Going Bananas....

           What to do if you have over ripe bananas and you do not want to make fried banana fritters (pisang goreng) with it. Well, there are many ways of baking with bananas like banana pancake, banana cup cake, banana cake and so on. A friend asked me for a good recipe for banana cake and I made this recipe taken from "Agnes Chang - I Can Bake".

 
Nice & Easy Banana Cake

240g plain flour (sift with 1 tsp baking powder & 1 tsp baking soda)
180g butter                                              
180g caster sugar ( I reduce it to 150g)
2 eggs,
4 ripe bananas (coarsely mashed to get 1 cup)
3 tbsp milk mix with 1 tbsp lemon juice
2 ripe bananas (sliced and squeeze with juice from 1/2 lime)

1. Cream butter & sugar till light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
2. Mix in mashed bananas, milk mixture and flour mixture till well combined.
3. Pour into a greased & lined loaf tin or paper cups.
4. Arrange banana slices on top of cake as decoration.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree C for about 20-25 mins till cooked and golden brown.
6. Remove cake from oven and leave to cool before serving.

* Other than banana cake or banana cup cake, you can also make it into Chiffon Cake which is a light, spongy and much healthier cake as it does not use butter. The recipe below is also taken from "Agnes Chang's book - Baking Made Easy".

(forgive me for the burnt top ;-)

Banana Chiffon Cake

Ingredients A 
 200g Self Raising Flour (sift with 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda and 1/4 tsp salt.)
100g Caster sugar (I reduced to 80g)
8 egg yolks
6 tbsp corn oil
1 cup mashed banana
4 tbsp water

                                              Ingredients B
                                              8 egg whites
                                              1/2 tsp cream of tartar
                                              100g caster sugar (I reduced to 80g)

1. Mix all the ingredients A in a mixing bowl to form a smooth batter.
2. Whisk ingredients B till stiff. Add A and mix in one direction using hand whisk till combine.
3. Pour mixture into a 25cm/10" chiffon cake tin. Bake in 150 degree C till lightly brown. Increase heat to 170 degree C and continue to bake till golden brown and cooked. (about 1 hour).
4. Remove from oven, invert tin and leave to cool before removing from tin.

** The texture of this Banana Chiffon Cake is very soft and the aroma of banana while baking makes your mouth water. I find I have to adjust the temperature of my oven (its a small table one) which is why the top part burn easily as it really 'rise' during baking and the heat from the top of the oven was too much. - I really need to get a bigger oven...:-)

Do try it this all time favorite recipes!.....