Red velvet banana cake

I have never been able to stop myself from gorging on that banana cake slice they offer in flights. And I have always wondered what I can do to make it sound/taste more glamorous? As a fruit, banana doesn’t rate high on my list; but when I suffix the word 'banana' with the word 'cake', it doesn’t anymore seem like that boring fruit that mum pestered me to eat every day. So here's an inviting adaptation of an age old recipe - banana cake sandwiched with some rasberry preserve within. Yummy yum!


Make it for a birthday party, a romantic date evening or for a family picnic by the lake. It works for just about any occasion. It’s perfect even for post break-up blues, however; eaten with a large can of ice-cream :)





Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 60 min (includes oven time)


Ingredients
60g (1/3 cup) softened salted butter
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 small ripe banana (pureed)
110g (1 cup) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
100g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
1/4 cup rasberry preserve, beaten with 1tsp warm water
Baking tray




Method
Grease the baking tray with some softened butter and preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat egg till fluffy and keep aside. Sift the plain flour with the baking powder and keep aside. Microwave butter and milk for 2 min in a large bowl. To this add the vanilla essence, caster sugar and banana puree. Beat the mixture till creamy.


Now add the sifted flour and beaten egg alternatively, folding in gently with a spatula to get a lumpy batter of a soft dropping consistency. Do not over mix.


Spoon half the batter into the greased baking tray, filling half of the tray. Spoon the rasberry preserve onto the batter spreading it evenly to form a thin layer. Spoon the remaining half of the batter onto the rasberry preserve layer. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C. for 40-50min.


Insert a strand of uncooked spaghetti through the cake to check if it is cooked. If it comes out clean, remove the baking tray from the oven and allow to rest on a platform for 15-20 min.


Coat the top surface of the cake with another layer of rasberry preserve. Serve with a dollop of fresh double cream.



Bench notes
The cake may take lesser or longer than 40 min to bake depending on the type of oven/ shape of tray/gooeyness of the over ripe banana.


You may replace the rasberry preserve with blueberry, strawberry or even pureed seasonal fresh fruit like mango or kiwi puree.


This recipe can be mimicked to make muffins or loafs, as the final cake is not very soft or crumbly.