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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.


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