This is the first recipe I am posting under “My Julie & Julia Project” for this year. For those who don’t know, I have started this project under which I will be posting 100 recipes from my kitchen by the end of the year 2019. This is the Recipe #1. I have chosen this recipe to be the first one, as it is one of my daughter’s favorite and so, is quite close to my heart.

I have tried this recipe a couple of times, and it has never failed. The best part, of course, is that there is no all purpose flour or oil or butter involved (as healthy as it can be). And I am using cane sugar in this recipe, which is definitely a healthier option compared to the white sugar. Also, even though there is no oil or butter in it, still the cake is amazingly moist because of bananas and yogurt.

I am a big fan of Trader Joe’s products. And this time, I decided to use their Cocoa Powder (I mostly use Hershey’s Cocoa Powder and find it quite good). Loved every bit of their Cocoa powder, the chocolatey flavor imparted to the cake by Trader Joe’s Cocoa powder wins hands down (though chocolate chips also added their bit to the chocolicious flavor). Which other cocoa powder brands have you all used? Let me know in the comments.

My daughter has a sweet tooth, and every now n then, I am looking for healthy alternatives to the store bought sweet treats. So, this recipe is a keeper for those who are okay with loads of chocolate but want to go easy on butter, oil or all-purpose flour.

Myra loved preparing the cake with me for this blog post. You might see her hand holding the ingredients in some pictures. It’s so amazing to see how we can engage kids at such a young age, and making this whole baking time a play date with them. Sometimes, they can come up with ideas that are completely mind blowing.

It’s a proud moment when we see them working in the kitchen wholeheartedly. They love stirring and mixing in the things, making a cute little mess in the kitchen, but it’s worth it. Sometimes I feel this is the correct time when we can instill basic cooking skills in our kids (boys and girls both). This is the skill that any person would require in his/her life.

Well, I will not go more into the “who will work in the kitchen in future” mode, as it’s a different topic altogether. But, I would certainly say that we can making baking time fun for our kids. They learn responsibility, precision, team-work and of course, the basic kitchen skills as well.

All in all, this recipe is a hit at my home. And I hope you guys love it too. Let’s take you all straight to the recipe now.

Method (Step-by-step with pictures)

• Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Meanwhile, mash the bananas in a bowl and add cane sugar. Mix them together to a smooth blend.

• Add vanilla essence, yogurt and egg to the banana-sugar mixture and mix them all together. Wet ingredients mixture is ready.

• For the dry ingredients, add whole wheat flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder to the wet ingredients mixture. Start mixing all the ingredients, the mixture will be little thick by this time. Once the dry and wet ingredients form a smooth and uniform blend, add in the chocolate chips.

• Pour the mixture to a greased cake pan dusted with flour.

• Once the oven is preheated, bake the cake mix in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or till the cake is done (when the inserted toothpick comes out clean). Remove the cake from the oven, and allow it to cool before serving.

Relish the yummy moist cake with your family and friends!!