Delightfully Crusty Banana Cake

(Adapted from Edible Garden: The Best Banana Cake Recipe Ever!)

My little S, the husband man, and I are fruit lovers. Bananas are a staple in our house; to be had with cereal or as a quick snack. However, often this is what happens to them:

This is the time we generally chuck them into the dustbin. Recently I came across a wonderful recipe for using over-ripe bananas on Edible Garden. I simply loved this recipe. To use these bananas and make a crusty, dense sweet treat seemed like an excellent idea. I just altered the recipe slightly to suit my requirements. Here is the recipe:

 

How I made it:

Ingredients

Maida (All purpose flour) - 1 and a half cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Banana - 1

Baking powder - 2 level teaspoon

Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon

Vanilla essence - 1 full teaspoon

Buttermilk or curd - 1/2 cup

Eggs - 2

Oil/ Butter - 1/4th cup

For decoration:

Icing sugar - 2 tablespoon

Procedure

1. First peel the banana and mash the banana in the electric mixer. I used only one banana. (If you use two bananas, use only 3/4 cup sugar.)

Although you can mash these by hand but it is better to use the mixer to avoid mess.

2. Add 2 eggs to this mixture and whisk well in the electric mixer.


Add eggs

3. Now add sugar and mix well.

4. This is what the mixture looks like:

5. Add oil or butter. Though I have used oil, but butter is more suitable for this cake.

6. Add half cup of curd to this mixture.

7. Add vanilla essence to the mixture.

8. Now add baking powder.

9. Next comes the baking soda.

10. Start adding the Maida gradually to the mix.

11. Once you get a thick batter without any lumps, your mix is ready.

12. I added a few drops of blue food color to the batter. This step is purely optional.

13. Grease the baking pan. I used a square brownie pan.

14. Pour the batter into the greased pan.

15. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Place the cake pan in the middle rack. Bake for 40 minutes.

16. After 40 minutes, I removed the cake from the oven. But on inserting the toothpick in the cake, it was still a bit dense. So I covered the cake pan with aluminum foil and baked for another 10 minutes.

(For those baking in a pressure cooker, follow the same instructions. Place the cake pan containing batter in the pre-heated pressure cooker with a bed of salt. Attach the lid of the pressure cooker minus the weight and keep on low flame for about 45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out dry. This cake is a bit dense.)

17. On removing the cake from the oven. this is what the cake looked like:

18. Cool and de-mold the cake from the tin.

For decorating:

Take some icing sugar in a tea-strainer and sprinkle lightly on the cake.

I intended to decorate using chocolate chips, but we just could not resist this spongy and aromatic cake anymore. The cake disappeared in minutes!

Have a slice!

If you like this recipe, please drop a line in the Comments section below. It will be great to hear from you!