Chocolate Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting

It's been gray and rainy here for the past couple of days, which made me to want to turn on the oven and bake something chocolately. We had a very ripe banana, so I thought I would try a chocolate banana cake. When Michael tried it, he said it tasted like a chocolate-covered banana. So if you like chocolate and bananas, then this is the cake for you.

To make the cake I adapted the following recipe for chocolate banana cake. I used a chocolate sour cream frosting because I wanted one with a bit of a tang to it; however, you could also use the chocolate ganache frosting described in the original recipe.

Chocolate Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting
makes an 8"x8" cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 3/4 cup and 2 Tbsp. Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free flour
• 1/4 cup and 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder. I use Ghirardelli natural unsweetened cocoa.
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 medium banana)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup Lactaid milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract. Use Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract or another vanilla extract that does not have corn syrup and is preferably alcohol-free, since the alcohol could be derived from corn.
• 1 cup chocolate chips. The two kinds I have found that do not contain milkfat are Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips.
• 1/2 cup sour cream or creme fraiche. Do not use a low-fat sour cream, and check the sour cream to make sure it does not contain dextrose, other corn products, or additives.
  

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8"x 8" baking pan. In a large bowl stir together all of the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together the egg, mashed banana, warm water, milk, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Pour the batter into the baking pan and put in the oven to bake for 35 to 40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack.

When the cake is cool, melt the chocolate chips in a small sauce pan over low heat. Stir frequently so that the chocolate does not burn. When the chips have melted, remove the pot from the stove and stir in the sour cream. Spread the frosting on the cake immediately.