Weird and wonderful banana cake

By: Lucy Cufflin
From: Lucy's Bakes
Makes: 1
Prep: 5 mins
Cooking time: 45 mins
Photographer: Jacqui Melville

Brace yourselves – this cake is made with mayonnaise! But mayonnaise is made from eggs and oil so actually, not so weird? It is one of Lucy LT’s ‘wonder cakes’. She has been baking this for years and serving it cold as a cake, or warm with thick cream and thick toffee sauce as a pudding – oh yes! I don’t like bananas, so created the carrot and parsnip versions. We’ve used Hellmann’s mayonnaise as it has around 8 per cent egg content. Some other brands have less and, as in any cake recipe, the proportion of egg is important, so add a little extra mayo if it has less egg.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
250g	very ripe bananas, (about 3, peeled weight)
200g	soft light brown sugar
250g	mayonnaise
100g	water or strong coffee
250g	plain flour
10g	bicarbonate of soda
pinch	salt
	demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 1 kg loaf tin with baking paper.
Mash the bananas to a smooth paste.
Add the sugar with the mayo, mix well with a wooden spoon and add the water or coffee.
Add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
Pour into the prepared tin and sprinkle with demerara. Bake for 45–55 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Turn out onto a wire rack, remove the paper and leave to cool.
Store in a cool place in an airtight container or well wrapped in cling film and foil. It will stay beautifully moist for 4–5 days.

Note

This recipe is vegetarian and nut-free.

Tip

For extra loveliness add some crumbled honeycomb, the seeds of 6–8 cardamom pods, roughly chopped pecans or walnuts and chocolate chips, or drained stem ginger, finely chopped.

Variations

Carrot cake: As the banana cake, but replace the bananas with 250 g coarsely grated carrot and add 3 g each of ground ginger and cinnamon, a pinch of ground nutmeg and the finely grated zest of 1 orange. Bake in a 20 cm round, deep cake tin, lined with baking paper. When baked and cooled, top with cream cheese frosting, adding the finely grated zest of 1 orange.

Parsnip cake: As the banana cake, but replace the bananas with 250 g coarsely grated parsnips and add 7 g ground ginger. Bake in a 20 cm round, deep cake tine, lined with baking paper. When baked and cooled, top with thick white icing and sprinkle with chopped crystallised ginger.

What the testers say

GEMMA HEDGES – ‘I made this as the carrot cake – it was light and scrummy, not dense like many carrot cakes. A brilliant recipe.’

JENNY GREENWOOD – ‘Very easy to make. I was shocked by the mayonnaise but it turned out perfectly. I would make this again.’

MARK SCILLEY – ‘I made the banana cake as a round cake and I was so proud of my first baking attempt ever that I shared it with all my work colleagues.’

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