This was the day to do something with all those bags of overripe bananas taking up too much room in my freezer. Solution: a batch of my famous (at least to me) banana muffins. Noticing a jar of chocolate chips in the cupboard, the thought came to me that with a slight recipe modification I could make chocolate banana muffins this time.
Then I remembered a delicious chocolate cake that used to be served at the New England Memorial Hospital where I worked in Massachusetts back in the 1960s. It was called Loma Linda Chocolate Prune Cake. It did not taste like prunes at all. But it was very moist and rich. My mouth watered at the thought of it.
Thanks to Google, I had no trouble finding the recipe online. Apparently a lot of other people like that cake, too.
I checked the ingredients and I had everything except buttermilk, which necessitated another Google search for how to bake with soy milk (which was the only milk I had on hand). To my surprise, I discovered that by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to a cup of soy milk, I could use it like buttermilk. Oolah! (You cooks probably already know this.)
Next, I had to soak 3/4 cup of prunes in boiling water….etc., etc., etc. I followed the recipe exactly. My chocolate “muffins” are now in the oven. The smell is delicious. I can hardly wait to sample those moist morsels.
But, wait, where are my frozen bananas?
I totally forgot the very reason I started this baking project in the first place! Alas, the seventies have some drawbacks!
Flavor of the Month 