Easy Banana Cake 香蕉蛋糕

Time flies and in a split second we are now in 2016, the year of Monkey!  Didn't we just have New Year Day yesterday?

I haven’t seemed to have the free time as I thought I would have in blogging even though I quit my 9-5 office work since June 2015. Well, this year I think I need to include blogging as one of my year 2016 resolutions, no more monkeying around!

Today is day 2 of Chinese Monkey year. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends, relatives and readers a prosperous and healthy Monkey year ahead.

To celebrate Monkey year, let’s just bake something with his favourite food - Bananas.

I have been trying out this banana cake recipe for a few times and very pleased with its taste and the simple method used. This recipe was adapted from Agnes Chang “ I can Bake” recipe book.

To have great flavored banana cake, it is best to use ripe bananas. Back in Malaysia, I find among local bananas Pisang Berangan a.k.a. Ang Bak chio, which means “red flesh” bananas in Hokkien with the size about 10 to 12cm long, is best for making cakes when it is fully ripe.

Other than butter cake, this is another popular cake in our family that I used to make for festival and prayer ceremony to my late mother and parents-in-law.

The following was the second version of Banana cake that I have attempted. By adding few table spoons of chocolate hazelnut spread ( Nutella), it became a great Nutella marble banana cake.

Good to have my mischievous helper to help me mashed the bananas.  

Easy Banana Cake

Source: Agnes Chang’s I can Bake

Ingredients: 180g unsalted butter
180g castor sugar ( I reduced to 150g and used brown sugar)
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, coarsely mashed and mixed with 1 tbsp of lime/lemon juice to prevent oxidation.
1/8 banana essence optional (I used Vanilla essence)
3 tbsp of milk mixed ( I used 6 tbsp)

Dry ingredients :
240g plain flour or self raising flour
1tsp of baking powder
1tsp of baking soda

(You can opt to use self raising flour and to omit both baking powder and soda if using self raising flour)

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C for 15 minutes. 
2. Lightly grease a loaf tin or line it with grease-proof paper.
3. Sieve flour and set aside.
4. Mix butter and sugar using low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and beat until light and pale in yellow. (Note: Sugar has not dissolved yet).
5. Add in the first egg, beat well after each addition of egg until creamy.
6. Scrape down the sides for even mixing.
7. Mix in the mashed bananas (add in bananas/vanilla essence and milk at this stage if you are using). Pour in the sifted dried ingredients and mix until well incorporated.
8. Pour the batter into the greased baking tin. Shake and tap on table lightly to distribute cake mixture evenly and to get the air out.
9. Place the cake at the middle rack in the oven.
10. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown and cooked. If a toothpick/skewer comes out clean, it is done.
11. Remove it from the oven and leave the cake in the tray to cool on the rack for 5 minutes before removing from tray.

Notes: If the cake turns brown too quickly, cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil towards the last 15 minutes.


香蕉蛋糕
资料来源：蓝赛珍，我会烘焙

材料： 牛油18０克 白砂糖 - 180克 ( 我用150克黄糖） 全蛋　2个

4条成熟的香蕉，​​捣碎，加入1汤匙柠檬汁防止香蕉氧化变黑

1茶匙香草精 鲜奶　3汤匙  （我用4 汤匙） 低筋面粉２５０克（过筛） 发粉　１茶匙　（过筛） 苏打　１茶匙　（过筛） (您可以选择使用自发粉，如果采用自发面粉省略这两个发粉和苏打粉）

做法：
1. 烤箱预热至180℃。最好先预热15分钟
2. 将 烤盘抹油或置油纸。面粉过筛。
3. 使用低速 将牛油＋细砂糖一起混合搅拌，换到中速打至松发变白。
4. 在糖还没有完全溶解，倒入第一个鸡蛋液后继续搅拌，每次加蛋奶油完全吸收蛋液后，再加入蛋液搅拌至蛋液搅拌完毕。再加入香草精拌匀。
5.加入捣碎的香蕉（在这个阶段加入香蕉/香草精)。倒入过筛的面粉干配料混合，再加入牛奶拌匀。
6. 把香蕉面糊倒入抹油的烤盘。在桌子上轻轻地震动和敲击烤盘使蛋糕混合物均匀分布​​，并让空气排出。
7. 将烤盘放进烘箱中的下架。烤45分钟或至金黄色。 用牙签/串以测试，串出来干净，它已熟。
8. 从烘箱中取出，让烤盘冷却5分钟后才除去烤盘倒出蛋糕。

注意事项： 如果蛋糕表面过焦，最后15分钟可在面蛋糕覆蓋一張鋁箔紙。