It is a very helpful way of using up those over-ripe bananas too. Our house designer was coming over for a meeting tonight, and I had bananas that were so black and squishy that my housekeeper worriedly pointed them out to me this morning with a tut tut. So, banana cake it was.
The perfect banana cake for me is fluffy and moist, with small scattered squishes of banana in between, and a toasty nutty caramelized shell. No nuts required.
This recipe is by Carrie Ho from A Treasured Collection (2001). A few years ago, the ladies of Covenant Community Methodist Church in Singapore gathered together to collate their time-treasured recipes. It's a dying tradition, but church gatherings used to be fed with food lovingly prepared by its members. Nowadays we cater (still lovingly) fried chicken, hotdogs and cookies. Call me old-fashioned, but I kinda miss those days and am fighting it tooth and nail!
RECIPE: THE BEST BANANA CAKE IN THE WORLD
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 mins
Serves: 8
Equipment -
1x 20 cm square baking pan (I used a pie pan last night. A decorative alternative is to use a bundt pan.)
Wax paper
A -
180 g / 6 oz Butter
180 g / 6 oz Sugar
B -
2 tbsp Sour cream
1 tsp Vanilla essence
C -
3 Large eggs (60g each)
D -
210 g / 7.5 oz Self-raising flour, sifted
4 Large ripe bananas or 8 Small ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
*****
Pre-heat oven to 170 C / 340 F. Grease and line baking pan. Dust with flour.
A - Cream butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. I use the flat paddle for this.
B - Add sour cream and vanilla essence to A.
C - Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. I switch to the egg beater for this.
D - Fold in sifted flour and bananas gradually into the mixture. I do this manually with a flat spatula. Pour mixture into baking pan and bake for 1 hour. Then cover cake with foil and bake for another 10 mins. Remove from oven and let cake stand for 5 mins before taking it out. Cool on wire rack for at least another 10 mins before serving.
You can serve it with dusted icing sugar or a simple sour cream frosting.
