Foodie Friday - Banana Cake

I have made Banana Bread many times before but only Banana Cake once before and if I am completely honest it wasn't a fabulous cake so I have never attempted it again. I came across a new recipe whilst perusing my cookbooks one day; something I do fairly often in my quest for more recipes to add to my list of 'regulars'. The 'regular' recipe is important to all cooks, these are those good, old faithful recipes that we can whip up at top speed when something tasty is required unexpectedly. This new Banana Cake recipe could be one of those I think. I will need to make it a few more times to be sure it is truly speedy, easy and very tasty (not that my test subjects will complain I'm sure!)


Banana Cake

1 ½ cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup banana puree (about 2-3 large, very ripe bananas)
1 2/3 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
125g softened butter
100ml buttermilk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Icing

250g cream cheese
125g softened butter
500g sifted icing sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 180*C. Butter and flour or line a deep 26cm cake tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and bicarbonate of soda. Mash your bananas or blend them for a smoother finish. Cream together the butter and the sugar until they are light and have changed colour a little. Whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract and the buttermilk and add these to the butter mixture with the banana. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out ‘clean’ from the cake. Allow the cake to cool slightly in the tin as the steam that comes out of the cake will help to separate it from the tin and make it easier to get out. Let the cake finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the icing beat the butter first until it is very soft then add the cream cheese and vanilla and keep beating until it if combines well. Gradually add the sifted icing sugar (if you add it all in one go you will ended up looking like a mime artists – trust me on this!).

The reason my icing looks so runny is that I was unable to get a block of cream cheese so I had to use the spreadable type thus the ‘spreadable’ quality of my icing. I actually served more icing in a jug with this cake it was so ‘pourable’, not that the kids minded.

This was the first time I have baked this recipe and I did change the suggested method of making the cake as it called for all the ingredients to be mixed together in a blender. I used my trusty kitchen aid mixer and the cake worked fine. I sometimes think cooks and chefs feel pressure to come up with new ways to do things so they can differentiate themselves from all the rest when the old methods work just fine.

This recipe came from ‘Belinda Jeffrey’s 100 Favourite Recipes’ cook book. Belinda is an Australian cook who appeared on the Australian television program ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ a few years ago. If you can find this cook book I highly recommend it as it contains a very good range of recipes.

Thankyou to Designed by Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday. I hope some of you are inspired to make this yummy cake as it is well worth the effort.