Skip to main content

Banana cake

I confess that I am a late starter when it comes to baking. Not having a sweet tooth did not help either.

When I was a kid, I was quite fond of baking chocolate brownies. It was one cake that I would make over and over again. I had only one teeny weeny problem; really insignificant. The brownie always turned out hard as rock without fail. Go figure why I keep using the same recipe over and over again, just the way I did it the last time. Overtime, I learnt to disguise the brownies so that my older brother would eat them. So, Eric, if you are reading this blog...you know the "rocky chocolate cookies" I used to make when we were kids? Well, they were not exactly cookies.

I have moved my fixation on to banana cakes since. I suspect my husband is extremely thankful for that. This probably makes me sound like a snob, but I am very particular about cakes, especially if I have to eat them. Have you ever wanted a piece of banana cake so badly that you would hop into the car on a cold, rainy, winter night just to drive to the best supermarket to get one? You get home. You are nice and warm with a mug of steaming hot chocolate on one hand and a large piece of banana cake on the other. And you take a bite of that nice banana cake only to find that it is dry like a piece of cardboard and filled with flour! You go to bed really disappointed and get up next morning ready to bite anyone's head off if they so dare to cross your path because you had a lousy piece of banana cake? Well, I do not know anyone like that.

In all seriousness, if you have extra bananas sitting in your fruit bowl and they are too ripe to be eaten, do not chuck them out. Bake a cake with this easy recipe or simply freeze them for later. This recipe is simple (I love simple), moist and most of all, full of bananas, not flour.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups standard flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
125 gm melted butter
2 large eggs
4 ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp milk

Steps:
1. Turn oven on to 180 degrees.
2. Mash bananas in a mixing bowl. Add lightly beaten eggs, melted sugar, milk and vanilla essence. Mix well.
3. Add dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. Do not over mix it.
4. Light coat a bread tin with olive oil.
5. Baked in oven for about 60 minutes. Test with a skewer. Insert into the thickest part of the cake, if it comes out dry, it is cooked. Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mini Chicken Curry Pies

The thought of spices and buttery pastry simply makes my mouth water, or maybe it was that extra teaspoon of chili I added to the pie! Whatever it is, this recipe is always a hit with friends and family. Best of all, it is easy to make. Mini Chicken Curry Pies Ingredients: 1/2 Brown onion 1 Large potato 2 Chicken breast (or 500gm boneless chicken) 4 Sheets flaky puff pastry 3 tbsp Curry powder 1/2 tsp Chili powder (optional) 1/2 tsp Garam Masala (optional) 1 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Sugar 1 Egg Cooking oil Steps: To make pie filling: 1. Boil water (enough to cover the large potato) in a sauce pan. 2. While waiting for water to boil, finely chop onion. 3. Dice potato into small cubes of about 1 cm in size. Add to boiling water. Boil potato cubes until almost soft, about 8-10 mins. You do not want to cook the potato completely. Drain and set aside. 4. Dice chicken into cubes of about 2 cm in size. Add 1/2 tbsp cooking oil to a frying pan. Fry chicken until 70% cooked. ...
1 comment
Read more

Guinness Beef Stew

There is a really neat legend about the humble origins of the Guinness beer. The Guinness beer is the brain child of Arthur Guinness. Back in the 1700s when medical science was in still in its infancy, people were getting illnesses and diseases just with drinking water. Ironically, they started turning to alcohol, mainly Gin which proved to be safer than their drinking water. Disheartened by the destitute caused by Gin which had plagued the city of Dublin, Arthur Guinness decided to brew a drink that not only the Irish would enjoy but will be nutritional to them. The beverage is none other than what is known today as the Guinness beer. It is supposed to be so full of nutrition that it is more like a meal! I had my first Guinness stew in an Irish pub; where else? And I absolutely fell in love with the rich, creamy texture and flavours the stew had to offer. Many years later, an Irish friend handed me a recipe for the stew and as with any good cook, I made changes to suit my taste. H...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coffee Spare Ribs

On our trip to Martinborough, I bought some spare ribs from Scotty. Like any good butcher, he asked what I was going to do with his produce. I think he was rather disappointed when I stared at him blankly and answered I had no idea. I think half of the world's population go grocery shopping with an idea in mind what they are going to cook. And the other half is probably like me, buy and decide what to do with the ingredients later. That is how I ended up with a freezer full of spare ribs until a bright idea came along. I recall savoring coffee spare ribs in a food court many years ago in Singapore. I thought it was the most intriguing idea; who would have imagine using coffee with meat. Perhaps it was one of those incidents where the cook mistakenly added coffee to the ribs thinking it was ground spice. Like the story of the Tatin sisters from France who "accidentally" invented the Tarte Tatin. The story goes that one of the sisters burnt an apple pie that she was makin...
Post a Comment
Read more