Cholesterol-almost-free Banana Cake

This almost cholesterol free banana cake recipe comes from Debbie Lim - a yoga friend. While being full of fun and naughtiness (don’t be surprised if she does a Sirsasan or headstand smack-bang in the middle of a tedious lecture), she passed on this decidedly saintly yet tasty recipe that I had to try.

Apart from a sneaky sprinkle of dark chocolate, which you can leave out or substitute with raisins, this is cholesterol free. And the end result is just sweet enough to satisfy.

I added half a cup of Coconut milk, which I had in my fridge, and adjusted the quantity of flour to soak up the extra moisture.

In Debbie’s words, this cake should be “eaten at any time in the day, or when you feel you need some love and comfort”. A recipe for home baked comfort! You can only love that.

Here it is. Thank you Debbie!

Ingredients for one loaf

Half a cup of coconut milk

Half a cup of vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)

Three quarter cup of brown sugar

1 full tsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

Spices: 1 tsp cinnamon, half tsp nutmeg, pinch of ground cloves

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 inch grated ginger

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 cups of flour (Debbie recommends whole wheat, I used Kamut as it’s all that I had)

1 tsp baking soda (also known as bicarbonate soda)

1 tsp salt

Three quarter cup of dark chocolate chips (or plump, yellow sultanas)

Three quarters of chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Then in a large bowl, combine the moist ingredients: bananas, oil, coconut milk, apple cider vinegar. Add in the vanilla extract, sugar, salt and sift in the flour and baking soda. Fold in the chocolate chips (or raisins, if you prefer), walnuts, spices and ginger.

Spoon your mixture into a greased 8 inch cake pan, and place it in the oven to bake for around 50 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the cake comes out clean. (The smaller the tin, the less time you need: I created a few muffin-sized versions and reduce the cooking time to about 30 mins.)

That’s it! If you can serve it while warm, the home baked comfort score doubles up.

(You can probably store this in an airtight container for up to 3 days, I will be testing it over the next few days and will update this post if anything changes!)