Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake with cream filling

Good afternoon my dear readers,

as you might have noticed, I am obsessed with trying out vegan recipes at the moment.
Last week, I had all my best friends come over. As I live quite a bit off the beaten track and it takes some time to come up here, I decided to treat my beloved guests with cake and tea before we'd go outside and visit some parks and a castle.

Well, one of my friends recently converted into vegan diet. Now, me as a baking blogger was challenged to bake a cake that was not only vegan but would also taste the non-vegan guests (which is not always the case with vegan cakes). I've had already something in mind, so I sat down and wrote down all the ingredients that I wanted to use... still not quite sure if it would turn out great.
But thats just how I am, always on the hunt for new ideas and recipes, never knowing how it turns out. Trying out new ways and experimenting with ingredients until it all comes together in a delicious recipe.

 Often, I feel like vegan cakes, especially chocolate cakes are just plain cake, no filling, not frosting, no topping.
Me personally, I find that sad and boring. I didn't want to serve a sad and boring vegan cake that would taste like sand. So I made a chocolate banana cake, which was not only rich and moist but also filled with a layer of luscious almond-chocolate cream. Let me tell you, it was a success! Everybody loved it, when we came home from our little trip, everybody asked for a second pice and when my husband came home, he ate the last bit and the cake was gone.

Ingredients for the cake mix:

2 ripe bananas 

150 ml soy milk

100 g ground almonds

300 g whole wheat flour

180 g sugar

3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tbs coconut oil (liquid) 

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp baking powder

some salt 

Ingredients for the cream filling:

1 pack vanilla custard 

500ml almond milk

3 tbs sugar

2 tbs cocoa powder

100g vegan dark chocolate 

"All I want is a place where I belong 

Filled with friendly faces, that know when something's wrong     Where I have not a thing to prove

Where there can be a me, and you(..)"

Good Company by Jared Philip Anderson

Preparation:

First of all, you want to start by making the cake mixture. Put the bananas together with the soy milk, sugar, vanilla extract and coconut oil in a blender and blend it all together until it is all combined and creamy. Now, combine all the other ingredients in a large mixing bowl and pour the banana-milk mixture on top and stir until it is all combined. (Depending on the sweetness of the bananas, you might taste how sweet the mixture is and eventually add some more sugar at this point)
Grease a round baking tin with some coconut oil and pour the cake mixture in there. (Optional: you can sprinkle some more ground almonds on top if you like)
Then, bake the cake in a preheated one at 180° celsius for about 35-40 minutes.

While the cake is cooling down, you can start to make the cream filling. For that, you want to pour 400 ml of almond milk in a saucepan and heat it until it starts to bubble. Meanwhile, mix 100 ml of milk with sugar, cocoa powder and the vanilla custard mix and pour it into the steaming hot milk. Then, add the chocolate in little pieces and stir all the time until it forms a creamy chocolate custard.
Then, take it off the heat and let it cool.

After the cake and the custard are cold, you are ready to cut the cake in half and fill it with the custard. Put the top layer on top of the custard and chill the cake in the fridge for a few hours.
Now, you are ready to indulge!