It isn't hard to make a good banana cake so it always amazes me that cafes can have such rubbish ones. The main problems seem to be using oil instead of butter, esp using too much oil, and not using enough bananas to give the delicious flavour and wonderful moistness. This recipe is from the NZ classic cookbook of basic recipes, The Edmonds Cookery book. The main meals in that book are pretty dated, plain and bleugh, but the baking recipes are winners - no surprise as Edmonds is a baking powder company so baking is their business. And this banana cake means business, with about 4 ripe (brown or black bananas). If you don't have enough really ripe bananas, you can either make a mediocre cake or just PEEL, chop and freeze the bananas you have to use with more at a later date.
125g butter, softened
¾ c sugar
2 eggs
2 c mashed ripe bananas (about 4 largish bananas)
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp hot milk
2 c plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
chocolate or lemon icing or dust with icing sugar
Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add mashed banana and mix thoroughly.
Stir baking soda into hot milk and add to creamed mixture.
Sift flour and baking powder. Fold into mixture.
Turn into a greased and lined 20cm round tin (or a ring tin or loaf pans of about same volume).
Bake at 180˚ for 50 min or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Leave in tin for 10 min before turning out onto a wire rack. When cold, ice or dust with icing sugar sifted over.
Can also be made as two cakes baked in 20cm round sandwich tins at 180˚ for 25 min. The two cakes can be sandwiched together with whipped cream and fresh banana slices.
Is it possible for the bananas to be too ripe? Like when they get really mushy? I've been using an almost identical recipe with good results. Only difference is vanilla
ReplyDeleteThe more ripe the better, I say! I used black-skinned, very mushy ones for this! (They're nice and moist and super sweet -s o you could even reduce the sugar in this recipe). I usually eat the bananas when the skins are covered in brown spots- that's when they're actually ripe - so they basically have to be very mushy before I would consider using them for a cake.
DeleteAnd a bit of vanilla never hurts, does it? I usually add some vanilla extract to cakes after the eggs. I'm not a fan of those packets of vanilla sugar though - more sugar, more needless packaging to go in the rubbish and artificial taste. Real vanilla extract is much better.