there is no dough structure to develop and nothing to overwork. Mix only until the batter is even. What it does need is time: rice flour absorbs liquid slowly, and a batter left to stand 10 minutes before it goes into the tin bakes up less gritty than one mixed and poured straight away.
The batter is thicker than a wheat sponge batter and does not pour so much as spread, which is normal. If it looks stiff enough to hold a spoon upright, add a splash more plant milk, because rice flour with too little liquid bakes dry.
The chia egg, if you skip the egg
Two tablespoons of chia seeds with four tablespoons of hot water need about 10 minutes to gel before they go into the batter. Used straight away they are still loose seeds in water and the cake will not hold together.
A chia egg binds but does not lift the way a real egg does, so the cake comes out denser and a little more moist. Ground chia gives a smoother crumb than whole seeds if you mind the speckles.
Baking, and how to tell it is done
A small tin is part of the recipe, not a detail. Spread the same batter into a large tin and you get a thin, dry layer in half the time. In a small tin the 40 minutes at 180°C are about right, though a chocolate batter hides its colour, so go by a skewer in the centre coming out with damp crumbs rather than wet batter.
Let the cake cool in the tin. Gluten-free cakes are fragile while hot and firm up as they cool, so turning one out early is the usual reason it breaks. It keeps three days in a tin at room temperature and freezes well in slices. If you would rather have baking like this planned into the week along with your meals, that is what the Diet & Training by Ann app does.
Banana chocolate cake, gluten free and dairy free
Ingredients
Method
- Mash the bananas in a small bowl with a fork.
- Put the remaining ingredients in a second bowl, mix, then add the mashed banana.
- To replace the egg, mix 2 tablespoons of chia seeds with 4 tablespoons of hot water and let the mixture gel for about 10 minutes before adding it.
- Pour the batter into a small greased tin.
- Bake for around 40 minutes at 180 C, until a skewer in the centre comes out with damp crumbs.
- Let the cake cool in the tin before turning it out.
Notes
Frequently asked questions
Spotted and soft, the ones nobody wants to eat raw any more. Their starch has turned to sugar by then, which is where most of the sweetness comes from, and they mash smooth instead of leaving lumps that stay wet in the baked crumb.
Any gluten free flour changes the texture, and rice flour is what the quantities here are set for. Oat flour absorbs more liquid and needs a splash more plant milk, while almond flour gives a much denser cake that bakes faster.
Mix 2 tablespoons of chia seeds with 4 tablespoons of hot water and leave the mixture about 10 minutes to gel before adding it. A chia egg binds but does not lift the way an egg does, so the cake comes out denser and a little moister.
Rice flour absorbs liquid slowly. Ten minutes between mixing and pouring gives it time to take up the plant milk, and the baked crumb is noticeably less gritty than in a batter poured straight away.
A chocolate batter hides its colour, so go by a skewer in the centre coming out with damp crumbs rather than wet batter. Let it cool in the tin, because gluten free cakes are fragile while hot. It keeps three days in a tin at room temperature and freezes well in slices. Baking like this comes planned into the week alongside your meals in the Diet & Training by Ann app.
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