Banana Loaf makes the grade

Banana Loaf

I’m quite a fan of bananas and was delighted when Kay from Gawber sent me a recipe for a Banana Loaf from her friend, Joan. Kay had tried out the recipe a couple of times and reduced the sugar as first cake she made was too sweet for her taste.  The friends had a lot of chat about baking times and said it could be ready between 35 minutes and an hour. Joan had found that the size and ripeness of bananas affected the sweetness and batter consistency. When I baked the cake, I left it in the oven for an hour. This seemed to work out well.

Banana Loaf
125g butter
150g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg - beaten
2 bananas - ripe
190g self raising flour
60ml milk
1 tablespoon demerara sugar for the topping

Pre heat the oven to 170C/Gas 3/325F. Grease or line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin. Melt the butter with the sugar and vanilla extract in a pan over a medium heat. Remove and cool slightly. Mash the bananas and mix with the melted mixture. Add the egg and mix well. Stir in the flour and milk. Pour into the cake tin and sprinkle the demerara sugar on top. Bake for 1 hour until a cake skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool. 

Meryl says : The trick with baking with bananas in cake is not to mash them up too much, so using ripe ones is a good thing - otherwise the cake may become too heavy. Hope you enjoy Joan’s recipe.

And if you are a banana fan, try this teabread recipe for 

Banana Nut Bread from Grandma’s Recipes page.