Alan’s birthday is next week but we had to celebrate it last weekend as he was leaving to go back to Penang for the holidays. This year I decided to make him a chocolate banana cake inspired by the one sold in Secret Recipe in Malaysia. Their chocolate banana cake is one of my all time favourite. I was initially not going to decorate it this way but when I was removing it from the cake tin, I accidentally “rip” the chocolate ganache. As a result, I had to cover my ugly edges with chocolate wafers.
Chocolate Mud Cake
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
- 3/4 cup strong espresso
- 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 300g self-raising flour
- 75g plain flour
- 1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 185g unsalted butter, softened
- 330g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 180g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160C, and grease an 8 inch baking pan
- Mix cocoa powder, coffee, vanilla essence and 1/2 cup cold water in a bowl and whisk.
- Sift flour , bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt together.
- Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well each time.
- Stir in melted chocolate into egg mixture.
- Add the flour and cocoa mixture alternatively into egg mixture.
- Pour into pan and bake till set (approximately 1 – 1 1/2 hours).
White Chocolate Mousse and Banana Filling
Ingredients:
- 600ml thickened cream
- 450g white chocolate
- 3 banananas
Method:
- Melt cream and chocolate together in a medium saucepan over low heat till smooth.
- Transfer to a large bowl and refrigerate till just cold.
- Beat with electric mixer till mixture changes to a paler colour.
White Chocolate Mousse 2 (alternative to the above recipe):
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp water
- Lemon juice
- 2 tsp gelatine
- 2 cups chilled whipping cream
- 227gm white chocolate
Method:
- Combine 2 tbsp water + 6 tbsp lemon juice in saucepan. Sprinkle gelatine on top and let stand for 10 minutes to soften. Stir over low heat till gelatine dissolves. Set aside.
- Bring 1/2 cup of cream to simmer in a heavy saucepan. Remove from heat and pour over white chocolate. Stir till smooth.
- Whisk in gelatine mixture to white chocolate. Refrigerate to cool and beginning to thicken slightly. Whilst cooling, stir it often (every 10 minutes or so).
- Beat remaining 1.5 cups of cream till stiff peaks. Fold gently into white chocolate mixture.
- Layer cake with white chocolate mousse.
Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients:
- 250ml double cream
- 250g dark chocolate
Method:
- Melt cream and chocolate together in a double boiler.
- Leave to cool to room temperature then refrigerate it.
- Give it a good whisk.
Assembling
- Slice cake into 3 layers. Place bottom layer into a 9 inch springform tin.
- Cover with half the white chocolate mouse and top with slices of bananas.
- Top with next layer of cake and repeat above step.
- Top with the last slice of cake. Pour chocolate ganache over cake. Allow it to flow freely and it’ll cover the cake completely.
- Refrigerate to allow ganache to set. Decorate accordingly.
hey i’m from singapore and found your website while searching for recipe for the chocolate banana cake. there’s a few ingredients that i’m not very sure about.
1. the strong espresso is it those kind of espresso essence?
2. what is thickened cream and double cream? is there any specific brand?
sorry for having so many question because i only know how to bake one kind of cake. hope you can help. thanks in advance!!
Hi Jiayu,
How cool! I’m from Malaysia and before I came overseas I was unable to cook so hopefully you’ll have as much fun as I have had discovering the joy and wonders of cooking and baking.
Back to your question:
1.) The strong espresso here refers to an actual shot of coffee. It’s pretty common in Australia for people to have their own coffee machines at home or to just run to the nearest cafe for a shot of coffee. It might not be as easy for you in Singapore. You can use coffee essence if you want but they are not as strong in taste in comparison to real espressos.
2.) Thickened cream and double cream are the same. You can use any brand that is available to you.
Hopefully I’ve answered your questions. Enjoy!
PS: Let me know how you go with baking this cake. 🙂
Hi, I’m from Malaysia too but currently situated in Australia!
Anyway, I’m so glad to say I finally got all the ingredients and equipments needed to make this cake!!!!!! It’s gonna be for a very special event end of this month and I need to bake this cake! My questions are, I bought a springform pan but it’s NOT a non-stick one. I wanna make this cake and I’m afraid the sides of the cake will stick to the pan and I’ll not be able to release the cake easily. I saw some blogs mentioned that I can line the inner circumference of the springform cake pan with pectin/plastic cake tape but I do not have that in hand. Can I line it with parchment paper instead? Do I need to grease the pan? Wouldn’t the chocolate ganache be ripped off when you open up the latch of the springform pan? Also, how do you transfer the cake from the springform bottom pan to a nice board or serving plate? Will appreciate it if you elaborate your answers and make them idiot proof!
