When I was first dating Josh his mum wanted to bake me a cake. He still lived with his mum (at 29 years old), so when I visited him, I visited her too. Amanda loves to bake, but didn’t know how she was going to make a vegan cake. A quick google, with the help of Josh’s cousin Caroline, and she came across a banana date cake. I was not gluten free at the time, but when Caleb came along Amanda baked this cake for him, and he loved it, so as we became gluten free as a family, 7 years ago now, I had to adapt the recipe. This is how it ended up…and I replaced the dates with chocolate, because we all prefer it that way!

This is a cake I whip up when someone is coming over and I haven’t had time to make something more elaborate, or just if we have loads of bananas to use up. A firm favourite, that is quickly devoured. I hope you enjoy it.

Gluten free, vegan and refined sugar free

Makes 1lb cake (the recipe can easily be doubled for a 2lb loaf tin, but of course the baking time will be longer)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour (you can also use teff flour)

• 1/3 cup ground almonds

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 2 mashed ripe bananas

• 1/4 cup maple syrup

• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

• 3/8 cup of dairy free milk (I use homemade almond milk)

• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips (I use these from Real Food Source as they are sweetened with coconut sugar)

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Mix the 2 flours and the bicarbonate of soda into a bowl (I sieve the bicarb so there are no lumps in the cake).

3. Mash the bananas in a separate bowl, and then add in the extra virgin olive oil and the maple syrup.

4. Mix the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir well. Add in the milk a bit at a time. You want a thick consistency but it does need to slowly be able to fall off the spoon (not too easily though because otherwise the cake is too wet).

5. Mix in the chocolate chips.

6. Pour mixture into a lined 1lb loaf tin. You can decorate with a banana sliced in half, as shown here.

7. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until it springs back when pressed, and nicely browned. You can also check it with a cake skewer, but be conscious the chocolate will be melted and you may hit a bit of banana, so don’t confuse these with the cake not being done.

8. Let cool completely, as otherwise it won’t slice well. Enjoy!

(I told you everyone loved it…look at these longing looks as I tried to take the photos earlier!)

Tag me @rochelle.a.hubbard on Instagram if you make it! I’d love to see it. You can also join me on Telegram here.