Cake facts: the best banana loaf

Because if a cake’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly

We’ve got a delicious banana walnut loaf in our May issue (pictured above, from Nourish Cakes by Marianne Stewart, Quadrille). Everyone has their own tips for creating the ‘best banana loaf cake in the world’, usually handed down from capable grandparents and great-grandparents. But the one we all know is that black bananas are best. But why?

Black (or slightly over-ripe bananas) are often recommended as being easier to digest, but what makes them the best choice for a banana loaf cake is their flavour and texture.

Firstly, as they ripen and the yellow skin gets steadily blacker, chemical reactions inside the banana flesh turn the starch into sugars, making them taste sweeter and that bit more banana-y in the cake.

Secondly, the flesh becomes softer and easier to mash, and it also breaks down more easily during the baking process, so you don’t get lumps of banana in the cake once it’s cooked. You might like lumps of banana in your cake, in which case, don’t allow us to lead you down a black banana path - feel free to go your own way - but a riper banana gives a smoother cake, nonetheless.

Catching your bananas at the perfect level of cake-readiness is tricky. Ideally, you want a banana that is pretty dark but still has some yellow on it and lots of big, black spots and patches, but you can definitely still bake with completely black bananas. And here’s a pro-banana tip for you: if you’ve got to Tuesday and your bananas look perfect for a loaf cake but you know you won’t be baking until Saturday, pop them in the freezer. The skins will turn completely black in there but the flesh inside will remain at the same level of ripeness, waiting for you to release it from the freezer drawer (take them out a couple of hours before you want them), mash the banana and help it on its way to its higher state of being, transformed from slightly disappointing fruit bowl fellow to much welcomed fluffy banana loaf.

You’ll find the recipe for the banana walnut cake on p29 of our May issue.

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More from our May issue…

More cakes to bake…

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Cake recipe: Cardamom banana bread

A twist on a baking classic, this moist and moreish banana cake contains cardamom, which enhances the fruit’s subtle sweetness

CARDAMOM BANANA CAKE
Serves 8

170g softened butter, plus extra for greasing
5 cardamom pods
4 ripe bananas, mashed
170g caster sugar
3 eggs
115g chopped walnuts
350g plain flour
1⁄4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
23⁄4 tsp baking powder
1⁄2 tsp salt
icing sugar to serve (optional)

1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/350F and grease a nonstick 25cm square cake tin.
2 Crush the cardamom pods, removing the seeds and discarding the pods. Crush the seeds to release their flavour, add them to the mashed bananas, and set aside.
3 Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric handheld mixer until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat.
4 Next, add the chopped walnuts and mashed banana and fold in. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt over the mixture and gently fold all the ingredients together.
5 Spoon the batter into the buttered cake tin and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface evenly. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out and let cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.

Recipe from The Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookbook by Salma Hage (Phaidon). Photography by Liz and Max Haarala Hamilton

Read more:

From the April issue

Cake recipes

Middle Eastern recipes

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Recipe: Fairtrade Fortnight - Farmhouse chocolate and banana bread

It's Fairtrade Fortnight (until 8 March) and The Simple Things is celebrating with a trio of delicious and ethically responsible chocolate-based recipes. We think you might want to join us...

Over the past 20 years, the FAIRTRADE mark has become the best known ethical label in the UK. The Fairtrade movement has generated significant economic benefits for farmers and workers around the world, from cocoa growers in Ghana to sugar farmers in Belize. In 2015, the Fairtrade Foundation wants to see more people choosing products that change lives - so that greater impact can be achieved over the next 20 years and beyond.  

70% of the world’s food is produced by 500 million smallholder farmers yet many of them can’t feed their families. And many farmers who are part of the Fairtrade system are still not selling all their produce as Fairtrade to work their way out of real poverty. For example, tea growers are selling less than 10% of total production as Fairtrade.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2015 turns the spotlight on the famers and workers who grow our favourite food, to share their compelling stories and remind everyone of the dramatic difference Fairtrade makes and why it is still needed. 

Focusing on three ingredients we couldn't live without - cocoa, tea and sugar - try one of three Fairtrade Fortnight recipes we'll be bringing you this week.

Farmhouse chocolate and banana bread

Makes 1 loaf

225g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
100g butter at room temperature
175g caster sugar
2 large free-range eggs, beaten
2 very ripe bananas
3 tablespoons milk
100g dark (70% or 85% cocoa solids) chocolate, chopped into very small pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and line a 23 x 13cm loaf tin.

2. Sift the flour and salt.

3. Cream the butter and sugar, for ease in a food processor. Add the eggs, bananas and milk and mix thoroughly. Next add the flour and salt, but stop mixing as soon as the ingredients come together.

4. Fold half of the chopped chocolate into the mixture. This must be done using a spoon – do not use a food processor for this.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, sprinkle the rest of the chocolate on top of the mixture and push the pieces in slightly.

6. Bake in the centre of the oven for between 45 minutes and 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Tip:

When mixing the wet and dry ingredients, do not work the mixture too much as that will release the gluten in the flour and make for a heavier texture. For this reason, stop when the mixture has just come together.