It is the beginning of a new term for many things: school, sports, church. Cakes are always useful at gatherings and when I bake, I often try to make two cakes at the same time. It seems a waste of my (and the oven’s) time and energy otherwise.
On my two most recent bakes, despite using the same recipe and bake time, each cake came out slightly different. I had the thought that baking cakes is a bit like raising children – you can put in the same care, attention, love into your baking/ child-rearing but each cake, and each child, will be subtly different. What matters most is that you start off with the best ingredients and intention, and will that the result is a lovely cake and a lovely child.
Today’s recipe is another banana cake, but made with sunflower oil. Personally, I love butter, but very often I get requests for a dairy-free or gluten-free cake. There is a gluten-free banana cake here. I continue to work on recipes for gluten-free and dairy-free cakes, it’s just finding the right combination that will yield a good result. I also want to add – if you can’t eat a cake because of a severe allergy or equally severe lifestyle choice, then please have a piece of fruit. Life is too short for compromises and you deserve to eat something tasty.
For this cake, I added dark chocolate chips for a treat, but walnuts would also be good to add more fibre overall.
For the Cake:
(makes 1 loaf, and can be doubled successfully in one large mixing bowl)
280 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
180 g soft light brown sugar
2 large eggs
250 g very ripe bananas (weight without skin), mashed
140 g sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 g dark or milk chocolate chips
OR
100 g walnut halves
You will also need a 2-lb loaf tin (13 x 23 cm), lined with baking parchment. I used my Pullman loaf pans from USA Pan. In the UK, these are available from Sous Chef.
How to Make:
Preheat the electric oven to 155 C fan/ 170 C.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl. Leave aside.
Place the sugar and eggs in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (I used a KitchenAid with a flex edge beater). Beat together on medium speed until well mixed.
Add the bananas, and continue to beat on a low speed for around 30 seconds until the banana is mixed in.
Add the flour and mix in thoroughly on a low speed.
With the motor still running, slowly pour in the oil and vanilla extract. Beat until you get a smooth batter.
Remove the mixing bowl from the stand. Add in the chocolate chips or walnuts and give everything a stir to distribute evenly (see comment below).
Pour the batter into the lined loaf pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when touched. A metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Each banana loaf can be cut into 10 generous slices.
Specific advice for parents based on my cake baking: you have no way of knowing how your children will turn out. Look at the distribution of chocolate chips in the cake slices. If your children = a loaf of cake, sometimes one child will have more of one characteristic or trait, whether good or bad. That’s the way it is, you have done your best.
Specific advice for children based on my cake baking: your parents will love you no matter how you turned out. Mr Gochugaru loved the slice of cake with more chocolate and I loved the one with less chocolate. Overall we loved the entire cake. And, I especially love the sides/ crusts of cake (and bread) even though it may be tough or rough. But I always cut it into smaller pieces before eating, to make it easier and not so much of a challenge.
PS: The coconut loaf x 2 that I made in August, identical recipe but not an identical result
