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Home » Recipes » Loaf Cakes

Banana and Chocolate Loaf

December 12, 2019 by Lynn Hill 7 Comments

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This easy to make Banana and Chocolate Loaf is one of the best ways to use up overripe bananas. Spelt Flour and soft brown sugar add a slightly nutty flavour that I'm sure you will love.

Banana and Chocolate Loaf with a bunch of bananas on a serving plate.

Hardly a week goes by that I don't have a couple of overripe bananas left in my fruit bowl. You can use 'ready to eat' fruit in this recipe, but overripe ones will give a much sweeter flavour to any Banana Loaf or Cake recipe.

This recipe is adapted from my Spiced Banana and Hazelnut Loaf. Which has added flavours of Mixed Spice and Crunchy Hazelnuts. It also uses Spelt Flour.

If you're a bit of a chocoholic, try this Chocolate Tiffin or this Easy Chocolate Tray Bake Topped with a Chocolate Glaze. Have yourself a chocolate feast.

What you Need to Make a Banana and Chocolate Loaf.

Ingredients for Chocolate and Banana Loaf

  • Spelt Flour - I've been using Spelt Flour quite a lot. I find it has a slightly nutty taste and I use it in a lot of my pastry tart recipes too.
  • Plain Flour - If you don't want to use a mix of Spelt and Plain Flour. You can use all Plain Flour as an alternative to Spelt Flour
  • Ripe Bananas - You can still use Ready To Eat Fruit, but the riper they are the better.
  • Soft Brown Sugar - White Caster sugar will be fine.
  • Cocoa Powder - Use 100%. Avoid using drinking chocolate. It may contain added sugars or sweeteners.
  • Baking Powder - This is needed if you are using Spelt or Plain Flour which doesn't contain any raising agent

How to Make Banana and Chocolate Loaf

Step by Step Instructions for Banana and Chocolate Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C. (Fig 1) Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until lighter in colour with a creamy texture. If needed, scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go along.
  • (Fig 2) Add the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour to help prevent curdling. Mix, until well combined.
  • (Fig 3) Sieve the flours, baking powder and cocoa powder together, then add to the cake batter. Add any residual wholemeal husks left from the wholemeal spelt flour. Mix until well combined.
  • (Fig 4) Mash the bananas, then add to the cake batter, along with the vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
  • (Fig 5) Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for approx 50 minutes, or until baked. Testing the centre of the cake with a skewer until it comes out clean.
  • Leave in the tin for 10 – 15 minutes to cool a little before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Slices of cake on a grey patterned plate

Baker's Tips

  • This cake with keep in an airtight tin for a couple of days.
  • Use Overripe or Ready to Eat Bananas.
  • If you don't have Spelt Flour, use plain instead. But note that the flavour and texture will be slightly different
  • Using brown sugar adds depth and flavour to baking. But white caster sugar will be fine.
  • Optional - Drop a few chocolate chips or nuts into the cake batter before baking.

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If you make this recipe, please leave a comment with a rating, to let me know how you got on.

This post was first published in March 2019 and has since been updated with new images and additional information.

Slices of cake on a grey patterned plate

Banana and Chocolate Loaf

Lynn Hill
This easy to make Banana and Chocolate Loaf is one of the best ways to use up ripe bananas. Spelt Flour and soft brown sugar add a slightly nutty flavour that I’m sure you will love.
4.75 from 4 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe Saved Recipe!
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 50 mins
Total Time 1 hr 5 mins
Course Afternoon Tea
Cuisine British
Servings 8
Calories 333 kcal

Equipment

  • 900g/2lb loaf tin
  • Stand Mixer
  • Baking Parchment

INGREDIENTS

  • 150 g butter softened
  • 150 g soft brown sugar
  • 2 eggs medium sized
  • 125 g wholemeal spelt flour
  • 100 g plain flour
  • ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 2 large ripe bananas
  • ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
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Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until lighter in colour with a creamy texture. If needed, scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go along.
  • Add the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour to help prevent curdling.
  • Sieve the flours, baking powder and cocoa powder together, then add to the cake batter. Add any residual wholemeal husks left from the wholemeal spelt flour. Mix until well combined.
  • Mash the bananas and add to the Cake Batter, along with the Vanilla Extract. Mix until well combined.
  • Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for approx 50 minutes, or until baked, testing the centre of the cake with a skewer until it comes out clean.
  • Leave in the tin for 10 – 15 minutes to cool a little before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

BAKER’S TIPS

  • This cake with keep in an airtight tin for a couple of days.
  • Use Overripe or Ready to Eat Bananas.
  • If you don’t have Spelt Flour, use plain instead. But note that the flavour and texture will be slightly different
  • Using brown sugar adds depth and flavour to baking. But white caster sugar will be fine.
  • Optional – Drop a few chocolate chips or nuts into the cake batter before baking.

Nutrition

Calories: 333kcalCarbohydrates: 40gProtein: 5gFat: 17gSaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 81mgSodium: 156mgPotassium: 102mgFiber: 3gSugar: 18gVitamin A: 528IUCalcium: 41mgIron: 2mg
Keyword easy bake, spelt
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« Chocolate Tiffin
Homemade Lemon Yogurt Loaf Cake »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Katya Launder

    June 27, 2020 at 9:43 pm

    Nice bake, well received by fussy dad on father's day! I used plain wholemeal instead of spelt as it was what I had. Thanks Lynn.

    Reply
    • Lynn

      June 28, 2020 at 5:27 am

      Thank you, Katya. I'm so pleased it was liked on Father's Day. Wholemeal flour is an ideal alternative to Spelt.

      Reply
  2. Jean Lacey

    June 05, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    Hi Lynne, I have some rye flour. Would that work in place of the spelt flour?

    Reply
    • Lynn

      June 05, 2020 at 4:44 pm

      I've had other bakers report that Rye Flour is a great alternative to Spelt flour as it's worked well on other similar recipes. It's still in short supply in my area, I'm looking forward to getting hold of some.

      Reply
  3. Jo

    December 13, 2019 at 5:57 am

    5 stars
    This is delicious. There’s a good balance in flavours between the Banana & chocolate

    Reply
  4. Deb Money

    March 21, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    Looking forward to trying this, but I don’t have spelt flour...can you use ordinary flour, and if so, how much?

    Reply
    • Lynn

      March 21, 2019 at 5:24 pm

      Yes Deb. Use the same amount but in plain flour. So the total amount of plain flour would be 225g. You will still need the baking powder.
      Alternatively, you could use 225g self raising flour, but you won't need the baking powder as that's already in the Self Raising flour. These are only suggestions and the sort of thing I would do when I don't have sufficient flours. I'm always mixing and matching.

      Reply

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