Magical Banana Cake

I say 'magical', because this is the easiest piece of baking I have ever had the pleasure to undertake.


Let me just get on the record here and say that I. Absolutely. Love. Banana. Cake. 


Seriously.


I very rarely get the chance to eat it, because its not something we tend to make at home. The two times I had it before today were once in Scotland after a long day's walking, when I felt like it warmed all my insides up at once; and once at tea with a friend when I'm pretty sure I ate at least half a whole cake. Scrummy. And today, well, I saw four slightly sad-looking bananas sitting on their own in a bowl, ostracised from the big fruit bowl where the oranges and apples and grapes all squatted looking snide (bananas in your fruit bowl make other fruit go bad faster). And I thought, what joy those bananas will bring to the world when I make them into CAKE.


There's something about the texture of a banana cake that just sets it apart. Not for you the slightly crumbly fluffiness of the average sponge. Your cake is heavy and moist - a word which is often reviled but which here means wonderful things. Your cake is solid and satisfying and easy to bake. Your cake quite possibly counts as one of your five fruit and vegetable portions a day.


Enough chatter. On to the recipe. Munch on this one with hot cup of tea in the middle of the afternoon and, as with the cookies, make sure you take your first bite when it's still warm from the oven.


Ingredients
(Makes one loaf-sized cake)

170g each of:  
Caster or demerara sugar 
Self-raising flour 
Butter, cut into small chunks

2 bananas, cut into chunks
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence (NOT extract, as usual)


Method

Behold! The easiest baking method in the history of man. Ladies and gentlemen, if it wasn't for the hot oven and the blades, a five year old could do this standing on its head.


Grease a small cake tin or a standard-sized cake tin. Pre-heat your oven to 160 C. 


Put all ingredients in your blender or food mixer. Mix/blend until totally combined and consistent (takes 5 mins or so). Put in cake tin. Put cake tin in oven. Wait one hour. Take out, cool, munch. 


Boom. Banana cake. Do It Now.