Banana Cake

I got this receipe from a New Zealand cook book of my friend Ben. It is unusual in that it uses 2 raising agents but its great and I have been trying to put it on the blog for ages but my family keep eating it before I can photograph it!!! It uses up old bananas and I have also found you can freeze your overripe bananas and then defrost them and use them if you haven't got time to do your cake when you've got the bananas.

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 3/4 cup of caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups ripe mashed bananas
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 2 tbsp hot milk
• 2 cups plain flour

Preheat the oven to 180 oC. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and then add the eggs and beat well. Mash the bananas with a fork and stir in-don't over mash/blend them because they can be too liquid and make the mix too slack. I find from the point of adding the banana you stop using the electric whisk and just fold to keep the mix stiff. Then add your hot milk/bicarb mix (which should look like a sort of foam) by folding it carefully.

Fold in the sifted plain flour and baking powder.

Pour into the tin and bake for 1 hour. A skewer should come out clean when it is ready. Cracks in the top are normal. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before turning out.

You could ice it like a carrot cake or dust it with icing sugar but we like it just the way it is with a hot mug of tea!

Tips: I have tried this with soft margarine instead of butter but it just isn't quite as good. I have also noted that if your bananas are very rotten its best to use less than the amount suggested as again the mix can get too slack and the cake therefore denser than you'd like.

Honey or Maple Syrup Granola

This amazingly simple and delicious recipe is easy and if you put it in a nice jar then it makes a very lovely homemade gift. You can use maple syrup instead of honey but my personal favourite is honey. Eat with milk or yogurt and a drizzle of honey on top!

Ingredients:

• 500g rolled oats
• 100g flaked almonds
• 100g sunflower seeds
• 100g dessicated coconut
• 100g pumpkin seeds
• 100g pecan halves
• 150mls honey
• 150mls rapeseed oil (veg oil)
• 200-300g any dried fruit
• Pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Gently heat the oil and honey (or maple syrup) in a pan with a drop of vanilla essence (if you wish) and a pinch of salt. Meanwhile put all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour the warmed liquid over the mixture and stir well.

Spread the mixture out between 2 roasting tins and cook at 160 oC for 40 minutes. It needs to be turned AT LEAST every 20 minutes and possibly more so the colour is even. You are aiming for a nice light brown all through. My oven is not very good and cooks unevenly and so I do check it very regularly but you might not need to.

Leave the mixture to cool completely and then add 200-300g of any dried fruit (I like sultanas). Then you're ready to serve or put in your jars!