Recipes by Barbara Northwood

Banana Cake

Nov 23 11:21am

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 cups self-raising flour
Finely shredded orange rind and banana slices, to decorate
LEMON ICING
125g light cream cheese
2 cups icing sugar mixture
2 tsps finely grated lemon rind

Method
1 Grease a 14cm x 24cm loaf pan. Line base and two long sides with baking paper.

2 Beat butter and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. Stir in bananas and vanilla essence. (At this stage, mixture will look curdled.)

3 Combine milk and bicarbonate of soda in a small jug. Fold flour and milk mixture into banana mixture. Spoon into prepared pan.

4 Cook in a moderate oven (180C) for 40 minutes, or until cake is cooked (when tested). Stand in a pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

5 To make the lemon icing, beat cream cheese in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in icing sugar mixture and rind until combined.

6 Spread lemon icing over cake. Decorate with shredded orange rind and banana slices.

Tip: Cake can be made up to four days ahead. Store in an airtight container or freeze the uniced cake for up to two months.

Chris Bath says her mum Maureen makes a mean banana cake. 'Every time my son Darcy goes to Mum and Dad's, he has to make a banana cake. He even takes his own bananas. It's not the eating but the ritual of cooking with Gran that he enjoys.'

Recipe by Chris Bath's mum, Maureen