Kirstie Allsopp's Banana Cake

I was given Kirstie Allsopp's "Craft" book for Christmas, and I love it!  It's full of recipes, crafting ideas, cheery photos and easy projects for the "create and design" challenged amongst us (aka me).  The book accompanies her show that was on Channel 4 (UK) last year, which I watched faithfully - dreaming of being able to create lovely, interesting things (the sort of things my Mum can do with her eyes shut and her hands tied behind her back - skills which were NOT inherited by me).

I've been a huge fan of Kirstie and Phil and their show "Location, Location, Location" for years, so I was thrilled to see her pop up in her own show.  The first series of "Craft" was such a success that there is a second series in production now.

Anyway, I've cooked her Banana Cake recipe from the book a few times and it's dead easy and always comes out just like you'd hope.  There's no added sugar so it's not tooth-achingly sweet, it's just good and yummy, and I've got one cooking in the oven as I type this.

It calls, as do all Banana Cake recipes, for very ripe or over-ripe bananas.  I can't let mine get too ripe as I've got issues with seeing bananas go black, it turns my stomach (yes, just one of my many issues), so my bananas are always pretty yellow with only a few black bits because I can't bear to have to see them in my kitchen as they deteriorate further.

An over ripe banana - I feel sick.

I'm going to try a new recipe for cream cheese frosting to go on my cake today, so I'll advise how that goes in a later post.  Who doesn't love cream cheese frosting?  YUM!

Here's the recipe - give it a try!

Kirstie Allsop's Banana Cake Recipe (my comments in italics)

• 4 ripe bananas (or as ripe as you can stand - issues, people, issues)
• 150g melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 175g plain flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• pinch of salt
• 1tsp vanilla

• Preheat oven to 180c (gas mark 4).  Line 21x11cm loaf tin with greaseproof paper.  I just use a loaf tin from my cake tin drawer, I've got no idea how big it is.
• Mash up bananas in large bowl (yuck, yuck, yuck), then mix in butter and eggs.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  I use a mixmaster for the mixing bit, but I reckon you could do it by hand if you had more energy than me.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and place in the oven for about 45 minutes.  I turn mine half way through cooking as our oven is old and a bit dodgy - and check it after 40 minutes.  Cake is ready when a skewer stuck into the middle comes out clean.  I can never find a skewer and I can reliably state that a sharp knife does the job just as well.  Where are my skewers?!?!?