Nutella Swirled Banana Bread Snack Cake

Are any of you members of a gym? I am asking because even though I absolutely adore my gym (especially the group classes like Piyo and Spin), the fact that I have to call an entire month in advance if I want to freeze my account for a lower monthly rate is a bit much. Who starts planning everything they need to get done over a month before they go somewhere? Or maybe instead I should be wishing for a Lifetime Fitness near where I will be staying. Ugh, guess I’m going to be doing a lot of treadmill/outdoor running and DVD workouts.

But anyway… As I told you yesterday, I embarked on a journey through the land of Melt buttery spread for a week and this is the first of three recipes which I mentioned in the Melt Away Challenge post. It seems like I have a habit of swirling Nutella into banana-things, since it has been done before in a popular post of mine for Peanut Butter, Banana & Nutella Bars. But can you really blame me? It’s such a great addition. These cake bars can be eaten as a dessert, a snack or even breakfast if you ask me.

One year ago: Pepperoni Pizza Deviled Eggs

NUTELLA SWIRLED BANANA BREAD SNACK CAKE

Make 9 squares

Ingredients:

1 egg

1/3 cup loosely packed brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I used Melt)

1/3 cup Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread

1/4 cup All-Bran cereal, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8×8 baking pan with non-stick spray.
2. In a large bowl, whisk egg and brown sugar until smooth. Add in vanilla extract and mashed bananas, mixing until combined. Add in flour, baking powder, and salt, mixing until the batter comes together. Add in melted butter and mix until evenly distributed.
3. Remove 1/2 cup of the batter and place in a small bowl. Add Nutella and blend until incorporated. Stir in the All-Bran cereal into the plain banana batter, if desired.
4. Pour the plain batter into the baking pan. Drop Nutella-banana mixture on top by spoonfuls and swirl with a knife. Bake for 20 minutes, or until center is no longer jiggly and edges are golden. Allow to cool completely before removing from pan.

Source: Adapted from How Sweet It Is.