Unbelievable Banana Loaf

You know me. Usually I stick flowers all over the cakes I make. Loads of icing. Berries. Cream. More Icing. Crystallised flowers. Stuff everywhere.  But let me tell you, this beautiful cake needed nothing. No rum flavoured syrup, no peanut butter icing with banana chips. It’s just a lightly spiced honey flavoured banana loaf. The texture is soft and pillowy. When I had it for breakfast I sighed. I have to make it again soon.

The recipe I used is from The Hummingbird Bakery, I doubled the mix and it worked perfectly too. I used very ripe bananas and I think that might be the key to it. Brownieville Girl also has a lovely banana recipe on her blog this week, Nigella’s Banana, white chocolate and cranberry muffins. Yum! 

Banana Loaf

270g soft brown sugar

2 eggs

200g peeled bananas, mashed

280g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon’

1 tsp ground ginger

140g butter, melted

A 23x13cm loaf tin, greased & dusted with flour
Makes 8-10 slices

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Beat the sugar & eggs until well mixed. Beat in the mashed bananas.
• Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda & spices to the egg mix.
• Mix well until everything is well combined.
• Pour in the melted butter and beat until well mixed.
• Pour the mix into the prepared tin and smooth the top.
• Bake for about 1 hour, until firm to the touch.
• Leave to cool in the tin for a while before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

According to The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook (which is really good) this stuff flies off the shelves. A really gorgeous cake. I’ll definitely be making it again!
Lillyx