Marbled banana chocolate loaf cake ~ eggless and butterless!

anana - as a fruit - is not something I am completely in love with. In fact to be honest I totally detest them - let's just say (without being too graphic) I can't even take a bite. I still buy them for my daughter and the hubs.
As strange as it may sound though, I like the banana flavor in cakes and bakes - go figure.
There's something special about the plain ol' Marble cake. It looks great without any extra effort and has that wow factor! It tastes great too and being two cakes in one, it satisfies people with varied taste too. Me and the little one being the chocolate lovers and hubs the vanilla and banana fan. It is one of the easiest cake to bake, requires basic ingredients which we mostly have in our pantry at all times! It is fun to  bake one at home and what makes it more exciting is the anxious wait with fingers crossed when you first cut into it and see the marble effect (yes I get excited about my food) - and the marbling effect is different with every slice.

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Malpua

Malpuas... whenever I think of them, the festival of Holi and Dussehera comes to mind... and along comes some sweet childhood memories. I remember my mom making these along with loads of other delicacies on festivals like pedukiya/gujhiya, nimki, dahi vada... and our home would be filled with the sweet and wonderful aroma of warmth and festivity! Growing up, it was a family tradition to make at least malpua and dahi-vada for Vijaya-Dashmi.

Despite some regional variations and versions, I think the original and authentic malpuas come from my native Bihar and Bengal. It is an Indian pancake made with flour, milk, khoya, mashed bananas, nuts, cardamom powder, deep fried and then soaked in sugar syrup. I don't have a sweet tooth (other than chocolate) so I don't care much for them, but my hubby is head over heels in love with them since time immemorial... he can eat like 10 of them in one go... I am not kidding... he really does!! Also, this was one the first few dishes I made for him after we got married and he was mighty impressed :) All the credit goes to my mom for this wonderful recipe.
Extending the family tradition, this Vijaya-Dashmi I made them too.Being caught up with the festivities, I did not get a chance to post. Here's how we do Malpuas. Will follow soon with Dahi-vada.

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Marbled Banana Bundt cake (Eggless)

To be honest banana - as a fruit - is not something I am completely in love with ;) I still buy them for my daughter and hubby. It so happened once, that I had bought some and both of them were going through a 'no bananas' phase... so it was sitting on my kitchen counter getting ready to be trashed. I hate to waste food, so I went online for some ideas and I read about banana bread. I tweaked and tried some recipes, made the bread... got brave... and tasted it and couldn't believe I liked the banana flavor in the bread :) Next time I added some chocolate in it and it got even more awesome (chocolate just makes everything better). After having made banana breads a few times I tried making banana cakes and it was  a super hit... simple yet impressive, plain yet elegant because of the shape of the bundt cake pan (my new proud possession) it was baked in. The cake has a wonderful texture,  is very moist because of the sour cream which I am currently obsessed with and put in almost everything I bake, particularly when doing egg less. I also marbled it to give it a nice appearance.  It can be served  as dessert and it also  goes wonderfully with a cuppa coffee or hot chocolate in the morning for breakfast or after dinner. Also I don't use eggs so can be enjoyed by pure vegetarians too. It is also a hit with kids and is terribly easy to make .

Here goes the recipe-

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