Thanks!
Hi Quinn,
Nice to hear from a fellow Malaysian. Please find below the responses to your questions:
1.) I use a springform pan as well. You can grease and line the sides and bottom with non-stick baking paper. Once the cake has cooled, use a knife and slide along the perimeter and the cake should release fine.
2.) As for ripping the ganache, I can’t really help you there. I’ve not succeeded in keeping my sides intact. 🙂 You could try placing the cake in a cake tin an inch more than the cake you made (eg: if your cake is 8″ then use a 9″ to set the ganache). Line it with cling wrap and hopefully when you remove it’ll not rip the ganache.
3.) I usually transfer my cakes onto the cake board then decorate.
Hopefully these answers have helped. Let me know how you go with the cake.
Cheers!
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Seems like you’ll somehow need to rip it off unless you make a thicker ganache and do like what others always do : Place the cake on a wire rack and pour ganache over it and let it fill each and every crevice and indentations within the cake. However, I always find this unsuccessful and messy. Not only the chocolate oozes right down below the wire rack (regardless of the ganache being chilled or at room temperature) even when it’s thick, it didn’t manage to fill up the crevices and indentations made from unmoulding of cake. Yes you can place a baking sheet underneath the wire rack to catch drips of chocolate. However, it is a hassle to have to scoop it back quickly and drizzle it on the chocolate again and repeating that over and over again. Thanks for sharing my passion. Will definetely come back here and let you know bout the cake. The magic date is 29 May! See you later….
hello!! i finally managed to bake the cake today!! thanks to your advice!! the Chocolate Ganache was quite a “disaster”. hope you don’t mind that i use ur idea to salvage the “crisis”. i’ll send some photos of the cake to ur email then?? thanks so much!! hope to try more recipes from you!
Hi, I was wondering if u have any problem slicing the cake in 3. Any secret in doing that? I read somewhere it’ll be better if we bake the cake and cool it in it’s pan, and then chill it in the fridge. chill well before slicing. some say freeze it too, makes it easy to work with. I’d love to hear your opinion on this, a million thanks!
Also, will the white chocolate mousse set without gelatin?
Will it melt quickly once taken out from fridge during serving?
I think I would like to set it with gelatin
Can you please advise how?
Thanks a bunch!
I saw your chocolate mud cake here:
and this recipe also calls for chocolate mud cake
I see that the only thing you tweak in the recipe is the flour
you used 300g of SRF in the chocolate banana cake and use 375g plain flour here in that chocolate mud cake.
You did not make any other variations for the baking soda nor did you add in any baking powder.
I saw your chocolate banana cake here:
and it also calls for chocolate mud cake
I see that the only thing you tweak in that recipe is the flour
you used 300g of SRF in that chocolate mud cake and use 375g plain flour here.
You did not make any other variations for the baking soda nor did you add in any baking powder.
Is that a typo or not?
I would love to try to bake my first cake for my girlfriend’s birthday which is around the corner and she loves secret recipe chocolate mud cake.
I thought I would use this chocolate mud cake as the sponge base until I spotted your lovely chocolate banana cake.
Now, I dunno which one to make and am wondering whether the flour amount and flour type is a typing error
Pls let me know asap, thanks a lot Pearlyn!
Is that a typo or not?
Hi Jiayu!
I’m sorry it took me some time to reply to your message as I’ve been really busy lately. So happy to hear that you’ve tried the cake! I would love very much to hear how it went and would love to receive your pictures. Just send it to my email pearlyn83@gmail.com.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Cheers!
Hi Quinn,
I am really very sorry for not replying to your questions. Please find below the responses to some of your queries:
1. I’ve never had much of a problem slicing my cakes. You definitely need to let it cool to room temperature. I’ve never tried freezing it before so I’m not too sure if that’s wise as the cake might be rock hard and even harder to slice after that. Let it completely cool and you shouldn’t have a problem slicing it.
2. Well, the white chocolate mousse will set without gelatin. I left mine out of the fridge for over 2 hours and it was fine. White chocolate is a bit tricky when it comes to making things like mousse and ganache due to its fat contents. I’ve seen some recipes that use gelatin or egg white to set it. Maybe you can try that.
3. You are right both chocolate mud cakes are basically from the same recipe. The first original chocolate mud cake recipe is the original from Delicious magazine and that uses 375g plain flour. Because I was making that chocolate mud cake as an engagement cake and needed something more dense in texture, I used 375g plain flour.
