Banana and walnut cake

A couple of weeks ago I had a big bunch of about 9 over-ripe bananas that either needed to be used or thrown away. I chopped up 3 and froze them to use in smoothies, and the rest I used to make a luscious banana cake. I rummaged through my cookbooks and Google for a delicious sounding banana cake, but nothing jumped out at me - they were either breads, had sultanas (strict instructions from my Mother "NO sultanas!"), or just seemed like too much effort. Not even the darling Nigella Lawson could provide me with a recipe for perfection. Luckily, I found a banana cake recipe that sounded super easy and had me drooling at the mere thought of it. I did meddle with it slightly, but that's the beauty of baking, no? This is my tweaked recipe - the original recipe is here.

INGREDIENTS

170g unsalted butter

200g sugar - you can sling a bit of whatever you have in, but I used golden caster sugar

220g self-raising flour

2 decent tablespoons of honey

3 large eggs

150g walnuts, chopped or whole. I always chop mine

Over-ripe bananas - 6 small, 4 medium or 2/3 large

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. I have a fan assisted oven so set it to 160C.

2. Grease and line a large tin. You can use a loaf tin but I used a 23cm springform tin and that worked just as well.

3. Cream together the butter and sugar. You want to mix until it's light in colour and fluffy looking.

4. In a separate bowl, mash up the bananas. I find it easier to use a potato masher, but if you have some anger you would to get out of your system, a sturdy fork would work perfectly. If they're not ripe, they'll be too hard to mash properly, so ripened bananas are imperative. As I've said, mine were over-ripe, and it just made a softer, stickier texture with a little sweeter taste.

5. In the butter/sugar bowl, add the eggs and beat in. I find it easier to add one egg at a time, but you can bung them all in together.

6. Add the honey and beat again.

7. Stir in the mashed bananas.

8. Sift in the flour and stir until combined.

9. Chop the nuts (if you don't want to use them whole) and stir them through the mixture.

10. Pour the mixture into the tin and place in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes. My oven cooks really quickly, so mine was cooked after about 20, so do keep an eye on it.

11. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

12. Devour whilst still warm with a cup of tea. Yum yum!

I really love making anything banana-based. The house is filled with a yummy, sweet aroma, they're so simple to make, and the recipes can be adapted to suit your needs. Don't like walnuts? Try hazelnuts or pecans. Don't like nuts at all? Leave them out! Fancy have a chocolate hit? Add some chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, or how about smothering the finished cake with some melted chocolate? Mmmm. You can add other fruits such as sultanas or blueberries, or bake two cakes and sandwich them together with buttercream. The options really are endless with this type of cake, and you can guarantee that each one will be as delightful and gratifying as the last. You can even leave it as it is, because quite simply, it's scrumptious.

Enjoy!

xoxo