This recipe for Banana Cake is a favourite in our household. It’s pretty impossible to get wrong and we have made tonnes of them in the last few years. It’s a great way to get rid of those really ripe (turned completely brown) banana’s that no one wants to eat.

This recipe was found in the random papers given to me by my Gran.  I’m not sure what Magazine it was from but it says Essentials File in the Corner.

 Chocolate Banana Cake
- A must for tea-time – the mashed banana gives this cake its moist texture

2 large ripe bananas
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6oz/175g margarine
8oz/225g granulated sugar
10oz/275g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs (size 3)
2 oz/50g chocolate chips
chilled banana slices half dipped in melted chocolate to decorate

1. Grease and base line an 8in/20cm deep, round cake tin with greased greaseproof paper.
2. Peel the bananas and mash until smooth in a small bowl with the vanilla flavouring.
3. Heat the margarine and sugar in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat until dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in flour, salt and soda. Beat in eggs and mashed bananas. Cool slightly.
4. Stir in chocolate chips, and spoon into prepared tin. Cook at Mark 3/325F/170C for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean. Decorate with chocolate-coated banana slices before serving. This cake can be eaten straight away or stored for 2-3 days to mature.

Serves 8-10 Calories per portion 485 Prep Time 15 mins Cook Time 1 hour (possibly more)

So as I said, I’ve done this one a few time, and you really can’t get this wrong.

• We tend to make double the mixture as it keeps for quite a while but also because the boys eat it all within a few days.
• We’ve made it with bananas that you can basically squeeze out of the skin – that cake had a really intense flavour but still good.
• We’ve made it without chocolate chips – if you do use chocolate chips my advice is not to stir it all in but sprinkle half over the top, it slowly sinks in while it cooks. If you put it all in it tends to all sink to the bottom.
• We’ve made it when we only had 4 eggs (for double the mix) – we added an extra banana instead. It worked really well actually. Still really light and moist.
• We’ve made it with plain flour – for that cake we added baking powder to make it rise.
• We’ve made it as a tray bake, loaf and cake. All work well, Cake wise I used an 18 inch tin with high sides – it didn’t over flow.
• We’ve also used a fan assisted oven and a non- fan assisted oven. The only difference I could see is that the non-fan assisted oven needed an extra 30-45mins (remembering I put 2 in at the same time which lengthens the time anyway).

Basically this is an amazingly adaptable recipe. We love it! Especially fresh out of the oven, as the crust is still all crispy – it gets softer when it chills – but the flavour is more intense when its cold, so you’ll have to see what you prefer.