However, for my chocolate banana cake, I wanted a slightly fluffier texture and something that will rise more so I can slice it into 3 nice layers, I tweaked the recipe to 300g SRF and 75g plain flour. To be really honest, the cake wasn’t very much fluffier, probably just a little lighter, but it rose slightly more than the original recipe.
I hope I’ve managed to answer your questions. It’s really sweet of you to make this for your girlfriend. I would love to hear how you went with it.
Cheers!
Oh my God….you replied too late Pearlyn. I tweak this so much that I dunno how to describe. Feel free to drop by http://www.bakingquinn.blogspot.com
Oh no!I’m really sorry Quinn! I did have a look at your blog and it wasn’t that bad! What matters most is the taste and from the sounds of it I would love a slice myself! 🙂 Your other stuff looks incredible too. I was really impressed with your lavender tiramisu…never thought of a combo like that before!
Thanks!! just sent the photos to your email.
Hi Jiayu,
I have yet to receive your photos. Could you have emailed it to the wrong address? You might want to try again.
yup sure! maybe i was sent to your junk mail. i just used my gmail to send it again. so let me know if you got it!
Haha, thanks for the compliment Pearlyn! Really made my day but nothing beats your baking skills. Keep it up. I’m monitoring your blogs closely, haha!
I Luv ur website!!!!!<3~
Hi Pearl,
I found ur page thru google when i was looking for a recipe for choc banana cake. I had just baked it a moment ago. Very good indeed. Just that the time for baking is a bit too long for me. The baking of the cake was bit long too, 45 min and my cake was a little burnt. But I love the other parts of the cake. The sweetness was just nice. Overall it was good 🙂
By the way, I am a msian too 😉
Cheers
Jen
hello there…….
I’m from Malaysia and i got few question to ask
3/4 cup of strong espresso in what structure?powder or liquid
this is my first to bake a cake so…….don’t know what to do
and
how long the cake can stand of?
Hi Jen,
Glad to know you enjoyed the cake. The baking time does vary between ovens so you’ll probably need to adjust your baking time to what suits you best.
Are you in Malaysia now or overseas?
Cheers,
Pearlyn
Hi Chloe,
The espresso is in liquid form. If you don’t have access to freshly ground and made espresso, get the instant powdered ones from the supermarket and roughly mix 1-2tbsp to 3/4 cup water. It depends on how strong you want it to be.
What do you mean by how long can the stand of? Do you mean for how many days can it be stored? Well, if in Malaysia, you’ll need to refrigerate it and that should last 2-3days. With the weather back home, it’s not wise to leave it unrefrigerated. Bear in mind though that the longer you leave the cake in the fridge, the likelihood of it becoming dry is higher. So, I suggest you store it in an airtight container.
Cheers,
Pearlyn
HI Pearlyn,
I am currently studying in Glasgow, Scotland. Are you still studying in Tasmania?
Hey,
I’ve been wanting to make this in ages but never got around to finding the recipe.
Thanks very much for posting it!
If I were to substitute the ganache with a cream frosting, what would you suggest would be the best?
Many thanks!
Hi Liz,
Hhmm…cream frosting? Well I don’t often use cream frosting so the only one I can think of is the one I used for one of my DB challenges (https://pearlyn83.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/strawberry-gateau-2/). I really like this buttercream frosting and I thought it was beautiful. However, if you think it might result in the cake being too “white”, why not consider using a dark chocolate mousse for the layers and then covering with this buttercream frosting. If not, you can always keep the white chocolate mousse layer and go for a traditional chocolate frosting. Try sites like taste.com or epicurious.com as they do have some interesting recipes there sometimes.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Pearlyn
Hi Pearlyn,
Plan to make this choc banana cake for my sister birthday and have some questions for you.
Could i just substitute the mouse with choc flavour whipping cream specifically for topping? Haha, will be much easier where i just need to whip it. So do you think it’s allright?
Secondly, could i replace the ganache with milk ganache? Have you tried it? Well i tend to always avoid using whipping cream or double cream as i always could not whip it to the right consistensy and i found 1 recipe of milk ganache that use milk instead of whipping cream. So was wondering will it work the same way?
Very much appreciated!
Cheers!
Hi Vanessa,
Sorry for the late reply. My hard drive died so been having problems getting online.
Anyway, you can substitute the mousse wit choc whipped cream. Just make sure you let it set properly or else the cake might not hold its shape very well.
My ganache recipe doesn’t require the need to whip it. You just melt the choc and cream together and let it cool. When it cools down, it’ll thicken by itself. I’ve never tried a milk ganache recipe before so not sure if that’ll work. If you’ve tried it and it’s worked in the past, I don’t see why it won’t work now.
