Do you love chocolate?
Of course you do! There’s nothing like a piece of dark chocolate to get your spirits soaring instantly. My son loves everything chocolate. And cake of course is a big favorite.
I love the occasional slice, too. When I got a brand new oven last year, I thought, why not inaugurate it with a chocolate cake. Not the traditional one, but one that would be diabetes-friendly. Yes, I am a type 2 diabetic, and I am always keen on easy healthy recipes.
Since we do not eat eggs, I was just a little worried, but a little research brought up interesting substitutes. I had bananas at home and wanted to include them in the recipe.
I also decided to go with Finger millet flour (Ragi) which is protein rich and a highly recommended grain for diabetics. I figured it would make a nice healthy treat for everyone at home.
My only experience with baking so far had been the dearly beloved microwave mug cake. I’ve also baked a whole lot of other things, but that’s a tale for another day.
So on this auspicious day, my son had gone to music class and I wanted to surprise him with the cake when he returned.
Here’s the recipe
Eggless Banana Ragi Chocolate Cake
This can be a dessert or a snack.
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
INGREDIENTS
Dry ingredients
- Multigrain flour (all purpose flour is good too)
- 1 cup Ragi flour (Finger millet flour)
- 1/2 cup Cocoa powder 1/2 cup
- Baking powder 2 tsps
- Salt 1/4 tsp
Wet ingredients
- Thick yogurt. 1 cup
- Organic natural jaggery (or 1 1/4 cup sugar) 1 1/4 cups
- Vanilla essence 1 tsp
- Milk 1 cup
- Oil (I used coconut oil) 1 cup
- Mashed banana fruit 1 cup
STEPS
- Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius
- Grease baking pan and brush with flour
- Line the bottom with butter paper
- Add all dry ingredients into one bowl and sift well
- In another bowl, add the wet ingredients and mix
- Fold in dry ingredients into the bowl with wet ingredients, followed by the cup of mashed bananas.
- Combine into a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter into the greased and lined baking pan.
- Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Depending on your oven, it may take 5 minutes longer or less.
- Once done, insert a knife in the cake.
- If it comes out clean, cake’s ready.
- Free the sides of the cake with a knife.
- Place a rack on the baking pan and turn it upside down.
- Cool before slicing. This may be the hardest part. The waiting!
- Then slice and indulge.
- I use my pressure cooker utensil as a cake pan
- I do have a tendency to tweak measures – but it almost always happily works out! Takes about 5-6 minutes less when you bake in convection mode
- Feel free to add in some walnuts/almonds/sunflower seeds. Tastes great!
- If the color of the cake looks freaky dark, blame the ragi/jaggery/cocoa! The cake might be slightly dense – but it is very tasty!
Questions are welcome!
4 comments
I have never even heard of ragi flour… or jaggery. Could I use raw sugar?
Yes, you could use raw sugar. Or brown sugar. Jaggery is popular in India and is rich in iron. As a diabetic, I experimented with it, and now use it for all my cake baking!
Also… how much non-rigi flour? Or do you mean one or the other ?
Forgive my dumb questions.
One or the other, Wendy. I used ragi to experiment. But all purpose flour works just as well. Not a dumb question at all! Hugs!