Katie Bryson
Banana bread is such a reliable bake with lots of potential for getting children involved – mashing bananas is a great task for even young toddlers to get busy with.
I find the key to baking with little ones is to get all your equipment out and ingredients weighed and measured in advance. Decide which tasks are best for them to help with and just accept that there will be mess!
This cake is pleasingly thrifty with its use of overly ripe fruit, yet tastes really luxurious with a dark and dense texture. Your house is guaranteed to smell divine when you're baking this, and for a good few hours afterwards.
Ideal for a lunchbox, after-school snack or even breakfast if you haven't got time to get the cereal out, this is one cake you'll come back to again and again.
Ingredients
125g butter, softened
175g soft brown sugar – half light, half dark muscavado
3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp mixed spice
150g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
100g desiccated coconut
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
50ml warm milk
Heat the oven to 180C, 160C Fan, Gas Mark 4.
Line a 30cm x 11cm loaf tin. Cream the softened butter and sugar together until fluffy, then mix in the mashed bananas.
Slowly add the eggs, vanilla, mixed spice and a pinch of salt until well combined.
Beat in the flour, baking powder and coconut.
In a little dish mix the bicarbonate of soda with the warm milk, then gently stir into the cake batter.
Pour the mixture into your prepared loaf tin and bake for approx 55 minutes.
The loaf should appear crusty on top, and a skewer should come out of the cake clean.
Turn your loafcake out of the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
It will cut into 10-12 slice and keeps well in a sealed container for a few days.
Katie blogs at www.feedingboys.wordpress.com