I’m late posting this week and I didn’t want to post yet another recipe but my inspiration is a little dry…hint, hint – I’m open to ideas and submissions!!
I thought today that I’d share this very easy and delicious banana cake recipe. Before we left Australia for Madrid, my grandmother gave me a bunch of old cookbooks. I love cooking and as they were gathering dust at Nan’s house, she passed them on to me. I had such fun going through all the old cookbooks, one of which was the time honoured, Australian favourite, “The Australian Women’s Weekly” recipe book. This one had originally belonged to my great grandmother, it has a threadbare hard cover, a broken spine and is littered with her notes, cut outs and favourite recipes. Also in the pile were many of those recipe books that women of my Nan’s era seemed to be constantly producing to raise funds for various organisations and charities. You know the ones, where the auxiliary ladies ask members and friends to submit their favourite recipes and someone tirelessly types them up, photocopies dozens of pages and staples them together to produce a cook book that they then sell to raise money. This banana cake recipe comes from one such book, produced in 1979 by the “ladies of Bulli and Corrimal Hospital Auxiliaries”. These recipes I find, are often some of the best, comprised of basic ingredients with simple, no fuss cooking instructions.
I love cooking but not being a big sweet eater, baking is not my forte and I’ll doing anything to avoid creaming butter and sugar! This recipe produces a delicious and moist cake with none of that irritating and time consuming labour with beaters and creaming! I often serve it un-iced because it appeals to my non-sweet tooth but recently I made one for a morning tea and iced it using icing sugar, lime juice and lime zest, which worked really well.
NOTE: This recipe originally calls for Self Raising flour, which we can’t get in Spain. To make S.R flour, I add 2 teaspoons of baking powder to each cup of plain flour.
Easy Banana Cake
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
3 bananas
1 1/2 cups of flour (see note above – don’t forget the baking powder!)
1/2 teaspoon of bi-carb soda
1/4 cup of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix slightly cooled butter, sugar and eggs. Mash banana and add to mixture. Add milk in which bi-carb soda has been dissolved, add vanilla then add flour (with baking powder) and mix.
The recipe calls for cake mixture to be cooked in a ring tin for 30-35 mins in a moderate oven (180 deg C). I use a loaf tin or a standard round tin which tends to take a little longer. Check your cake after 30 mins with a skewer. If it’s browning too much on top I turn the oven down a little and continue to cook until skewer comes out clean.
Enjoy!