Weekend Herb Blogging #276 Banana Cake

I'm partecipating to this Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Cinzia of Cindystar.

WHB was created in October 2005 by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, you will find history here. This event has become popular in the years thanks to all bloggers participating with recipes and informative posts about new ways of cooking with herbs or unusual plant ingredients.
Since November 2008 Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once has been managing this weekly event, all recaps here.

Some years ago I went to Asuncion, Paraguay for a short week of work. I didn't get to see much but in the short walks around I could see many people, mostly older ladies, selling herbs in the streets

Many students would drink Tererè in class during the lessons and I grew more and more interested in the Guaranì herb culture.

One of the many herbs Paraguaian people uses is called Stevia and it is a natural sweetener with no calories.

''With its steviol glycoside extracts having up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, stevia has garnered attention with the rise in demand for low-carbohydrate, low-sugar food alternatives. Because stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to people on carbohydrate-controlled diets.''

The translator who helped me teach , Mr. Ferretti, was so kind to give me Stevia in different forms when I left so I got a recipe book called Stevia Sweet Recipes from which I got this recipe.

RECIPE

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Stevia Extract Powder

4 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

3 eggs separated

1 cup milk

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe banana (2 bananas)

frosting as desired (I mixed some lowfat greek jogurt with cocoa and some Stevia)

filling as desired (I made a chocolate ganache)

I a bowl sift together the dry ingredients.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.

Stir together egg yolks, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla, and bananas. Add the dry ingredients an beat to combine. Fold in beaten egg whites.

Turn into 2 8 inches oiled and floured pans and bake in preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes until cake tests done.

Cool in pans 10 min. Turn out to finish cooling on racks.

Fill and frost.