Banana cake

Banana cake and banana cake with chocolate chips

I got given lots of very over-ripe bananas that were destined for the compost and decided to make cake, partly because if I keep cake around for lunchboxes and snacks, some family members are less likely to buy chocolate or doughnuts during the day. I try to make simple cakes, preferably with fruit in and preferably low-ish in sugar. Not always though!
 
A favourite is banana cake and this is based on a recipe I got from a Yahoo group called Pantry Challenge years ago. It's easy, cheap and, if you can buy milk and oil in glass bottles, almost plastic-free to make. Confession- my oil came in plastic, as did my baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

It's also very good- I recently bumped into the mum of a girl who was one of my Rainbow Guides almost ten years ago and she said it was still her favourite.

Banana cake

3 ripe bananas, mashed
3 eggs
2/3 cup (160ml) buttermilk (I used whole milk with a tsp of lemon juice added 5 minutes beforehand)
2/3 cup sunflower oil (you could also use melted butter or coconut oil)
2 1/4 cup plain flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/2 cup sugar (the recipe originally had almost 2 cups of sugar. I certainly don't think you need more than 1 cup. Once I forgot to put any in at all and people still liked it!)

Mix the wet ingredients, add the dry ingredients and mix well. Pour into a traybake type tin (approx 28 x 22cm) and bake at 180 C for 35 minutes. It will be springy, have shrunk slightly from the sides and a skewer will come out clean. Cut into squares when cool.
It freezes well and is good to keep as a stand-by for packed lunches.

Chopped chocolate in the darker cake on the right.

It also works with bananas that have been frozen and defrosted. You can freeze bananas as they are in their skins in which case they'll defrost to a mush, which isn't a problem for making the cake, or you can peel them and freeze in tubs, in which case they look a lot more appetising when they're defrosted. If I remember to peel them I cut them into 3, open freeze then put into a big tub and pull out 3 pieces for every banana I need.

It's a very forgiving cake and you can add chocolate chips (in some of the cake in the photo), chopped nuts or I've even substituted some of the banana with the same volume of grated apple or blackberries (which tastes good but makes it a slightly odd shade of purple!)

Let me know if you try it.