Chocolate Banana Cake

It's been a long time since I did Nigella. First there was summer, which isn't really a cake season for me, though I did bake Chocolate Guiness for my brother-in-law's birthday and Chocolate Meringue Truffle for my mom's. Then it was fall and I was ready to bake, but I haven't had time. Plus there's the lack of interest in the remaining cakes problem. Then a few weeks ago, Nigella had a ridiculously-easy-looking chocolate banana cake in her column, and we even had browning bananas in the fruit bowl, but I didn't get to it.

This week I got to it.

Nigella's Chocolate Banana Cake is perhaps the easiest cake in the history of cake, as easy as my favorite Joy of Cooking brownie recipe where you just melt the butter, add everything to the pan, stir, pour, and bake. In fact, it's basically the same recipe except cocoa instead of melted chocolate, and bananas instead of no bananas, and sour cream--ok, it's not the same recipe. But it's just as easy, and in fact the girls did most of it, except for the heavy stirring and pouring the batter into the pan. And the icing, which I made long after they went to bed--with the Valrhona that we bought at the Very Nice Gourmet Shop (and which I apparently forgot to put on the list of things we bought at the Very Nice Gourmet Shop).

This cake is outstanding.

I kind of don't want to say any more, but you know me, why not say anything when you can go on and on? We ate it last night at Grammy and Grandpa's after vegetarian moussaka and a delicious salad (what did E eat? even less than usual--she went into the living room and fell asleep on the couch before she'd even finished her challah). The cake? Well, the cake was up there with Chocolate Guinness (hmm, rereading that post, I see that I am a bit repetitive when it comes to Nigella). It was beautiful (I just poured the icing on the top and let it a drip a bit down the side), moist (the bananas and sour cream), chocolatey (the Valrhona had the perfect bittersweet tang), and altogether exquisite. Everyone loved it. I'm guessing the rest will be eaten for breakfast--there isn't much left.

[Because the NY Times link thing is still bedevilling me (I tried the link generator, but it didn't work for this one), I am throwing copyright to the wind and cut-and-pasting the recipe below (I wish I could do that below the cut thing, but I don't know how that works either). This one's for you, Libby.

Chocolate Banana Cake
Time: 1 hour plus cooling

For the cake:
Vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray, for cake pan
3/4cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 3/4cups flour
2 1/2teaspoons baking powder
1/2teaspoon baking soda
1/4cup best-quality cocoa
1 cup sugar
2/3cup sour cream
1 1/2cups mashed banana (about 4 whole bananas)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Pinch of salt

For the icing:
1/2cup heavy cream
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Yellow sprinkles, optional.

1.For cake: heat oven to 325 degrees. Oil or spray a 9-inch springform cake pan and set aside. In a large saucepan over low heat, melt butter with olive oil. Remove pan from heat.

2.Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and sugar. Mix well. Add sour cream and mashed banana, and whisk to combine. In a small bowl or pitcher, whisk together vanilla extract, eggs and salt. Add to saucepan and whisk until smooth. Pour into cake pan.

3.Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Allow cake to cool on a rack for about 15 minutes, then remove springform and allow cake to cool completely before icing.

4.For icing: In a medium saucepan, combine cream, chocolate and corn syrup. Place over low heat, stirring gently with a spatula to avoid creating air bubbles, until mixture is very smooth. Place cake on a stand or a plate and spread icing over it with spatula. Garnish immediately with yellow sprinkles, if using.

Yield:One 9-inch cake, 10 to 12 servings.]