This vegan banana snack cake is my new favorite way to use up all those ripe bananas. It’s moist and perfectly dense with just the right amount of sweetness. The chocolate ganache is rich, creamy and made without any refined sugar (and one secret ingredient!). Vegan, nut free and made with simple, real ingredients, serve this banana snack cake as a healthy dessert, a sweet breakfast or a quick snack.

Last week, we had about eight bananas sitting on our counter that were well past their prime for eating fresh. Like forget about those little black speckles, these guys were straight up rotting. But as an avid banana bread connoisseur, I knew I couldn’t let those precious bananas go to waste. The only problem was that I didn’t want to make just another loaf of quarantine banana bread. I wanted to try something new. So, enter The Banana Cake.

It’s actually a vegan oatmeal banana snack cake to be exact, because apparently we eat cake as a snack now (not complaining). If you’ve ever had baked oatmeal, the texture is pretty similar only a little lighter and harder to stop eating. Just picture a nice moist slice of banana bread, crispy top, dense center, all of that, now combine it with your favorite bowl of oatmeal. As both an oatmeal and banana bread lover, it really is the best of both worlds.

The thing is, I wasn’t trying to make this cake healthy, The oats weren’t some trick to sneak in more protein and fiber or anything like that. They’re simply there for texture. The oats make the cake chewy and moist, and a little dense without being too heavy.

Same goes for the ganache! Don’t get me wrong—I love the banana cake itself. I could eat the whole thing straight out of the oven, but I need to give this chocolate ganache the love it deserves. I wanted to come up with a ganache that’s still super chocolatey and decadent, but not as heavy and sickly sweet as your standard frosting recipe. So instead of your typical vegan butter and powdered sugar combo, this recipe uses TOFU to achieve that wonderful rich, creamy texture.

It’s only three other ingredients: vegan cream cheese, maple syrup and cocoa powder and everything comes together real fast in a food processor or blender. I’ve found that since these vegan cream cheeses are generally more solid in colder temperatures, it’s necessary to chill the ganache before frosting in order for it to thicken up.

To serve this vegan banana snack cake, I like to add a few chocolate shavings for garnish. This is totally optional but it’s super easy. All you need is a vegetable peeler and a bar of chocolate. When “peeling” your chocolate bar, just make sure it’s not too cold or the it’ll just kind of flake off instead of curling. I actually put my chocolate bar in the microwave for 20 seconds and that seemed to do the trick.

Want more vegan dessert recipes? Try these:

• Vegan Apple Cheesecake Pretzel Bars
• Vegan Miso Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Vegan Sweet Potato Smore’s Cookies

Made this recipe? Tag wandering_chickpea on Instagram!