Wholewheat Jaggery Banana Tea Cake aka Healthy Banana Bread

I am a mother of a ten year old. Now, all the mothers out here will agree with me that when it comes to kids, we always try to find healthy ways to feed them their favourites.

I absolutely love Banana Bread. I think the true existence of bananas were to become over ripe and transform into banana bread. This Banana Cake comes out insanely delicious and is so much more healthier for you. It is dairy free with goodness of wholewheat flour, jaggery and walnuts. Bananas add such a brilliant taste to baked goods that it amazes me every time. The gooeyness of bananas combined with nuttiness of wholewheat flour and earthiness of jaggery makes this banana cake irresistible. This gets polished off at my house before I even know it. I barely get to eat a slice.

Ingredients used that make this Cake Healthy and their Substitutes

Wholewheat Flour: Whole wheat flour is a whole grain that provides more fiber and other nutrients naturally than refined enriched flours. It can be used in place of all-purpose flour in baking and cooking. However, if you don’t have wholewheat flour, you can try this recipe with combination of other flour like rolled oats flour, finger millet or gluten free flour.

Jaggery Powder: It gives banana bread its rich caramel flavour. It is so much more healthier than refined white sugar. Jaggery has cleansing properties that help clear the lungs and respiratory tract. Other health benefits of jaggery include improved immunity, anaemia prevention and improved digestive health. If you do not have it on hand, the you can use coconut sugar, unrefined palm sugar or any other unrefined sugar.

Egg: Apart from nutrition, egg adds structure and texture to banana bread. If you want to make this cake eggless, you use 1/4th cup of yogurt or milk of your choice as a substitute of 1 egg. This will yield similar results.

Cinnamon: With its warm, sweet and slightly spicy flavour cinnamon adds a lot of depth to baked goods. However, if you don’t want to use it, you can omit it.

Walnuts: Walnuts provide great flavour, texture, and a beautiful crunch to banana bread. They have a mild and creamy taste which makes them perfect for cakes. You can skip them if you don’t like or add chocolate chunks or chips or toasted almonds in this recipe. You can also add dried fruits like raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries etc.

This recipe is absolutely fuss free and easy peasy. It requires no endless whipping and whisking. Just throw everything in the blender and then mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients. That’s pretty much it. With little effort required, this Banana Bread will fill your house with the beautiful aroma that feels like a warm hug. If you want more of such fuss free healthy cake recipes, you can try my Wholewheat Carrot Orange Tea Cake recipe too.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup Wholewheat Flour
• 2 medium size over ripe Bananas
• 1/3rd cup Jaggery Powder
• 1 large Egg
• 1/4th cup Coconut oil/Olive oil/Non-fragrant Oil
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4th tsp Cinnamon Powder
• 1/4th tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup chopped Walnuts
• 1/4th cup mixed Seeds of your choice (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat oven at 180 C ten minutes prior to baking.

• Line a 6 by 3 inch rectangular pan with a parchment paper or alternatively grease baking tin with oil and dust it with some flour.

• In a blender or food processor, add bananas, oil, jaggery powder, vanilla extract and egg and blend till everything combines well.

• In a large bowl, sieve wholewheat flour 3-4 times. This will add more air and will ensure that the cake doesn’t get a dense texture.

• In the same bowl, sieve baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon powder. Add chopped walnuts to dry ingredients. Mix everything well and keep aside.

• Now, add wet ingredients in the blender to dry ingredients in 2 or 3 batches. Cut and fold gently each time. Do not over mix the batter.

• Add the prepared batter to the cake tin. Top it with mixed seeds. Tap the pan on the shelf 2-3 times to clear out all the air bubbles.

• Bake for 35 minutes or till toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean. Allow it to cool for 15 minutes in the pan. To remove the cake from the pan, simply run a blunt knife around the edges and invert on the wire rack. Tap the pan 2 or 3 times and the cake will slide out.

Pro Tips

1. Use the yellowest of bananas. Actually, the blacker the better. Over ripe bananas are the sweetest and are perfect for baking.
2. Ensure the jaggery powder is smooth and fine to avoid grainy batter. You can sieve the powder to get rid of grainy bits.
3. This cake will be a little more moist than your usual cakes because of the use of jaggery and bananas, so let it cool completely before trying to turn it out or you will end up breaking it.
4. This recipe can also be used to make muffins. It will give 8 to 9 muffins.