Easy Homemade Moist Banana Cake Recipe

November is the time of the year when the New Year’s health resolutions are happily shown the exit door. Post Diwali, pre-Bakrid and pre-Christmas time is marked with continued festivities and of course a lot of sweets and high calorie foods.

All the good intentions of eating light and right are easily seduced by the sights, smell and tastes around. And to top it all, our guilt of gluttony is sufficiently assuaged by the infectious festive spirit.

And why not… that’s the way it should be.

Here is an easy breakfast fix to keep the holiday cheer on with something healthy (which can be made sinful by choice). A good healthy breakfast somehow sets tone for the entire day. Starting it healthy may help you make better eating choices all days long. This is a time-tested, homemade, quick and healthy banana cake baking recipe that you can make for breakfast and start your day on a healthier note. I had earlier shared the wholesome banana cake recipe for kids but this one is a simple improvisation to make it seem more sinful than it actually is.

Banana Cake Recipe – for making the best, moist, tastiest, healthy and wholesome breakfast cake

• Get you baking tin ready by smearing it lightly with butter/ oil and dusting it with flour.
• Get your oven readied at 150 degree centigrade. Time it well so that you don’t waste fuel/ gas/ power.

Now the works:

Ingredients for the Banana Cake Recipe

• 1 ½ cup – Flour (whole-wheat is better)
• 1 cup – Butter/ Oil
• 3 nos – Eggs
• 2 nos – Bananas (mashed/ chunks)
• ½ cup – Sugar (experiment with demarera or brown sugar. Reduce quantity)
• 1 tsp – Baking Powder
• 1 tsp – Vanilla Essence
• a pinch – Salt
• 1/2 cup – Buttermilk (optional)
• Handful of Walnuts/ Almonds (optional)

How to make the best banana cake

• Beat the butter till it turns soft.
• Add sugar, salt, vanilla/ cinnamon, to the butter and mix well.
• Beat eggs separately and add to the butter mixture.
• Sift in the flour with baking powder.
• Fold in the mashed/ cut bananas immediately.
• Bake for 30 minutes at 160-170 degrees centigrade, or till the skewer/ knife comes out clean.

Cool it. Enjoy it warm or cold. Eat it fresh for best taste and texture.

Here are my tips, tricks and ideas to make your banana cake more tasty and healthy.

Don’t waste – Do it Sweet: The other thing I like about this tea/ coffee time dessert is that we do not have to throw away the bananas that are over-ripe and not that firm anymore. Over ripe bananas give sweetness to the cake, necessitating you to cut down the amount of sugar you add into the cake batter. I guess this cake makes you less guilty not only by making use of leftover food but also by enjoying this tasty dessert when you eat it. Brown or Demerera sugar makes it better and imparts a much dense flavor to the cake. Try it.

Spice up the banana cake with flavouring ingredients like cinnamon, chocolate chips, raisins, honey, oats, nutmeg, brown sugar, and vegetables such as carrot or pumpkins, etc. There is no end to experimentation and wholesome enjoyment. Not to mention the green act of not wasting food.

Serving options for Banana Cake that is difficult to avoid include cream cheese icing, lemon cheese icing, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, etc. Go for fresh beaten yoghurt instead.

Moist and Fluffy Banana Cake needs you to beat the butter till soft and malleable. Add in sugar and hand beat it till is smooth and soft. Add rest of the ingredients except the flour. Fold in the flour (which has the baking powder sieved in) in the end and put it immediate in the oven. It is ok to have little lumps of flour in the batter.

You do not want the cake to be dense as banana is the heaviest ingredient that goes into it. So do not use soda bicarbonate in this recipe. Fluffy banana cake is achieved with baking powder and eggs as these are enough to ensure that your bake is fluffy banana cake stays that way.

The Secret of Baking it Right – The oven temperature and baking time play a role in making your banana cake moist, fluffy and well crusted. This comes with practice. When trying it out for the first time, insert the knife to see if the cake is done. If you think that the cake will be baked in 5 mins, you can stop and get the tin out for the cake keeps getting done even outside the oven, before it actually starts to cool down. If you have to keep the cake longer in the oven, use tin/ aluminum foil to preserve the crust color and flavour.

Moist banana cake is not difficult at achieve. Its main flavouring ingredient, the bananas bring in the wetness and moist to the cake, further enhanced by the use of vegetable oil (if you are not using butter in your banana cake recipe) which may also act as a mild preservative. Eat this cake fresh or refrigerate it.

Banana Muffins are a great alternative to a big Bundt cake or cake loaves. Muffins are more bread-like and can be loaded with more wheat, oats, nuts and fibrous options. For making Banana Walnut Muffins, scoop the same batter into the muffin tray lined with paper cups. Note that baking time needs to be reduced as muffins bake faster than cake.

Banana Cake is a Healthy Alternative as bananas they are loaded with goodness of carbohydrates, minerals and sugars. Don’t think too much of the calories when it comes to eating nutritious food. Don’t end up counting calories when you can be thanksgiving for the goodness it gives. In short, don’t take the fun away from eating. This attitude will do wonders in keeping you healthy.

Healthy eating may be world’s oldest latest fad but a good homemade banana cake has a lot more to offer. Think about the joy of baking, memories you can make, happy kids at the table and not to mention the delightfully warm and sweet gooey cake that melts in your mouth.

So, dig into this healthy banana cake without guilt – anytime.

And as the golden rule goes – in moderation!