Banana Loaf Cake
I have been left with a HUGE bunch of over-ripe bananas on my hands. Why? Well, as you may or may not know, my fiance The Little Medic (TLM), is in his last year at medical school and is in the throes of revising for finals. Part of that revision is practising his skills, so we went and bought a whole heap of bananas for him to practise his suturing on. After dissecting one, it became apparent that banana skin is nothing like human skin and evidently useless to practise on. With neither of us overly keen on bananas, they were left in the fruit bowl.
I’ve never made a banana loaf before, something about the thought of it never appealed to me, but after seeing the banana goodies made by Astra Libris over at Food for Laughter I thought it would be the best way to put them to use. I used Nigella Lawson’s “Banana Bread” as a starting point, but didn’t have many of the right ingredients or right sized loaf tins, so I just muddled along. I didn’t have any greaseproof paper, but thankfully buttering and flouring the tins worked perfectly. I also forgot to look at the clock when I put it in – but I’m more of an instinctive than timer cook so it was OK – you can see the skewer holes in the picture below. The following recipe used up 3 large bananas (woop) and produced two of these loaves:
- 200 g raisins
- 175 g plain flour (I used self raising by mistake!)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 125 g margarine
- 150 g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 300 g of overripe bananas (weight after skins removed)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
How to make it
Preheat the oven to 170 C. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a bowl. In a bigger bowl, pour in the butter (melted) and the sugar and beat them together. Add the eggs and the vanilla essence, then the mashed up bananas. Stir in the flour mixture. Pour into the tin/s (makes one big tin or two smaller tins worth – fill 2/3 full, no more because it puffs up a treat). Bake for 1 – 1/2 hours – it is ready when a skewer comes out clean.
It tastes really good, I had 2 slices for breakfast and another slice at lunchtime – eep. I imagine it could be really nice to fiddle around with – walnuts, honey, cinnamon…mmm.
p.s. wow what a difference taking pictures in the natural morning light makes! Alas, not all cooking is conducive to taking photos at the right time!
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I made this the other week following your recipe and it’s delicious! I substituted raisins for chocolate though (how naughty!). I didn’t break the chunks into small enough pieces though so they sunk to the bottom of the mixture and formed a sort of crust (actually quite delicious!). I also left it in the oven for so long as I forgot about it and it’s A LOT darker than yours yet strangely not burnt. Great recipe – and much needed as I HATE anything other than green bananas!
Milly I expect so! The loaf is quite moist so I think it’d still be OK subsituting the raisins with walnuts. Let me know how you get on, I have a huge bunch of bananas and can’t see myself getting through them so I’ll probably be making another banana loaf soon and I have a whole load of walnuts to use too.
Im so making this…can i do it without the raisins..hubby hates raisins lol…can i add walnuts?
<>Nilmandra<> Indeed! But lo, summer is coming (fingers crossed!)>><>astra libris<> I love the way you say you’re “fixing” a dish – I can’t get over the idea of you with a bowl and super glue.>><>elaine<>Fantastic! I will keep tabs on it, your recipes are always tasty and often suit putting together and putting in the oven at a later stage (very handy)>><>Julia<> Well I thought I’d hate it, but it’s great for elevensies at work
Oh yum, I haven’t had bananna bread in ages.
Many thanks for the mention on your blog. Inspired by you I have decided to set up a recipe blog.>>So far it contains one recipe, but I have quite a lot on my computer from long past that I shall try to add in when I find a spare moment – it is such a busy life being ancient!>>http://elainerecipes.blogspot.com/
You’re too kind! You just made my day – I’m so happy I tempted you with banana baking! π Thank you for the very sweet mention!>Also, thank you so much for your comment and great question… I wish I could send you some white asparagus! I’m guessing that they prefer warmer climates? I’ve only seen them in local produce markets here in the southern US, but not further up north… They actually don’t taste dramatically different from regular asparagus, though – they just look funny. :-p>>Your banana cake is beautiful! Thank you for introducing me to a new banana cake recipe – I look forward to fixing it with our next batch of overripe bananas! π
Mmm banana bread! I agree natural light is THE light to have, but yeah unfortunately it’s not always available, even in the day *roll eyes*