Everybody loves banana & caramel and when they’re put together… BOOM!! Its an explosion of flavours enhancing one another. Here is a recipe of a banana cake and you don’t even have to go through the effort of making the caramel here. We’re just going to let the banana caramelise on its own. So here’s an easy-peasy recipe for a banana cake that can satiate any pangs – hunger or desire! This is another very versatile cake. Have it with a cup of coffee in the evening, afternoon tea-time, dessert after any meal or a breakfast. Pssst… we even tried a milkshake with this wondrous cake!!
You need very very basic baking ingredients for this. Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder and vanilla. The additional ingredients are banana (of-course) and we’ll use cinnamon as the spice or flavouring for it. It goes very well with some fruits, especially apples and bananas.
Begin with mashing your bananas with a fork. preheat your oven at 180 C.
Now for this particular cake we are not going to line our cake tin. We will caramelise the sugar and butter and create a sort of glaze. Eventually this is going to create the caramel banana toffee while its baking. Just let this mixture bubble a bit. Don’t stir it much or it won’t caramelise. We used brown sugar here for that dark brown caramelised colour. You can also use regular caster sugar.
If the caramel mixture does not blend well, don’t worry and don’t go on cooking it. Let it bubble for a minute and then spread it at the base of the cake tin. The magic will happen when its in the oven.
Put the caramelised sugar mixture at the base of the tin. So here we are NOT lining the tin for a change. Its getting grease with the sugar-butter mixture and then we place sliced bananas on top. If you like the look of banana split better you can just halve the banana lengthwise and place that. Although, that looks better when you’re making the cake in a loaf tin.
Now, cream your butter and sugar together. You can use a stand mixture, electric beater or a whisk. If you’re using a whisk you’ll have to do it for a much longer time till you get the fluffy and airy mixture. When creamed it turns lighter in colour due to the air that’s been incorporated.
egg
vanilla essence
flour + cinnamon + baking powder
Add eggs to the creamed butter and mix after each addition. Then add the vanilla essence, flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Mix well.
Spread the cake batter evenly and softly over the. Don’t be rough with it otherwise the banana pieces will get lifted.
Drop the batter evenly and then spread. repeat till the bananas are covered.
Try to seal the edges a bit so that the caramel doesn’t bubble out to the top. bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees C.
And when your cake is golden brown test it with a skewer. First don’t go all the way down with your skewer, if it reached the caramel or banana it might come out wet. So, insert it in a way that it doesn’t touch the base. If that comes out clean, you can then check it all the way though.
Invert the cake on a big plate… and the beautifully luscious and glistening bananas will be revealed. The banana will naturally caramelise with the sugar and butter, and the thick liquid will seep slightly into the cake. So, in a way its sort of an in-built caramel with banana topping. All in one!!
The crumb of the cake will have a spec-y light brown look owing to the banana and cinnamon powder. in winters you can add winter spice mix (nutmeg, star anise etc) to add a warmer flavour and fragrance. However, for summers serve it with vanilla ice-cream. Whoever tasted it, had exactly the same reaction… mm-mmm-mmm!
Recipe: Banana Caramel Cake
Ingredients:
For Caramel: 40 gm brown sugar 40 gm butter
For Cake: 150 gm flour 125 gm butter, softened 125 gm castor sugar 1 ½ tsp baking powder 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence 1 tsp cinnamon Powder 3 Bananas
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a 7×7 inch square cake tin.
Take the brown sugar and butter in a sauce pan and cook on low heat stirring occasionally to make a sticky caramel sauce. Pour this in the cake tin and keep aside.
In a bowl sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon powder.
In another bowl cream the sugar and butter till light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and keep beating.
Mash 1 banana and add this to the batter along with vanilla extract and the flour mixture.
Slice the 2 bananas and arrange them flat on the caramel layer in the cake tin.
Pour the batter over the banana layer and bake for 40-45 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and let it stand for 10 mins then invert it upside down onto a plate.
Serve warm with Ice cream or whipped cream.