Banana cake/bread

Got some over-ripened bananas that you don't know what to do with? Well, you don't need to throw them away. You can bake them instead!

This is a nice little recipe that I have made to suit my own taste... Truth be told I'm not a fan of overly sweet things so I have modified it according to my tastes. If you have a sweet tooth make sure to add more sugar and butter (I will list ingredients for both sweet and less sweet versions). Additionally feel free to use any nuts you fancy and you can replace the chocolate with raisins or dried cranberries :)

I found that people loved this cake for different occasions. You can have it for breakfast, desert (with a bit of ice-cream if you please) or as an energy booster for exercise. A friend who came over and went for a loooooong ride with his bicycle said that this was the best thing ever for his energy levels. The chocolate, sugar and flour gave him an instant energy boost, while the slow energy releasing banana and hazelnuts kept him going later on when he needed it most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recipe

 

Ingredients:

50 g (or 100 g) unsalted butter (take it out of the fridge a couple of hours ahead of time in order for it to soften) and a bit extra melted

100 g (or 140g) light muscovado sugar and a bit extra for sprinkling

2 large eggs

3 large ripe bananas, mashed

50 g hazelnuts (pecans also work well), roughly chopped

chocolate chip (or dark good quality chocolate roughly chopped)

150 ml buttermilk

280 gr wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Optional: You can roast the hazelnuts ahead of time. I find this enhances the taste. Do this by heating the oven to 180C. Place the hazelnuts on a tray and roast for about 15 minutes. Take them out of the oven and place them inside a folded towel. Leave to cool for a bit and the place your hands on top of the towel and rub, in order to release most of the dry peel from the nuts.

Tip: Instead of buying ready made buttermilk make it yourself: squeeze a bit of lemon juice over 150 ml of milk, stir and leave to rest for about 5 minutes, et voila!

 

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Prep your ingredients (mash bananas, chop nuts etc...), butter a loaf tin (roughly 20 x 15 cm) and line the base with baking paper. I use a silicone loaf tin which makes it super easy to remove the cake once it's ready.

2. In a mixer, mix the butter and sugar until the mixture becomes creamy. Transfer to a bowl and beat in the eggs. 

3. Mix in the mashed bananas, hazelnuts, chocolate chip, and the buttermilk.

4. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda on top of the mix. Fold the mixture with a wooden spoon, but do not over-mix. Spoon into the loaf tin and shake a bit so that the mixture is even.

5. Sprinkle some sugar on the top and place in the oven. Bake for 1-1h 15mins until golden. You can check if the inside is cooked by inserting a knife in the cake. If the knife comes out mostly clean, your cake is baked (however the cake is quite moist so the knife will never be completely clean). Leave to cool for a few minutes and then take the cake out of the tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack (or if like me you don't have a cooling wrack, the grill from a grill tray will do!).

Enjoy!

P.S. You can also freeze this cake. Just simply slice it and place in freezing bags. Then on the days you feel like having some, take the slices out and leave to defrost for about 30 minutes.