Banana Cake topped with icing
A fruity and moist banana cake that all the family will love. This UK recipe is topped with cream cheese icing. Step by step pictures and instructions make this recipe easy to bake and healthy.
Ingredients for Banana Cake
3 medium ripe bananas (approx. 400g / 14oz)
300g / 10oz self-raising flour
150g / 5oz soft butter
150g / 5oz Demerara sugar
2 medium eggs (at room temperature)
80g / 3oz walnuts or sultanas
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
CAKE TOPPING
125g / 4½oz full fat soft cheese
75 g / 2½oz butter
200g / 7 oz icing (confectioners) sugar
Half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
The butter must be soft. The best way to achieve this is to measure out the butter an hour or so before it is needed and leave it at room temperature. If this is not possible, break up the butter with a fork and beat it for a minute or so. If all else fails, put it in a bowl and float the bowl in warm water.
Turn the oven on, setting it to 180°C / Fan 160°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
Next, grease the loaf tin with margarine or butter, and line the tin with greaseproof baking paper. It's not essential to cover 100% of the tin but make sure that it lays as flat as possible on the inside of the tin.
Peel the bananas and mash them with a fork until they are really mushy. It's easier if the bananas are ripe but not essential.
Chop up the walnuts reasonably finely. Sultanas can be used as an alternative if you have a nut allergy.
Mashed bananas
Place the butter and Demerara sugar into a mixing bowl and blend together with a fork. The idea here is to mix the two ingredients thoroughly and at the same time incorporate as much air into the mixture as possible.
Mixing with a fork in a figure of eight shape will help to incorporate air into the cake mix.
Add sugar to the mixture
Stir in the bananas and chopped walnuts or sultanas and mix thoroughly. Add one egg and sift in half of the flour. Mix thoroughly in a figure of eight. Add the remaining flour, egg and lemon juice then mix again in a figure of eight.
Now the magic touch! Add the two tablespoons of olive or vegetable oil and mix thoroughly again in a figure of eight with a fork. The oil will keep the cake moist.
Complete the Banana Cake Mixture
Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, smooth it level and place in the pre-heated oven for 50 minutes.
After that time take it out of the oven and test that it is cooked. Do this by piercing the cake with a fork or skewer - if it comes out clean with no bits of the cake attached, it's cooked. If not cook for another 5 minutes and retest.
Some people have commented that this banana cake takes up to 1 hour 15 minutes to bake so don't be concerned if it's the same for you. Different ovens and slightly different ingredients are the cause of this.
Just keep checking every five or ten minutes. When you remove the cake out from the oven, take it out of the tin and place it on a wire rack or something similar. This will stop the cake sweating and getting damp - it really does make a difference.
Allow the cake an hour or so to cool down before icing it.
Banana Cake without icing
Make the icing by pouring the icing sugar, soft cheese, butter and vanilla into a bowl and mixing it all together with a fork.
Spoon the icing onto the cake and spread it evenly with a knife. Pop a row of cherries or walnuts on the top if you want to decorate it.
Cooked and iced Banana Cake
