Chocolate Banana Loaf

All I have to do is tell you that I made this chocolate banana loaf and it was easy and it is delicious and the chocolate definitely is an improvement on just a plain, old banana loaf, especially if you really like chocolate, which I do and if you are only mildly passionate about banana cakes, which I am.

And I have to remember to tell you to make all the icing and not be like me one time when I wrote a strange note on this recipe telling me that half the icing was more than enough.  I lied.  I don’t know why I lied back then as I haven’t made this loaf in a while.  So I made half the icing because I believed what I said back then.  I was wrong.

All you need to know then is that you really, really should slather it with the all the chocolate icing because if you are anything like me, you know that this is the best part and if you don’t, you will regret it.

That was all I had to say.

The loaf is my entry for this month's Sweet New Zealand hosted by After Taste.

Chocolate Banana Loaf

150g (5½oz) butter, at room temperature

150g (5½oz) muscovado sugar

150g (5½oz) dark chocolate (I used 72% Whittakers Dark Ghana)

2 bananas, mashed

3 eggs, beaten

200g (7oz) plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

Icing

100g (3½oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces

25g (1oz) butter

50g (1¾oz) icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).

Grease and line the base and sides of a 900g (2lb) loaf tin.

In a medium saucepan, gently heat the butter, sugar and chocolate until melted.  Stir well and remove from heat.

Add the banana and eggs, then sift in the flour and baking powder.  Mix until smooth.

Pour the mix into the loaf tin.   Bake for about 1 hour or so until the cake feels firm when pressed in the middle with your fingers.

Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing

Melt the chocolate and butter in a small non-stick pan.  Sift in the icing sugar then stir in the milk and beat well.  Spread over the top of the cake using a palette knife.  Leave to set.