Thursday, July 21, 2011

What do you do when bananas really do grow on trees?

I'd be the first to admit that I don't love bananas. But I do like them in a cake.
Oddly, even though we're in the depths of winter, our bananas are getting ready. Lloyd picked this bunch a week or so ago and had them ripening in a bag on the table on the deck.
They're beautifully ready now so I decided to make a cake with some of them ( Also our hens are laying like crazy right now so I could use up a few eggs as well.)

I've never made a banana cake before so here's where the good old internet came in handy. I looked for a very easy recipe and this popped up.


INGREDIENTS :



  • ¼ cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 250g (8oz) bananas
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 cups self raising flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 60 g (2 oz) butter

METHOD : 

  • Combine milk and lemon juice. Peel and mash bananas, put into bowl of electric mixer. Add sugar, sifted flour, lightly beaten eggs, softened butter and combined milk and lemon juice. Beat on low speed until combined, then beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Turn mixture into greased 23 cm x 12 cm (9 in x 5 in) loaf tin which has the base lined with greased greaseproof paper. Bake in low to moderate oven approx 1 ¾ hours or until cooked when tested. Cool in tin 10 minutes before turning out on wire rack to complete cooling. 


I got it from Here, and they have some really nice looking recipes. I followed it absolutely exactly and it really did take 1 hour 45minutes to cook. Probably when the writer of the recipe made their one they didn't splatter banana cake mix gunk all over their laptop. 
I did.

When it was finished it looked like this!

 and after I ate a bit it looked like this!
It was really lovely, more like banana bread, though and not quite as moist as I expected, but delicious all the same and not too bad for a first attempt.

14 comments:

  1. Isn't it lovely sometimes to be forced out of your arena of comfortable cooking? It is like the saying "necessity is the mother of all invention." You have bananas. You need to USE the bananas. You figure out a cake to use them. Hip-hip-hooray! Waste not, want not. I really get a kick out of things like that. The results are almost always satisfying because you learn something new.

    Your cake looks lovely. Good for you for putting those darn bananas to good use!

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  2. The cake is absolutely delicious! Thank you, lovely wife! xxx

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  3. That looks really yummy! My grandmother's banana bread recipe is our nicest recipe with bananas - hmmm maybe I should make it soon :-)

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  4. You know you can freeze bananas , they go brown but they are good for cooking cakes.

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  5. Laura's Mum8:37 am

    Hi
    I you substitute bananas for carrots in my carrot cake recipe you get a lovely, moist cake! just mash 2or 3 bananas with milk and add instead of the carrots -- easier than grating carrots and it freezes perfectly.
    Mum
    XXX

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  6. Wow, such a wondeful bunch of bananas. Our plants are a long way off producing!
    I usually make banana cake using a recipe by Jo Seagar, but have recently found one with coconut which is very nice. I will post the link on my blog for you.

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  7. thanks Bridget, I LOVE coconut.
    How old are your bananas? Ours are a fair age now as they were in before we moved in so at least 7 years, but they produce like crazy, even more so now that we know how to actually cut the stands back properly -I knew a holiday in Rarotonga would be brilliant on so many levels!!

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  8. You lucky thing - bananas here at the moment are hideously expensive. And my youngest just loves them. I'm like you though I don't like them at all - unless they're in banana cake.

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  9. I don't care for banana's either (I only eat them if there's NO bruises on them.) The cake looks wonderful, tough

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  10. I have always wondered what bananas taste like when they are picked ripe. We get them in the stores so green...flavorless really.
    We have a banana tree here in our Oregon garden, but it's only ornamental. It freezes to the ground every winter :(

    Wyatt and Wyatt's Mom

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  11. Wyatt's mum, they taste amazing even I think they taste pretty good - sweet and lovely. These ones are smaller than the usual bananas in supermarkets - like this recipe called for 250g of bananas and it said that was 2 - well I used 5 of ours!

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  12. Hey, I made banana bread today too! Must be something banana-ish in the collective! I'm planning to nick your recipe for next time...:)

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  13. Penny Duthie, Brisbane9:09 pm

    Bananas are like gold here at the moment, $12.99/kg and upwards!! I also have them in the garden but mine seem to be growing leaves at the moment...I freeze some of them whole and slice them up before use in a smoothie mix with fresh orange juice, ginger and honey.

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  14. Fantastic What s lovely crop! I love banana everything...except the actual fruit itself like you!

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Laura x