Banana Cake

From Bourke Street Bakery: the Ultimate Baking Companion, Paul Allam & David McGuinness, Murdoch Books, 2009.

Why is it that every time we buy bananas we seem to end up with two or three left that are over ripe? And a banana cake seems to pop up as the obvious solution for what to do with them.

A handsome copy of the Bourke Street Bakery cookery book has been on the shelf for some time and I had never got into cooking from it. Well there were bananas left and there was a recipe here so I got straight into it.

The pre-work was done: turning on the oven to heat up and lining the cake tin with baking paper.

The ingredients were those of a reasonably standard cake mix: 250 g unsalted butter, 355 g caster sugar, 4 eggs,  200 g sour cream, 300 g self-raising flour, 2 or 3 ripe bananas, 20 g golden syrup.

The usual cake mix work was done:. Butter and caster sugar were whisked until creamed. I added a little vanilla paste as I had no vanilla beans at the time. The eggs, four of them, were beaten in one at a time. Next came some sour cream in two batches. After that was added the self-raising flour, also in two batches.

The mixture was now ready except for the bananas. These were mashed and golden syrup drizzled over them. They were then folded into the cake mix rather lightly. The mix was then put in the cake tin and baked for about an hour.

The recipe also included a caramel sauce to go with the cake but I decided to not use it.

This turned out a well-formed cake. The lightly folded in banana mix gave it a nicely textured look and feel. It didn’t take long at all to demolish it and it lasted on the shelf for a far shorter time than the original bananas that were used in it. I don't think I'd worry about looking elsewhere for banana cake recipes the next time we have leftovers.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