Breakfast Banana cake

A healthier version of the beloved cake.

The perfect bananas.

There really isn't much art to this recipe; it's all about the ripeness of the bananas. It's quick and simple, to be chucked together when you fancy a sweet, moist, bouncy cake which isn't loaded with nasties, and makes your kitchen smell homely as it slowly cooks.

Recipe

Whisk together:

3-4 ripe bananas

1 tbsp butter

(Flavouring)

1 tsp vanilla essence

A pinch of salt

2-4 tbsp sweetener (to taste)

Whisk in:

2 eggs

1 tsp (levelled) bicarbonate of soda combined with 3 tbsp warm water to dissolve

Sift and fold in:

1 cup wholemeal flour

Gently mix in: 1/2 cup walnuts

Method:

1. Mush bananas with a fork. The bananas I use are ripened, but not so much that they're a slimy brown goop which ooze when peeled. With an electric mixer, whisk softened butter with the banana mush. You should see bits of butter in-between the banana mush which looks odd, but don't worry about that.

2. Combine in flavouring ingredients with the banana mixture to taste.

3. You can either: whisk the egg whites into white peaks separately from the egg yolks, then fold this into the mixture for extra fluffiness gained from the air bubbles; or, whisk in 2 eggs. I tend to do the former, as I have leftover egg whites from making ice cream.

4. For the raising agent (bicarbonate of soda), mix the bicarb with warm water to dissolve before evenly incorporating into the mixture. Do not go overboard with bicarb; it has a funky chemical smell and can ruin everything if used in excess!

5. Sift and fold in wholemeal flour. If the mixture is too runny, you can simply add more flour (we're not going for perfection here).

6. Add the mixture to a cake pan so the mixture is about 2 inches thick, and place in an oven on a medium heat for about 1 hour. Due to reasons I won't elaborate on, I've made this in a slow cooker and it's worked fine every time, producing a spongey, moist cake. You can even make it in a wok with a lid (yes, really).
   

#cake #bananacake #banana #healthier #breakfastcake #breakfast #nooven #snack #simplerecipe #simplecake #wholemeal #lowsugar #fruit #nutritious