Banana Cake

If you have ever baked a few things in your life, you may already have your very own little safety net. Your ‘safe option’ – the one recipe you know will generally turn out right!

Well, mine has to be Banana Cake. It’s a firm staple of mine.

The smell of this cake baking in the oven is just scrumptious and you will understand how ‘moreish’ it becomes. You’ll be forgiven for having more than a couple slices!

And I can’t help but feel so resourceful making it! It generally tastes better with very-ripe bananas. And if you’re anything like my fiancé, (who wont eat a banana once it starts showing one or two brown spots on its skin), you’ll have loads of ‘reject’ bananas to put into that cake! Here's a few helpful pointers to start with, though.

Banana cake 

Ingredients

4oz butter

5oz caster sugar

8oz self raising flour

2 eggs

3 over- ripe bananas

½ tsp cinnamon
4oz Icing sugar (optional)

Pre-heat your oven 170C/ gas mk 4.

With a sturdy wooden spoon, cream together the margarine and caster sugar. It should look a pale yellow.

Whisk your eggs into a separate bowl and then add to the mixture. With a fork, mash together your bananas on a large plate until the lumps are as consistent as possible and mix well with the other ingredients.

Add the self-raising flour and cinnamon and mix well.

Pour your mixture into a pre-greased 2lb loaf tin, first bake for 40 minutes at 170C, then reduce the temperature to 150C and bake for another 30 minutes.

Carefully remove your cake and let it cool.
Once cooled, mix icing sugar to form a paste with the consistency of honey to decorate. (instructions should be on pack)