This chocolate banana cake is the perfect summer dessert. It’s full of chocolate flavor, rich, fudgy, and decadent. The best part? This chocolate banana cake contains only two ingredients! The recipe is vegan (dairy-free, egg-free), grain-free (gluten-free), soy-free, nut-free, and refined sugar-free.
Chocolate is an incredibly versatile ingredient!
Of course, you can add chocolate to almost any mixture – fold it into cupcakes, stir it into cookies, or whip it into buttercream. Chocolate is a great way to add cocoa opulence to any baked good.
BUT there are also recipes where chocolate is the main ingredient. This chocolate banana cake is a great example. The chocolate in this cake provides not only flavor but also structure. For instance, you could replace the banana puree with pumpkin puree, and the cake would turn out the same. The fruit puree just prevents the chocolate from returning to its solid form.
Other similar recipes include chocolate fudge, nice cream, or chocolate ganache. In fact, the chocolate ganache I used for this chocolate banana cake consists only of chocolate and cashew milk. That’s it.
All these desserts are best served cold as they rely purely on chocolate to firm up. No need to turn the oven on!
Tips for Making Chocolate Banana Cake
Ingredients
The best part about this chocolate banana cake is that you only need two ingredients to make it:
- Chocolate: the type of chocolate you use is completely up to you. If you like sweet desserts, use semi-sweet chocolate. If you prefer less sweet desserts, go with dark chocolate. I typically use 70% chocolate or a combination of 70% and 85% dark chocolate. And of course, if you have the time, make your own chocolate.
- Bananas: I like this recipe the most with ripe, but not overripe bananas. I find that overripe bananas have a strong, intense banana flavor. On the other hand, perfectly ripe bananas are pleasantly sweet with a distinctively fruity flavor.
How to Make Chocolate Banana Cake
While there’s nothing difficult about this cake, here’re a few tips to make sure your cake turns out perfectly:
- Set up a double boiler. Add a few inches of water to a medium saucepan and top it with a stainless-steel bowl slightly larger than the circumference of the saucepan. The bowl should create a seal with the bottom saucepan to trap the steam produced by the hot water. Ensure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water – this would cause the chocolate to get too hot. Bring the water to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Once the water is hot, turn the heat to the lowest setting.
- Melt the chocolate. Add the chocolate to the stainless steel bowl set over the saucepan and melt the chocolate, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is completely smooth.
- Blend. Add the melted chocolate and bananas to a high-speed blender and blend on high until smooth. Be careful not to overblend the mixture otherwise the batter will get too liquidy. Alternatively, you could also mash the bananas with a fork, pour in the melted chocolate, and mix until smooth. You should end up with a thick but pourable batter.
- Pour the batter into a springform pan. Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased 6-inch/15-cm springform pan and spread it evenly, smoothing out the top. Tap out any air bubbles.
- Chill. Transfer the chocolate banana cake to the freezer to firm up, for about 2 hours. The more frozen the cake, the easier and cleaner the removal from the pan.
- Serve. Once set, remove the chocolate banana cake from the springform pan. Cut the cake when it’s still semi-frozen to get nice and symmetrical slices and then store the individual slices in the refrigerator so they’re ready to eat.
Note: The chocolate banana cake photos were taken with double the amount of cake batter. I actually prefer a flatter cake for this recipe, so I halved the recipe for the recipe box. If you’d like your cake to look like the one in the photos, use a 6-inch springform pan and double the recipe.
How to Store Chocolate Banana Cake
- Refrigerating: transfer the chocolate banana cake to an airtight container and refrigerate it for up to 1 week.
- Freezing: transfer the chocolate banana cake to an airtight container and freeze it for up to 1 month.
More Chocolate Cake Recipes
- Chocolate cake: this dessert is everything you want in a chocolate cake – perfectly rich and creamy, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Nutella tart: this tart is an easy no-bake dessert perfect for chocolate lovers! It has a soft, chewy crust and a smooth chocolaty Nutella filling – great for holidays or even a date night.
Chocolate Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups dark or semi-sweet chocolate , finely chopped
- 3 medium bananas
Instructions
- Set up a double boiler. Add a few inches of water to a medium saucepan and top it with a stainless-steel bowl slightly larger than the circumference of the saucepan. The bowl should create a seal with the bottom saucepan to trap the steam produced by the hot water. Ensure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water – this would cause the chocolate to get too hot. Bring the water to a gentle simmer over medium-low heat. Once the water is hot, turn the heat to the lowest setting.
- Melt the chocolate. Add the chocolate to the stainless steel bowl set over the saucepan and melt the chocolate, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is completely smooth.
- Blend. Add the melted chocolate and bananas to a high-speed blender and blend on high until smooth. Be careful not to overblend the mixture otherwise the batter will get too liquidy. Alternatively, you could also mash the bananas with a fork, pour in the melted chocolate, and mix until smooth. You should end up with a thick but pourable batter.
- Pour the batter into a springform pan. Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased 6-inch/15-cm springform pan and spread it evenly, smoothing out the top. Tap out any air bubbles.
- Chill. Transfer the chocolate banana cake to the freezer to firm up, for about 2 hours. The more frozen the cake, the easier and cleaner the removal from the pan.
- Serve. Once set, remove the chocolate banana cake from the springform pan. Cut the cake when it's still semi-frozen to get nice and symmetrical slices and then store the individual slices in the refrigerator so they're ready to eat.
- Store. Leftover chocolate banana cake keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. For longer-term storage, freeze in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
Petra, I am going to make this for SURE! How simple! You always have such wonderful and beautiful recipes. I hope Tanner and the little ones are doing well! Have a wonderful day! Kristi
Hi Kristi! Thank you for such kind feedback! Hope you love the recipe! And yes, we’re all doing well 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Can you please specify the chocolate amount in grams or ounces.
Hi Orly – for sure! It’s actually already in the recipe box. You just need to click on “metric” (there’s a green text under the ingredients in the recipe box) and the ingredient amounts will automatically switch.
Thank you, Petra for another delicate and delicious recipe. I’ll soon try it and I’m certain I’ll love it as I previously made similar desserts, at the same time I just put it in the fridge as the chocolate once cooled down firms the cake. Additionally, I fully agree with your comments on heavy metals in almost all chocolates. I only buy organic, NON-GMO verified and I read labels, as I definitely don’t want soy lecithin either in my chocolate. BTW, I just saw your “Nutella” cake and will try it in the coming days. I love Nutella but I don’t buy it because of all the unhealthy and harmful ingredients it contains. As a functional health practitioner, I’m very attentive to what I put in or on my body.