Banana Cake Recipe
Banana cake, Carrot cake, lemon yogurt cake. What is it about baked goods prefixed by a fruit that make them seem slightly healthier for you and therefore quite pleased that you ate them? In this case, I have to admit to you that this delicious banana cake will make you feel pleased you ate it for all the wrong reasons! This easy banana cake recipe is courtesy of a colleague I use to work with. She is my go to chef for traditional recipes that arn’t too fancy and just involve good old fashioned cooking. The original recipe produces an uniced cake that comprises a buttery, caramel flavour with the addition of sour cream for a moist but fluffy crumb. I have made it extra indulgent by smothering it in a delicious cream cheese frosting, with walnuts generously sprinkled on top for extra crunch.
We normally start off with full fruit bowl on Sunday night and by Friday, it consists of a few rejected overripe bananas – prefect for turning into a cake. We all know, the less edible the bananas ( read, soft, brown and spotty), the better the cake! I have to confess I might go grocery shopping and purposefully buy more bananas than I know my household can eat, purely so that by the end of the week I have the essential ingredient waiting and the perfect excuse to bake.
Alex and I set a challenge for ourselves to cook and shoot a banana cake “on location”. Alex travelled to Sydney, my new hometown for the next 12 months to visit me over the weekend. We managed to cram alot into two days including making a curry from scratch, eating gelato from Messina in Darlinghurst that has been voted the best in Australia , picnic in Rushcutters Bay Park, a night in the city, breakfast from Pieno in Surry Hills, a trip out to Ikea, and of course baking.
We spent Saturday like we do most days: morning run (this time with spectacular view of Sydney Harbour), stopping for a coffee and yummy muffin (from Toby’s Estate in Potts Point) on the way home and then making a mess as we cooked, this time in my kitchen. We utilised the utensils I had in my apartment and photographed the cake on my balcony. Despite being out of our comfort zone and cooking with a new oven, the cake turned out better than expected and eating it capped off a pretty sweet weekend all round.
We hope you make use of any overripe bananas and enjoy this banana cake recipe as much as we did!
- 125 g butter, softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ cups self raising flour
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- ½ tsp bicarb soda
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 cup mashed overripe bananas (2 big bananas and don’t overmash)
- ½ cup sour cream (make sure you take this out of fridge before you use it so its not cluggy)
- 50g butter
- 125g cream cheese
- 230g icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- Preheat oven 180c fan forced
- Grease and line loaf tin (do not put cake mix in just a greased tin – must be lined)
- Beat butter and sugar
- Add eggs one at a time beating well
- Add all ingredients except banana
- When well mixed then add banana and mix a bit more
- Bake 50 for minutes
- Sit in loaf tin for 5 mins before taking out of tin to cool on a wire rack
- beat butter and cream cheese until smooth
- Add the milk and slowly add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating until all incorporated
I am a newbie to food photography and am still learning, mostly self-taught but reading up on tips from blogs like yours, and currently in the prop-acquiring phase. Literally everything I see, I see with an eye if it would help my food be shot beautifully. I just love to try the banana cake.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂 Glad you enjoyed. – Alex
Loved the photographs very much…they are stunning! This cake is wonderful…I loved how you made it. Bookmarked the recipe for the weekend.
Hi Purabi,
Thank you for your comment. This has to be one of my favourite cakes. If i could make ( and eat it!) every week i would! Im sure it will be a highlight of your weekend as well! Enjoy!
Rani
Beautiful food photography & your banana cake looks delicious!
Thanks Cait! It sure was delicious 🙂
– Alex