Chocolate banana cake

Ingredients

100ml sunflower oil, plus extra to grease

175g caster sugar

175g self-raising flour

half tsp bicarbonate of soda

4 tbsp cocoa powder

100g chocolate chips or chunks

175g very ripe bananas

3 medium eggs, 2 separated

50ml milk

For the topping

100g milk chocolate

100ml soured cream

handful dried banana chips, roughly chopped

 

Method

1. Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment (allow it to come 2cm above top of tin). Mix the sugar, flour, bicarb, cocoa and chocolate in a large bowl.

2. Mash the bananas in a bowl and stir in the whole egg plus 2 yolks, followed by the oil and milk. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Quickly stir the wet banana mixture into the dry ingredients, stir in a quarter of the egg whites to loosen the mixture, then gently fold in the rest. Gently scrape into the tin and bake for 1 hr 10-15 mins, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

3. Cool in the tin on a wire rack. To make the icing, melt the chocolate and soured cream together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Chill in the fridge until spreadable. Remove cake from tin, roughly swirl icing over and scatter with the banana chips.