A nutritious fruit for all the family, bananas are also full of iron and B vitamins and are low in salt. They are increasingly being regarded as useful for lowering blood pressure. A natural antacid, banana is one of the foods often recommended for an evening snack as it is less likely to upset the stomach during the night.
When bananas begin to over ripen, it is useful to use them up in cake recipes which require soft bananas. The following recipes offer three alternative cakes for home baking to suit individual tastes. They can be baked in either a loaf-shaped tin or a round cake tin, although a loaf tin makes for easier slicing.
The basic banana cake recipe uses ordinary white sugar and white flour and is a smaller loaf cake.
Basic Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 125g (5oz) self-raising flour
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 ripe banana
- 50g (2oz) soft margarine
- 1 egg
- 125g (5oz) sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Preheat the oven to 190C (375 F).
- Put the egg, banana, sugar, margarine, vanilla essence and salt in a liquidiser. Blend to a smooth consistency.
- Sieve the flour, and bicarbonate soda into a bowl and pour the liquidised mixture over it.
- Mix just enough to combine everything thoroughly.
- Put into a greased loaf tin.
- Bake for 40 minutes.
- Turn out and cool on a wire rack.
The following low fat cake recipe does not use any added fat and compensates for this by using more bananas, soft brown sugar and added sultanas for moisture.
Low Fat Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 225g (8oz) self-raising flour
- 150g (6oz) soft brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 100g (4oz) sultanas
- 5 ripe bananas
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C (350 F).
- Mash the bananas, add the brown sugar and mix together.
- Add the sultanas and stir.
- Add the beaten eggs with a little of the flour and stir.
- Add the rest of the flour and mix well.
- Pour the mixture into a greased or lined loaf tin or round tin.
- Bake for 1 and ¼ hours.
- Turn out to cool.
The final banana cake recipe uses healthy wholewheat flour and light brown sugar.
Banana Wholewheat Loaf Cake
Ingredients
- 225g (8oz) plain wholewheat flour
- 2 level teaspoons baking powder
- 150g (6oz) light brown sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- 100g (4oz) soft margarine
- 2 ripe bananas
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160 C (325 F).
- Mash the bananas in a large bowl.
- Add the flour, baking powder and salt and stir.
- Add the margarine, sugar and eggs.
- Stir together until well mixed, then beat for 1 minute until the margarine is completely blended.
- Turn the mixture into a greased loaf tin.
- Bake for 1 and ½ hours, until well risen.
- Cool and leave for a day before serving.
There are also delicious easy apple cake recipes for afternoon tea or dessert.
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