After finally deciding on a flavor, I was pretty excited to start on X. I was originally going to do a regular cupcake, but then thought of frozen chocolate covered bananas. (I’d insert a stolen photo here, but they all looked very phallic…)
I started off by making a banana cake using my standard cake but substituting pureed banana for some liquid.
- 2 cups flour (I used probably 1/3 all purpose and 2/3 Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat pastry flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine the above and set aside. In another bowl, beat together:
- 1 and 1/4 cup pureed bannaa
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 and 1/2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans that I had toasted in the oven for about 7 minutes)
After the banana mixture is combined, gradually fold in the flour mixture. Pour into 2 greased round cake pans or a 13 x 9 inch greased rectangular pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done. Allow cake to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove. I used a Springform pan, so removing the cake from the pan was really easy. One of the advantages to making cake pops is that it doesn’t matter what condition the cake is in when it comes out of the pan! I dumped the cake into a huge bowl, then chopped it up a bit with a spatula and allowed it to cool completely.
While the cake was cooling, I made a cream cheese frosting. The recipe I normally use calls for 1 stick of butter, 2 blocks of cream cheese (16 ounces total) and 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar. I had a tub of mascarpone cheese left over from Waldorf Salad, so I used this for half of the cream cheese. To make the icing, I allowed the ingredients to warm to room temperature, then creamed the butter until smooth. I added the cream cheese and beat it until smooth, then added the sugar a little at a time.
After the cake was completely cooled, I dumped in about half of the icing and mixed well with my hands. I added more icing a little at a time until the mixture was moist enough to hold it’s shape in a ball without being overly wet. I had about 1/4 of the frosting left over, which I popped into the freezer to use later on.
I molded the mixture into balls about 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter and added a stick. I placed them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and let them sit in the freezer until solid. After solid, I put them into a zip lock until I had the chance a few days later to coat them in chocolate. My freezer is pretty small, so I had to do this in a couple of batches. I let the remaining balls rest in the refrigerator.
Cake balls waiting for room in the freezer. Looks like they are waiting on spaghetti...
Since Mayan chocolate was typically made with chili and spices, I wanted to include a little chili in the chocolate coating. I purchased the chocolate at Target since I was going there anyway and my options were a little limited. I used Dove dark chocolate squares…
and a couple of Lindt Chili chocolate bars
I melted the chocolate together in a metal bowl set over simmering water and used one square of the chili bar to each square of Dove chocolate. When it was smooth, I spooned it over the frozen pops. I leaned the sticks into a cooling rack set over parchment paper to let them drain and harden.
Finished Chocolate Banana Cake Pops
I thought these turned out really tasty. The interior was moist enough to stick together without being overly wet. There was a little crunch from the toasted pecans. The cake and icing were a nice compliment to the dark chocolate and the chili added just enough heat to make the back of my throat tingle. My dog walker stated that these are her favorite so far.
