- Can be cut into 10 to 12 slices – Ready in 1 hour 30 minutes –
Gather together…
75g butter (quite thinly sliced and warmed for 3 minutes in the heating-up oven until soft, but not fully melted).
50g brown sugar (any brown sugar works).
125g self-raising flour (sieved).
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (be careful not to add any extra than this or it will taste fizzy - yuck).
½ tsp ground ginger.
½ tsp mixed spice.
1 medium free-range egg (beaten).
2 ripe bananas (roughly chopped) or use previously frozen-in-their-skins-and-defrosted-for-an-hour-at-room-temperature bananas (roughly mashed).
1 tbsp milk.
100g (handful) of mixed dried fruit / sultanas.
50g (small handful) of dark chocolate, broken up into small-ish chunks (optional) - 'cooking chocolate' melts far more easily than regular chocolate and is much less likely to shock and split. Sainsbury's own-brand cooking chocolate is sold in foil and card (so is plastic-free), Green & Black's cooking chocolate is plastic-free AND palm oil-free, but is too pricey for me to use regularly.
Handful of muesli to decorate the top.
Get cooking…
1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C (fan 150C) or Gas 2.
2. Now warm the 75g of sliced butter in the heating-up oven for 3 minutes (set a timer so you don’t forget it!) - use a small, robust ceramic or metal bowl, and be careful when removing the hot bowl. Some of the butter will actually melt (which isn't a disaster), most will still be solid yet soft.
3. Line a 900g loaf tin (9"x5") with a greaseproof paper liner (you can get a reusable loaf tin liner, but it is a bit fiddly to use and your cake will come out rather oddly shaped as the excess material folds in on itself - we happily use one but I thought I'd warn you!).
4. Beat (by hand or in a mixer) the 75g of very softened butter and the 50g of brown sugar together for 1 minute, until well combined.
5. Sieve in the 125g of SR flour, the 1/4 tsp of bi-carb (you must sieve this to avoid unpleasant fizzy clumps!) and the 1/2 tsp of each of the spices (ginger and mixed spice). Don't mix together yet, wait until the wet ingredients are added, as over-mixing the flour will make the cake tough.
6. Mix in the beaten egg, the banana chunks / mash (from 2 bananas) and the 1 tbsp of milk, stir until smooth - this will take approx. 30 seconds of vigorous stirring.
7. Add the 100g of dried fruit and the 50g of chocolate pieces (optional) and give a couple of stirs around the bowl to combine.
8. Spoon the mixture into the lined loaf tin and level the mixture gently with the back of a spoon.
9. Decorate the top with the handful of muesli.
10. Bake for 1 hour uncovered (although do check the loaf cake is not browning too fast after 45 minutes, if it is then cover the cake with foil for the remaining oven time).
11. Leave the loaf cake to cool for 10 min in tin, then turn it onto a wire rack to cool properly – or, better still, start to eat it whilst it is still warm.
12. If you are sharing this cake with children under 5, then remove any whole nuts (from the muesli on the top) before serving them - as they are a choking hazard.
I don't know where I found this banana loaf cake recipe originally, but I added in the chocolate - yum! I got the idea to sprinkle muesli on the top from a Joe Wickes (The Body Coach) banana loaf recipe.