My heart sinks at the thought of banana bread. Too often they only use a couple of bananas yet they’re still dense, soggy and a bit sad.
This recipe definitely bucks the trend. My banana cake is a traybake – a layer of cake with a delicious simple frosting. It uses a decent quantity of bananas, yet creates a far lighter sponge cake and it’s rather moreish! The frosting makes it fancy, but you can happily leave it off if you prefer. This cake is delicious with or without the frosting.
You could serve this cake warm for pudding with a scoop of ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate or caramel sauce.
If you’re not a fan of peanut butter you could probably use Biscoff spread instead of the peanut butter in both the cake and the frosting, although I haven’t tried it out myself – yet!
Ingredients:
- 400g ripe bananas (peeled weight) I used 5 smallish bananas
- 50g butter, softened
- 100g peanut butter – smooth or crunchy, use whatever you have
- 2 eggs
- 250g plain flour
- 100g light brown sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- optional extra – up to 100g of chopped nuts, chocolate chips, toffees etc.
Frosting:
- 100g butter, softened
- 100g peanut butter
- 200g icing sugar
- optional decorations – chopped nuts, chocolate chips, banana chips, fudge pieces, chocolate covered peanuts, whatever you fancy!
Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan, gas 4.
Line a 20 x 30cm baking tin with parchment paper.
Peel your ripe bananas then weigh them until you have around 400 grams.
Use your beater paddle to beat the bananas until they’re mashed up.
You can do this with a hand mixer too.
Add your butter, peanut butter, eggs and a pinch of salt to the bowl and mix together until everything is well combined.
Add the flour, sugar and baking powder to the bowl and mix very gently and briefly until just combined. Overmixing at this stage will toughen your cake.
Fold in the optional extras if you’re using any. I added some chopped toasted peanuts to my cake mix for some added texture as I’d used smooth peanut butter.
Pour the cake mixture into your prepared tin and smooth into all the corners so you have an even layer of batter.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 40 – 45 minutes, until springy in the centre and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Allow your cake to cool in the tin for ten minutes or so, until cool enough to handle.
Remove the cake from tin and cool on a wire rack.
For the frosting – beat the butter and peanut butter together until smooth, then add the icing sugar and a pinch of salt to balance the sweetness.
Spoon your frosting onto your cooled cake. I like to dollop the frosting all across the cake first, then spread it out with a palette knife. This makes it easier to cover the cake without too much spreading back and forth, which risks tearing the surface of your cake.
Decorate your cake with your optional extras: chopped nuts, banana chips etc.
Store your cake in an airtight container and enjoy within three days.
Slices of cake can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Top tip – If your frosting is too thick, add a little milk while beating, a teaspoon at a time. Peanut butter can very in texture from brand to brand, so a little milk can be added to both the frosting and the sponge to loosed the finished texture.
Enjoy!
Abi – The Brownie Lady