Banana cake and lycra-clad sportsmen
Monday, January 14th, 2008
This weekend we went to see a track cycling event at the Manchester Velodrome. I’m not generally a big fan of cycling but when given the opportunity of seeing large numbers of finely tuned, musclebound men in close fitting sportswear, I thought to myself there are worse ways to spend a Saturday night. It doesn’t tend to matter whether you are into sports or not as live sporting events are always quite exciting. This was no exception and what better way to keep up your energy up while watching hugely fit athletes pounding round and round a track than Banana and chocolate loaf.
This was another recipe out of my new book and it went down a treat, possibly making a record and only lasting about three hours between four hungry people.
Ingredients:
- 250g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 250g caster sugar
- 4 ripe bananas, mashed
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 175g good quality dark or milk chocolate, chopped
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Beat together all the ingredients apart from the flour and baking powder. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and combine gently with a cutting and folding motion, making sure not to overmix. Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin (about 19 cm x 11cm) and bake for an hour and fifteen minutes, or until a skewer comes out of the center of the bread cleanly. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack. This doesn’t hang around so hide it away if you want some for yourself.
