Banana Cake

Banana cake or banana bread is a type of moist and sweet baked item made with mashed bananas either served with cream cheese icing, chocolate icing or just plain unfrosted.

Banana cake according to history have been invented during the Depression era of the 1930’s by housewives finding other means of making some extra money at home, during this time baking soda and baking powder is also starting to get popular which was a key ingredient in making this cakes. Since this was the depression era, every grocery also find other ways in getting some extra money by selling their overripe bananas and giving away free recipes that uses them like muffins and pancakes. Though all of those efforts were made it did not become highly popular but many cookbooks started to publish recipes for this cake, then the 1960’s came and that was the home baking revival period, that led the fast popularity of banana cakes due to the simplicity of its preparation and the number available recipes in cookbooks.

A really simple baked item which is a good start for those who wants to learn baking, it’s one of those baking recipes that you won’t get wrong.

Ingredients (Banana Cake)

1 1/4 cups flour, sifted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
125 g butter, softened
2 large over ripe bananas, mashed
2 tbsp hot milk

Ingredients (Chocolate Frosting)

50g butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tbsp hot water
lightly salted peanuts, roughly chopped

Method (Banana Cake)

1. Mix together butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy.
2. Add eggs one at a time while beating.
3. Stir in mashed bananas.
4. Dissolve baking soda in hot milk then add into the mixture.
5. Fold in flour, baking powder and salt.
6. Pour mixture in a 9in greased round pan then bake in a 150C preheated fan forced oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
7. Once ready, remove from oven then let it cool.  Once cooled down remove from baking pan the cover with frosting (instructions below) and sprinkle peanuts on top.

Method (Chocolate Frosting)

1. Mix together butter and sugar together in a bowl using a hand mixer.
2. Add cocoa powder and hot water then continue to beat until creamy in texture.