Recipes on Request: Banana Bread

“There’s cake at home!” I often get tickled by that realization. It is reassuring. There will be something to eat when I get home from work. I can eat cake while I fluster over what to cook for supper. I can have a slice just because it’s there, and 1/4th of a slice when I’ve already had too much. The presence of a cake calms the nerves at times.

We grew up eating Ma’s home made buttery sponge cake like many other Indian households. When she baked, which was not too often, there was always an extra bounce in my step. “There’s cake at home!” I thought to myself on my way home from school or where ever I was. It’s that feeling that has not changed since. I have tried several times to make Ma’s sponge cake but never for once did it taste like hers. I haven’t given up trying but I think it’s got something to do with Ma whisking batter with an old electric beater and baking it in the smallest and oldest oven known to mankind. So from Ma’s buttery sponge cake I’ve made a transition to banana bread. Somehow banana bread evokes the same feeling for me. And the loveliest part is, Ma loves my banana bread. And I should also mention that Baba would much prefer Ma’s sponge cake to my banana bread. Sweet.

So, when my friend G, requested a good recipe for banana bread I knew there was going to be cake at home! She also asked if she could use up her left over cream with the bananas. Is there any doubt i’d say no to cream? Never! I have a banana bread switch up for my next blog post – with cream.

Note: I like pecans over walnut on my banana bread and I prefer not to mix it through the batter so the pecans are nice and toasted on top. I love chocolate chips in my banana bread and on special occasions I also add caramels in the batter.

Basic Banana Bread with Pecans

YOU NEED

• Butter: 1/2 cup melted
• Sugar: 1/2 cup
• Eggs: 2
• Vanilla: 1 tsp
• Ripe bananas: 4 large mashed
• Bicarbonate of soda: 1 tsp
• Milk: 1/2 cup
• Flour: 2 cups
• Pecans: 1/2 cup

HEE’S HOW:

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
• Beat butter and sugar until well incorporated.
• Mix in 1 egg at a time.
• Add vanilla and mashed bananas and mix well.
• In a cup mix the milk and the bicarbonate of soda and set aside.
• Add the flour to the batter alternating with the soda milk.
• Pour batter in a greased or lined pan and sprinkle with pecans and bake for 50-60 minutes.
• Test with skewer. Increase baking time by increments of 5 3 to 5 minutes of not done.
• Cool on wire rack.
• Enjoy warm with butter or cold with clotted cream.