Scoff the lot. We won’t tell. (photo by Sarah)
There seems to be a constant supply of bananas in our fruit bowl that span all vintages; too green to eat to too black to peel plus every stage in between. As mentioned in my post a couple of days ago I don’t like wasting food, so therefore I feel it’s my duty to turn the too ripe to eat bananas into something edible.
I’ve had this recipe for many years, it was written down for me by a friend’s mum who used to make this loaf weekly. The original recipe calls for walnuts but years ago I replaced the nuts with chocolate. I use whatever I have in the cupboards, and I alter the type of sugar to suit. To tackle the Easter egg mountain that is still in residence on the top of my fridge I used half a Flake Easter egg in this loaf. If I use white chocolate I use caster sugar and if I use milk chocolate, as I did today, then I use light Muscovado. If my bananas are bed fellows with dark chocolate then I go for dark Muscovado. You can’t go wrong with this cake, you really can’t. I’ve added Reese’s Pieces to it, Snickers, Mars and I even managed to once wrestle a Curly Wurly into this loaf too. (Ohh, they’re not as big as they used to be are they?)
- 100g/4oz butter
- 175g/sugar (light or dark Muscovado or caster depending on the chocolate you use)
- 3 ripe bananas (mashed)
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 225g/8oz SR Flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100g/4oz chocolate (or 50g/2oz chopped walnuts if you prefer)
- 2 tbs milk
Get Baking:
- Preheat oven to 180oC/Gas 4 and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
- Cream the soft butter and sugar together and mix in the mashed bananas followed by the eggs.
- Sift the flour in and mix well.
- Add the chocolate that’s been broken or cut into little pieces.
- Add the milk and mix well. When all the ingredients are combined pour the batter into the loaf tin.
- Sprinkle some extra Muscovado sugar on the top for a lovely toffeeish crunchy crust. Mmmmm.
- Bake for around an hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
- If the top is browning too quickly cover the loaf with foil and put it back in to bake making sure to take the foil off for the last 5-10 minutes of cooking.
- Cool for a little while in the tin before taking out and placing on a cooling rack.
