I love to bake for a crowd.  Picnics provide me with the perfect excuse to try baked goodies on a larger scale. For this week’s  hiking trip I wanted something easy, filling and portable. My banana maple cake is a tried and tested recipe. It has never falied me so far and you can expect similar results if you choose to give it a try. Recipe adapted from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbooks.

BANANA MAPLE CAKE

 Ingredients:

2 cups self raising flour

1/3 cup plain flour

1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup maple flavoured syrup

1 cup over-ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup buttermilk or yoghurt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp Ducros Allspice

1/2 cup raisins, soaked

 

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 350oF. Grease and line a 9″ round springform pan with baking paper.
  • Mash bananas in a bowl. I used 5 medium sized ones. Use those with brown/black skin if you can find them.
  • Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix buttermilk, oil and maple syrup.

  • Add bananas and mix thoroughly for about a minute. Fold banana mixture into dry ingredients.
  • Add raisins or nuts to batter if you like. Coconut is also nice. Spoon batter into prepared pan.
  • It will be of dropping consistency. Bake for 60-75 minutes until skewer in centre comes out clean.  
  • Remove from oven and cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

Note:

You can double this recipe to make a larger cake. I like to make 2 separate cakes – one with eggs and one for vegans and ppl with egg-allergy. You can hardly tell the difference! If you want to use eggs, reduce the banana to 2/3 cup and add 2 medium eggs to the maple syrup-buttermilk-oil mixture. If you dnt like raisins and spice, you can very well omit them in favour of dark chocolate chips.