Easy and healthy banana cake/loaf/bread
(transferred here from my old 'The Real Bok Choy' blog)
This cake is easy to make, moist, healthy and delicious.
It’s also really versatile – we vary the ingredients all the time (e.g. substitute banana with apple or pear, substitute poppy seeds and flaxseeds with sunflower seeds and pepitas, etc!).
Nutrition: includes the provision of fibre, protein and micronutrients.
It is gluten-free for those of you who can’t eat gluten.
You can have it for breakfast or as a snack.
Mmmm.
Serves: who knows – this depends how big you make the slices!
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45-60 minutes
Ingredients
4 ripe bananas (1 to decorate the top of the cake)
2 tablespoons of your choice of sweetener (e.g. honey, maple syrup, low GI sugar, stevia equivalent)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 free-range eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or the seeds of 1 vanilla pod
½ teaspoon cinnamon or mixed spice
1½ teaspoons baking powder
2 cups almond meal
¼-½ cup poppy seeds and flaxseeds
¼-½ cup currants (or raisins or sultanas)
Serve as-is, or with unsweetened yoghurt, ricotta cheese or cottage cheese; and honey or maple syrup; and fruit, e.g. tinned pears in juice (not syrup) or fresh figs
Method
Preheat your oven to about 160°C.
Combine 3 of the bananas, the honey, oil, eggs, vanilla, spice and baking soda and lemon/baking powder in a big bowl, and messily mix!
Add the almond meal, poppy seeds, flaxseeds and currants, and mix in well.
Lightly oil one “loaf” tin (better than a shallower cake tin, which will make your loaf/cake less moist), and then either line with baking paper, or sprinkle some dessicated coconut on the bottom and edges of the tin to prevent the cake from sticking.
Spoon the batter into the tin and top with 1 sliced banana.
Bake for about 45 minutes-1 hour; check how wet the cake is by inserting a skewer. We take it out when it is still a bit wet/sticks a little bit to the skewer, as we like it moist.
Let it cool before you take it out of the tin.
Serve as suggested above for breakfast or as a snack!