A few weekends ago I noticed that I had a bunch of bananas that were getting very brown. Unfortunately, I had no time to turn them into anything tasty. Thankfully, bananas can be mashed up with a bit of lemon juice and stored in the freezer. This weekend past I decided to make banana cake for my fellow medics on placement with me.

Allrecipes.com is one of my go to websites for a new recipe. There are thousands of recipes on that website, so you know if a recipe as several hundred five star reviews then it’s going to be a good one and this banana cake is no exception. It was incredibly moist and almost gooey with the icing, but in a delicious moreish way rather than an undercooked icky way. The banana flavour shown through really well too. In fact, it was consumed by my colleagues with an alacrity that is only found in students offered free cake.

A very rustic and scrummy cake – no fancy icing this time round!

I modified the amounts to make a three layer 6″ cake and also threw in some chopped pecans. The nuts were a really nice addition and provided a really satisfying crunch to this otherwise moist cake. I used my standard cream cheese icing which went really well with the banana flavour.

Unfortunately, I was in a bit of a rush when I was icing it and didn’t bother to crumb coat it. I paid the price because there were crumbs in the icing and the layers kept sliding! If I had crumb coated it and let it firm up a bit in the freezer then I am sure it would have been a lot easier to get the icing smooth. However, as it is, I quite like the “rustic” look of the icing. :) I also am still searching for the best place in my new house in terms of lighting and background to take my food photos. Bear with me until then!

Happy Baking!

Banana Nut Cake

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Makes one 3 layer 6″ cake

Ingredients:

• 125g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 300g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 270g flour
• 1 tsp baking soda (bicarb of soda)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml buttermilk (add a bit of lemon juice to milk)
• 270g mashed bananas
• 1 – 2 tsp lemon juice
• ~75g pecans, chopped

Instructions:

1. Prepare three 6″ round cake tins by buttering, flouring and lining the bottom with a round of baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 135C/275F.
2. Mash the bananas and mix in the lemon juice. Set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
4. With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Mix in 1/3 of the flour mixture with the mixer on low speed. Add 1/2 of the buttermilk and mix well. Mix in half of the remaining flour mixture, then add the remaining buttermilk and mix well. Finally, add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until well combined.
6. Stir in the mashed banana and chopped nuts.
7. Divide the batter evenly amongst the three tins and bake in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Immediately put the cake tins in the freezer (trust me!) for 45 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Fill and frost with cream cheese icing (recipe below). Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Icing

Makes enough to generously ice a three layer 6″ cake

Ingredients:

• 120g unsalted butter, softened
• 120g full fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 500g icing sugar, sifted

Instructions:

1. Cream together the butter and cream cheese on high until light and fluffy (around 2 minutes). Add the vanilla and beat for another 30 seconds.
2. Then with the mixer on low speed, gradually add in the icing sugar. Keeping adding small amounts until all the icing sugar is added. Turn the mixer onto high speed and beat for another 30 sec – 1 minute. Enjoy your delicious and smooth cream cheese icing!