Today's Thursday Baking is written by Jessica, who is continuing to bake from A Treasury of New Zealand Baking.This recipe is a very good version of the classic banana cake. In fact, my husband and I have declared this the best banana cake we've ever had, so this will be the new fall-back recipe for when I have bananas in the fruit bowl past their best for eating! I'm not sure what it is that makes it so moist and delicious- maybe the inclusion of yoghurt. We recently were given an easiyo maker and I love now always having yoghurt on hand in the fridge. Because it's so cheap to make, I don't feel bad using it in baking or in curries and save the bought more 'gourmet' style yoghurts for situations where I'll appreciate them. This cake is also very easy and quick to make (no surprise as it is by Jo Seagar) and doesn't require any creaming of butter and sugar.
I followed the recipe to the T, but I know from past experiences with banana cake it is also very nice with either chocolate or coffee icing too.
Delicious family favourite banana cake - Jo Seagar
Cake
1 cup sugar
100g butter, melted
3 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp baking soda
150ml natural or fruit yoghurt (apricot is nice)
2 cups standard flour
3 tsp baking powder
Icing
50g butter
juice and zest of a large lemon
2 cups icing sugar
Preheat the oven to 160C. Line and grease a 20-22cm springform tin. Beat the sugar , melted butter and eggs until thick and creamy. Add the mashed bananas and beat well. Heat the milk in a small bowl or a glass jug in the microwave until almost boiling (aprox 1 minute). Stir the baking soda into the milk then stir into the banana mixture. Add the yoghurt, flour and baking powder. Mix well and pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 45-50 mins, until the cake is cooked in the middle and just pulling away from the edges of the tin. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the lemon icing, place the butter, lemon juice and zest in a small microwave-proof jug or bowl. Microwave for 30-40 seconds until the butter is melted. Beat in the icing sugar and spread over the cooled cake. This cake won't keep for long, but can be stored in an airtight container for 2-3 days. You can also freeze the cake uniced.
This is definitely going into my list of favourites. Husband's cake of choice is a banana cake (so much so we had to have one layer of our wedding cake - banana!) so I'll try this one out on him and see if it passes the test!
ReplyDeletePS: I love the little plate with roses on it :)
our favourite banana cake has sour cream in it i guess it does the same thing as the yoghurt, yum, i love lemon icing on mine
ReplyDeleteLove lemon icing with a good moist banana cake. I also love yoghurt in cakes but haven't tried with banana - willl have to!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post Jessica, I have this cookbook but it was one recipe I hadn't taken much notice of. After your comments I had to make it last night and I agree it is the best banana cake recipe I've tried to date. I iced mine with cream cheese icing which was also very nice.
ReplyDeleteNever mind the cake, your plates are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteShould it be 180C for the oven instead of 160? Mine was nowhere near cooked and needed loads of extra time when I used 160 as you have written here.
ReplyDeleteHi tartankiwi, I just double-checked the recipe and it does say 160C. I think different ovens just take varying times to cook things. Our old oven is very temperamental and always takes a lot longer to cook anything than recipes say it will
ReplyDeleteI recently made this cake for a birthday and it was an absolute hit - I completely agree that this is the best banana cake recipe I have tried to date. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete