If you’ve got some over-ripe bananas, don’t throw them away! Make this delicious cake instead. The aromatic cardamom and dark chocolate go so well with the sweet banana, it’s something a little different but absolutely glorious served with a strong cup of black tea.

Ingredients:

• 3 large ripe bananas
• 75ml vegetable oil
• 100g brown sugar (I used coconut sugar)
• 200g self-raising flour
• 25g cocoa/cacao powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 6 cardamom pods
• 100g dark chocolate

Method:

• Heat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/gas 6. Mash two and a half of the bananas in a large mixing bowl with a fork, reserving half of a banana for later. Add the oil and sugar and mix together well.
• Next add the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and combine all ingredients together.
• In a pestle and mortar, crush the cardamom pods to extract the seeds. Carefully remove the outer casing and grind the seeds into a fine powder. Add the cardamom to the cake batter.
• Now chop up the dark chocolate and put half into the cake batter, and stir everything up well.
• Grease and line an 8 inch square cake pan and place the batter in the pan. Decorate the top with the reserved banana (sliced) and remaining dark chocolate. Bake for around 20 minutes, or until a skewer or knife comes out clean.
• Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing and eating!

This cake is the perfect tea time treat, and it works perfectly well with self-raising wholemeal flour, if you’d like to make it a little healthier.

• 

Enjoy! 🌱