Going Bananas

Banana cake sprinkled with icing sugar

Another variation - banana cake topped with chocolate shavings and chopped nuts

This is the first ever recipe I made. Little did I know that this will be start of a hobby. In fact, this is the first cake I baked for months...back when I still wasn't confident enough. I would alternately make it into a square or circle cake or into cupcakes and whenever there are pot-luck parties, this is the only contribution that I could manage. After a few more months, I made banana and carrot cake alternately. My first try (not just in baking banana cake but in baking per se) was a bit of a failure as I only followed the recipe at the back of a flour packaging. It was edible yet so dry. On my next try, I came across an internet recipe from this site. I then realised that using vegetable oil instead of butter makes the cake moist. I noticed that cakes here in England are more of the dry, cakey texture whilst we Pinoys prefer the moist kind. I don't like a cake that's really dry because it seems hard to swallow and it sort of blocks my throat. I guess it's just a personal preference but then again, most of my friends (and also my hubby) prefer moist cakes as well. It also helps if the bananas are overripe, even to the point of going really mushy, which is a good idea for putting left-over bananas to good use. I also tried different variations of banana cake, like adding nuts or caramel, but I still find it hard to make the variation distinct as the banana flavor is too overpowering. I guess the best variation so far would be the banana cupcakes and you could add some butter cream frosting on top which could totally stand on its own. This is the easiest recipe I made so far so I strongly recommend this for starters.

Ingredients:


1 1/2 c self-raising flour
1 c brown sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 c bananas, mashed (about 2-3 bananas)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 170C. Combine all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt) and mix them thoroughly. Add the oil and eggs then mix well with the dry ingredients. Add bananas and vanilla and continue mixing. Grease the bottom and sides of the baking pan and pour the batter into the pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool (or maybe wait until it's just a bit warm) then serve. Easy peasy!

***UPDATE***
Another variation of the banana cake which is the cupcake version. For the buttercream frosting, you can refer to this post. I added drops of yellow food coloring topped them with pecans.