My sister recently told me about this banana diet which is making the #fitspo folk go, well, bananas. My first reaction was to laugh; who can seriously eat bananas all day, everyday? Who wants to?! But then I remembered that not everyone shares my opinion, people actually like those pungent, squishy things. They are everywhere: lollies, ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies, milk, fritters, and of course cake.
Banana cake just doesn’t tickle my fancy, obviously if it was a choice between that or carrot cake, it’s the lesser of the two evils but it will never be my preferred option. On the contrary, a certain someone is rather fond of banana cake so feeling generous one afternoon I decided to make him one. Kind of. I mean there are a lot of bananas in it but it also calls for pineapple, a fruit I do adore, and the cake is technically called a Hummingbird Cake…
Hummingbird Cake (Adapted from a recipe by Jamie Oliver)
- 4 very ripe, medium sized bananas, mashed
- 425g tin of pineapple pieces, drained and chopped
- 1 cup olive oil
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 350g self-raising flour
- 300g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- a pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1. Preheat your oven to 180c, and line a 23cm cake tin.
2. In a large bowl, mix together bananas, pineapple, olive oil, eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the banana mixture and mix until smooth. Add the chopped walnuts.
5. Pour mixture into the lined tin and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes.
6. Once the cake is cooked through, remove from tin and cool completely before dusting with icing sugar or covering with icing, my favourite is a lemony cream cheese frosting!
When I first described this cake to a certain someone, mentioning the two types of fruit and walnuts, he was a little sceptical but boy did he change his tune. After my first attempt he boldly proclaimed it to be ‘the best cake I have ever eaten’. Now that is a good review. I’ve tried a lot of cake so I’m not sure it’s the best I’ve ever eaten but it’s pretty darn good, and easy to make!
Right, I’m off to whip one up for a certain someone’s birthday tomorrow but you don’t need to wait for a special occasion- go get baking!
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