Eggless banana crumble cake

Come the Hindu month of 'Shravan' and many of us are foraging around for vegetarian foods, in abstinence, shying away from meat and poultry products. However, this does not come with a guarantee that the strong desire for cake is not going to hit you. After all, the cravings don't listen to us, we obey them!

Thus begins the frantic search for eggless dessert recipes, a recipe that is fool proof, mimics the original version and will satiate the sweet tooth devils.

When it comes to eggless cakes, going bananas is the best bet, literally. Pureed bananas bring the same properties to a batter that lightly whisked eggs do. This ensures that you have a fail-proof cake that rises tall and fills your kitchen with the amazing aroma of fruit cake. This recipe can be baked with a couple of variations -

• For a simple banana cake, just follow the recipe for cake batter and bake

• Or add a few chocolate chips or walnuts to spruce up the banana cake and bring in a new texture

• For a light crunchy layer, top the batter with a few seeds and a spoonful of oats (pictured above)

• Or lastly, go extravagant with added chocolate chips as well as a crunchy crumble topping which perfectly compliments the soft banana sponge. (pictured below)

So, go ahead, and put those over-ripe bananas to use.

Ingredients:

For cake:

• 1 and 1/2 cup flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1.4 tsp salt

• 1/3 cup yogurt

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 2 bananas mashed

• ½ cup plus 1 spoon – 80 grams butter

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For the crumble

• Oats ½ cup

• Flour 1 tablespoon

• 1-2 table spoons brown sugar

• 1 table spoon butter

• Cinnamon

• Chocolate chips

Method:

First prepare the crumble by mixing all ingredients, except chocolate chips in a bowl by gradually adding in the oats to flour, sugar, butter and cinnamon. Add oats to achieve a crumble texture. If the mix looks very wet, add more oats. Lastly toss in the chocolate chips and put the crumble mix in the fridge as you prepare the cake batter.

For the cake,

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Mash 2 bananas using a fork or blender till it resembles a thick puree.

3. In a bowl, sift together the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

4. In a bigger bowl, cream butter and brown sugar till light.

5. Now, gradually add the dry mix to the butter batter alternating with banana puree, add in yogurt before the last batch of dry mix.

6. At the end, add vanilla and a dash of cinnamon.

7. If you are using any nuts or chocolate chips in the batter, add them at this stage.

8. Pour the batter in a lined loaf tin or 8 inch round tin.

9. Sprinkle the crumble evenly on top.

10. Bake in pre-heated over for 35-40 mins.

11. If the cake seems to be browning on the top, cover with a foil paper.

12. I once kept the cake on the top most shelf resulting in slightly darker crumble, it tasted nice though.