Marbled Banana Bundt Cake

I have been searching for a good banana cake recipe for the longest time. And believe me, I have collected a few recipes but as usual I sat on it. But when I saw Ann's very unusual looking Best Banana Bundt Cake, I was immediately sold! This recipe is originally from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook "Baking : From My Home to Yours". Ann said that this recipe has gotten very good reviews and it is in her opinion that this recipe is awesome and definitely a keeper.

It was just as well that I had plenty of ripe bananas leftover after I baked my Nutella Banana Muffins. I also bought a tub of sour cream. My auntie told me that sour cream is an important ingredient in banana cakes, and this recipe uses 200g of sour cream. Of course I did not want to be left with 50g of leftover sour cream so I just dumped the whole tub in. And as usual, I like to be a busybody and mess around with other people's recipe. My friend K. Nor refers to this as an "act of treason" (menderhaka) to the original recipe. Something that she does every now and then hee..hee...

I decided to make this banana cake into a chocolate marbled banana cake as I love the combination of chocolate and bananas. Besides, I wanted to try out the marbling techniques that I have watched on You Tube. I also wanted to bake this cake in a bundt pan so that the pan that my auntie gave me would be well used.

Whenever I am trying out a new recipe, I tend to get nervous.  However, my fears were unfounded with this lovely cake. It is always exciting to remove the cake from the pan. When I flipped it over, it came out very easily and I can't tell you how happy I was when this came out :

It smelled so wonderful, the mingling of chocolate and bananas and when I tasted my first slice, mmmm....I nodded my head in appreciation. Ann was right. This banana cake is awesome and is a keeper. It is moist, full of flavors and is a delight to the senses. I will definitely be baking this cake again. And maybe next time, I'll be a little bit extravagant and drizzle some chocolate ganache over top. Oooo....can't wait for that!

Marbled Banana Bundt Cake

Recipe Source : Adapted from Anncoo Journal

Ingredients :

- 300g self-raising flour

- 250g butter

-150g sugar

- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

- 2 eggs

- 4 very ripe bananas (about 370g without skin), mashed

- 1 tub sour cream (250ml)

- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder mixed with 3 tablespoons hot water to make a paste

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 160C

2. Butter and flour the bundt pan and set aside

3. Sieve flour in a mixing bow and set aside

4. In a mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and continue beating until pale and fluffy.

5. Beat in vanilla, and add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

6. Fold in mashed bananas (from here onwards I used a spatula to fold)

7. Mix in half the flour, fold gently and add all the sour cream followed by the remaining flour. Mix well.

8. Divide batter into two.

9. Mix one portion with the cocoa paste.

10. Alternate dollops of the plain batter and chocolate batter until all batter have been used up.

11. Using a butter knife, gently swirl the batter.

12. Bake for 65-75 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean (My cake was done in 45 minutes).

13. Put cake pan on a cooling rack and wait for 20 minutes before unmoulding the cake onto a rack to cool to room temparature.