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WW Recipe of the Day: Banana Chocolate Swirl Cake
This banana chocolate swirl cake is one of my favorite cakes from childhood. It’s a basic banana cake made fancy with the addition a melted chocolate drizzle and maraschino cherries.
As a kid I didn’t like anything that was too sweet, including cakes, and had a real aversion to frosting so this icing-free cake was a winner in my book. Mom didn’t make it often, usually just at Christmastime, which added to its specialness.
I ate more than my fair share of this yummy banana chocolate swirl cake when she made it for us this year. I’ve had the recipe in my files for years, but have never actually baked it myself, something that I promise to remedy soon.
Truth be told, this is a bit more involved than most cakes I make, requiring separating eggs, beating egg whites and folding, which is probably part of the reason Mom didn’t make it more often.
If you’re unsure about these techniques or feel like you could use a refresher, I’ve included some helpful videos at the end of the post.
Studying the ingredients, I was excited to realize how relatively light and healthy this is as cakes go, calling for just 1/4 cup butter. The only change I made to the original recipe was to use reduced fat sour cream instead of regular.
To reduce the WW Points, you can substitute your favorite zero-calorie sweetener for the sugar. I sometimes like to swap Monkfruit or Truvia Baking Blend (affiliate link) for the sugar.
Rod, the true cake lover of the family, thought this needed a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, but I like it plain.
How Many Calories and WW Points in this Banana Chocolate Swirl Cake?
According to my calculations, each slice has 237 calories.
To see your WW Points for this recipe, track it in the WW App!
(You must be logged into WW on a smartphone or tablet.)
10 SmartPoints (Green plan)
9 SmartPoints (Blue plan)
9 SmartPoints (Purple plan)
6 PointsPlus (Old plan)
If you’ve made this low fat Banana Chocolate Swirl Cake, please give the recipe a star rating below and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. And stay in touch on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates.
Banana Chocolate Swirl Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 to 4 medium)
- 1/3 cup low fat sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs (at room temperature, separated into yolks and whites)
- 1-1/2 cups sugar (divided use)
- 1/4 cup butter (softened)
- 1/2 cup maraschino cherries (quartered)
Instructions
- Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or standard size bundt pan (affiliate link).
- Position an oven rack in the center of your oven and preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- Put the chocolate chips and water in a small saucepan set over low heat. Stir often until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
- In a small bowl (affiliate link) stir together the bananas, sour cream and vanilla until well blended.
- In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder until well blended.
- In a very clean large mixing bowl (affiliate link), beat the egg whites until they reach the soft peak stage. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time until the egg whites are glossy and form stiff peaks. Set aside.
- In another large mixing bowl (affiliate link) beat the butter, the remaining 1 cup of sugar until creamy. Add the egg yolks and beat until light.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and banana mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, making sure the ingredients are combined before adding the next ingredient. Add 1/3 of the flour, then beat the mixture so the flour disappears. Then add 1/2 of the mashed bananas, and beat the mixture until they disappear. Continue this way, being sure you begin and end with dry ingredients.
- Stir in the cherries.
- Gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter, until no traces of egg white remain.
- Gently scrape 1/3 of the batter into your prepared pan. Drizzle with half the melted chocolate. Repeat with another 1/3 of the batter and remaining chocolate and then top with remaining 1/3 batter.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about ten minutes and then carefully remove the cake from the pan and place it on a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
(Must be logged into WW on a smartphone or tablet.) 10 SmartPoints (Green plan) 9 SmartPoints (Blue plan) 9 SmartPoints (Purple plan) 6 PointsPlus (Old plan)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Here are three great videos. The first shows how to separate egg whites from the yolks, the second how to beat egg whites, and the third how to fold egg whites into batter.
This cake is simply delicious. Not a fan of maraschino cherries so I just substituted with Trader Joe’s Amarena Cherries. It was awesome. Thanks for sharing the family recipe.