Banana Cake

Ingredients

• 115 g softened butter
• 100 g (1/2 cup packed) brown sugar
• 50 g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 large mashed bananas (or three small)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 225 g (1 3/4 cups) plain all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 salt

Instructions

1. 1

   Preheat your oven to 170c and grease and line a square baking tin (see note 1)

2. 2

   In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a hand beater until the mixture is creamy and fluffy. This will take around 2 minutes.

3. 3

   Add in the eggs and beat into the creamed butter to combine for around a minute. The mixture will look more like a thick whipped cream.

4. 4

   Heat the milk in a microwave until quite warm – around 40 seconds. Then add the baking soda into the milk and stir to dissolve.

5. 5

   Next add the milk and baking soda mixture along with the mashed bananas (see note 2) and the vanilla extract and cinnamon and mix again until well combined.

6. 6

   Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the wet ingredients and fold through until just combined, taking care not to over-mix.

7. 7

   Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and spread in an even layer gently to the edges. Bake for around 35-40 minutes (see note 3) or until just cooked through. You don’t want to over-bake as this will result in a dryer cake. When the cake has cooked through the sides of the cake would have pulled away slightly and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake will come out clean.

8. 8

   Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before taking out of the tin. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before icing or cutting.