Cheers,
Pearlyn
Hi there my first time here and love the ganache…..yum!
Hey 🙂
Im just wondering – do the bananas for your cake have to be old bananas?
The cake looks amazing by the way!
Thanks for sharing:)
Leanne
Hi Leanne,
No, the bananas don’t have to be old bananas.
Cheers,
Pearlyn
Hi! was wondering abt cutting the cake into 3 layers before adding the cream in between.
Would it be a better idea to make the three layers separately?
Hi Gerry,
Lotsa recipes do recommend that you make the layers separately. I however often do not have the time to bake 3 separate layers. Plus I’ve never had an issue splitting my cakes into a few layers. Therefore I find it more time and cost efficient to make one cake.
Cheers,
Pearlyn
I tried making the cake and there are some weird outcomes.
For one the cake I made is more fudgy than spongy such that it wouldnt hold its shape or even allow me to cut it. Is something wrong there? Should I follow a sponge cake instead of a mud cake?
secondly is the white choc filling. Its too liquid to be a filling and it seeped into the cake. Its not creamy and solid like it is supposed to be. What is wrong here?
Hope u can give me some advice. Thanks
Hi,
With regards to your cake, I’m not too sure what went wrong there. This recipe does not result on soft, spongy cake if that was what you were expecting. It’s slightly lighter than a mud cake but a bit denser than a sponge cake. I found this texture to be best especially when tiering a few layers cos the cake doesn’t sink when you layer it.
As for the white chocolate mousse, due to the delicacy of white chocolate when it goes through heat, it can get lumpy and result in what might have been your outcome. You’ll find that after you slightly refrigerate it to just cool, it’s thicken slightly and would just be nice, glossy, smooth and thick. Once you’ve whipped it, it shouldn’t be wet and liquidy. I’ll post up another recipe. Try it and it might be better.
Cheers,
Pearlyn
Hi thanks for your advice.
I managed to make the cake out with lots of trouble.
Firstly I cant get the cake’s texture to be the one like in Secret Recipe: Soft, spongy and rich. Mine is not spongy but more fudgy and crumb like texture. And it collapsed a little bit here and there. Not sure what went wrong. I was thinking the problem lies with the beating of the cake mixture part or maybe its something else.
Secondly, I had trouble with the white choc mousse. I melt the white choc in the cream and beat it using a hand mixer. However I keep beating it but the texture did not become solid and creamy and smooth like the one in Secret Recipe. It remain fluid for a long time until it started to thicken after beating for very long. But after beating for another 5 mins, the cream started to separate into fluid and solid cream if you know what I mean. Then I left it in the fridge and the next day it sort of become and ice cream texture. Not creamy nor soft like the real one.
So what went wrong? Can you give me some advice on how to make it perfect? If I can get these two issues right, the cake will be perfect. Thanks a million
Hi Gerry,
Sorry for the late reply. I’ve answered most of your questions in my previous reply. I’m understanding that most people are starting to think this cake is exactly like Secret Recipe’s but it’s not. It’s more like a cake inspired by the one at Secret Recipe. I’ve not found a really good, rich chocolate sponge cake recipe just yet so this cake is more an in between a sponge and mud cake. It is a beautiful cake simply because of the flavours in it. If you throw in a bit of alcohol, it’s just amazing.
Cheers,
Pearlyn
Hi Pearlyn,
I’ve been looking for a similar recipe for the chocolate banana secret recipe cake and came across yours. Does this cake taste similar or different from the secret recipe version. Just wanted to know before I started baking it. Looks awesome with the love letters and all!
Hi. Thanks for the advise.
So what is wrong with the mousse? about the beating part of the mousse?
hi pearlyn,
i notice ur White Chocolate Mousse and Banana Filling ingredients include 3 banana but the method never state what to do with them. I would like to try to make this cake!
I use 375g self-raising flour, bake for 20 over min and the cake smell burn and its turned hard !! what’s wrong ?
I honestly do not know June. Many people seem to be struggling with this recipe but I’ve never had an issue. Everything I could possibly answer, I’ve already answered previously
do i need to beat the mixture till stif?
Hi Ann,
No. Just beat the egg yolk mixture till silky and it runs down in a smooth trail.
Hi. do you have any good tested recipe for a mars bars cake?
Hello. I would like to make this cake, but I have a dilemma: you said in the recipe to use 3/4 cup of espresso and 1/2 cup of water. That’s 5/4 cup (aprox. 295 ml) of liquid in total. Is that correct? Isn’t that too much liquid?