I happened to have a few super ripe bananas with me, with brown dots all over the skin. It is either I used them for baking or I will have to throw away as they are too ripe for eating.
As I have just baked a savory version of the Banana cake recently, I decided to do the normal sweet version of the Banana Cake this round, in order to fully leverage on the high sugar content in the super ripe bananas. I did some research and decided to adapt from BakingTaiTai’s recipe (in turn adapted from Richard Goh’s recipe) that is different from the main stream’s banana cakes recipes.
I made some slight changes to the methodology, and also reduced the sugar and oil in the recipe. The baked banana cake is still quite sweet to me (or perhaps just sweet to normal people) despite me halving the sugar level. But I leave it to your preference on the sugar and oil (I have added in the original recipe’s dosage below).
In the making of this cake, I fully agree with BakingTaiTai’s comment that the stage of beating the eggs till light and fluffy is very important stage in making the final cake very light and fluffy. After the eggs are beaten to light and fluffy, it is important to fold and mix the subsequent ingredients lightly and quickly, so as not to deflate the air bubbles in the eggs.
Finally, when the cake was baked, I was super amazed and stunned by the final outcome of the Banana Cake. It was so super soft, moist and fluffy (that crumbs will fall easily as well). I shared it with a few of my new friends, they like it a lot. Those who ate it agreed that the cake is very soft and moist, with a bit of walnut crunchiness in it.
Below are pics (i) when the eggs and sugar are beaten to light and fluffy (ii) Add flour mixture and oil in 3 batches, each batch just lightly fold 2-3 rounds, final round than fold lightly and quickly till all the oil and flour mixture are well combined with batter (iii) Add in 1/2 of chopped walnuts into the batter, mixed well. (iv) Pour the batter into the cake tin. Sprinkle remaining walnut on the top of the cake. (v) finally when the cake is baked.
Bon appetite! The cake remains very light and fluffy after it has cooled down.
Super Soft and Fluffy Banana Walnut Cake (Sweet version) Recipe (6″ Cake Tin)
Recipe adapted/modified from BakingTaiTai.
Preparation Time: 40 mins. Serves 4 – 8 pax.
Ingredients
3 small eggs (or 2 medium size eggs)
40 grams castor sugar (original recipe uses 83 grams)
2 ripe bananas (with brown dots on it)
100 grams cake flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
1/6 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
45 grams vegetable oil (original recipe use 67 grams)
15 grams walnut (optional) – chopped finely
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 160 oC.
- Line the baking tin with grease proof paper at the base of the tin.
- Smashed the ripe bananas with a fork until well pureed.
- Use an egg beater to beat the eggs and sugar until the volume has expanded 2-3 times (the color will turn cream color and feels very light and airy).
- Slowly pour the smashed bananas and vanilla essence into the egg batter, use a spatula to mix lightly.
- Shift the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon powder (dry ingredients) twice.
- Then pour 1/3 of the dry ingredients and 1/3 of the oil into the batter, just quickly fold 2 – 3 times. (The flour will absorb some of the oil. And the method used here to fold 2-3 rounds will still leave traces of flour in the batter.)
- Repeat another 2 times until the flour and oil are used up. At the final round, fold quickly and lightly to combine the flour, oil and batter well (until no trace of oil or flour can be seen).
- Put half of the chopped walnut into the batter and mix well.
- Pour the batter into the cake tin, and sprinkle the rest of the chopped walnuts onto the top of the batter. Put into the middle rack of the oven and bake for 40 – 45 mins (or until the skewer comes out clean).