Mother's Day Chocolate & Banana Loaf

Happy Mother's Day to my Mum and all those other Mums out there for tomorrow! This Chocolate and Banana Cake hasn't been made because I'm obsessed with recipes with featuring the yellow fruit, despite the fact that previous recipes might indicate otherwise! I've chosen to make it as I heard about an initiative Breakthrough Breast Cancer are running for Mother's Day. This amazing charity has linked up with the author Jane Green to release a free downloadablerecipe book to encourage people to get cooking for for their Mums. The recipe book is definitely worth a look with some great things to cook (I'm particularly liking the sound of Moroccan Chicken with Tomatoes and Saffron Honey Jam). All the recipes in the booklet come from Jane Green's new novel The Love Verb. If you don't know her books, Jane is one of those writers who manage to write unputdownable, miss your train stop, type of page turners. This book is based on when she nursed her best friend through breast cancer and helped her family by cooking for them. Her friend very sadly lost her fight.

I obviously wanted to a baking recipe so chose this cake - I've never tried the combination of chocolate and bananas together in a cakes and was a little sceptical, as was Mr CB, but he proclaimed the recipe a success - just have to see what my Mum thinks now!

The Recipe

175g plain chocolate (I used Green & Blacks 70% Dark)

225g unsalted butter

220g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

100g plain + 2 tbsp (the measurements are converted from US so I meant to weigh the total g but forgot)

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cocoa powder

3 ripe bananas, mashed

Cream Cheese Frosting:

300g cream cheese

150g icing sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and line a loaf tin.

2. Melt the chocolate, either in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually mix in the eggs.

3. Mix the dry ingredients together and mix into the beaten mixture. Add the bananas and melted chocolate and combine well.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 mins - 1 hour.

5. Once cooled, spread the cream cheese frosting over the top. Make the frosting by mixing the 3 ingredients together well.