Tags: Banana Bread, Banana Cake, Bourbon, Nigella, Nigella Lawson, Rum, Whisky
My friend Emma from work went away for a few days, leaving some bananas on her desk. By Friday afternoon, they were brown and squasshy and headed for the bin – ideal for a banana cake I thought! I didn’t know a recipe, so I searched through some books at home. There is a great banana bread recipe in Nigella Lawson’s “How To Be A Domestic Goddess”. Sorry, Delia, but Nigella gets my vote for queen of all the cakes. 
The cake was beautifully moist and eveyone commented on how nice Macadamia nuts were. I would reccomend using bourbon or rum, as mine was a little sharp with the Scotch.
I took most of the cake to work and my colleagues were impressed. One, who shall remain nameless, said that his wife had made banana bread at the weekend, but that it was nothing compared to mine!
Although I had a recipe, I only loosely followed it. Nigella’s recipe is available here.
My modification of this recipe is descibed below:
- Preheat oven to 170°C;
- Place100g Sultanas into a saucepan with 75ml Whisky as I didn’t have the Bourbon or Rum Nigella suggested. My hand “slipped” as I measured this out, so it was more like 150ml;
- Combined 175g Plain Flour, 2tsp Baking Powder, 1/2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda & 1/2tsp Salt in a bowl;
- Melt 125g Unsalted Butter;
- In a second bowl add the melted butter to 150g Sugar and beat in 2 Free Range Eggs, one at a time;
- Mash about 300g Very Ripe Bananas (thanks Emma) and add to butter, sugar and eggs. N.b. the 300g should not include the peels;
- Add in the drained sultanas, 1stp Vanilla Extract and 60g Macadamia Nuts. Nigella’s original recipe used Walnuts, but she’s not always right. I think Macadamia Nuts are better;
- Add the flour mix to the banana mix, 1/3 at a time;
- Bake for 1-1 1/2 hrs in a buttered, paper lined tin. Nigella said a loaf tin, but I didn’t have one so used a circular loaf tin;
- Take to work to share with friends.
That’s made me pretty hungry now, despite just having had breakfast. Banana cake is pretty much my favourite cake, never tried it with alcohol in before though. Do you think something sweeter like Brandy might work well?
I think that the Whisky was just a bit to sharp for the banana. Rum would be ideal and brandy would probably have a richer taste. I reckon that a lovely oaky bourbon would be nice (as nigella suggests) but it would seem a shame to put it into a cake!
It definitely needs some liquid to help it be moist – it might be good to try something non-alcoholic although quite what will go with Banana I’m not sure!
Banana cake is one of my favourite foods too. I make a banana and cranberry loaf. No alcohol but uses orange juice, cranberries, nuts and mixed peel. Also uses sunflower oil instead of butter. Its delicious…
Hey Rob, it’s good to hear from you!
All kinds of banana cake sound good to me. When Cathryn and I lived in Uganda it was the main thing we baked. Just bananas, flour, egg, sugar and blueband, but it used to taste amazing and we’d eat the whole cake in one sitting. I could probably experiment with some nuts and alcohol though…
Rob,
I think fruit juice is a great idea – there are a whole range of new possible cake combinations now in my head – different fruit juices could make a whole range of cakes – I think I might try subsitituting water/milk. I quite fancy making an apple cake with this idea, although not with bananas!
Perfect! I have a few over-ripe bananas handy and was searching for a banana bread recipe. Thanks! I’ll let you know how I get on.
I have use Nigella’s recipe as a rough guide with or without the nuts,I have a son doesn’t like nuts, also usually no alcohol, I soak the fruit in tea and lately I have been adding dates which is delicious, I don’t know how many probably instead of the 100g of sultanas, I think I will go and try it again now and make sure I’m right.
[...] (Here’s a link to the original Nigella recipe… …and another to the adapted version.) [...]
Finally got round to making this and it was definitely best banana cake I’ve made. I made a few adaptations to the recipe:
1. I used cider brandy instead of whisky because we’ve got a big bottle and neither of us can stomach it on its own. It’s great in desserts though.
2. I used 50:50 wholemeal and plain flour as we ran out of plain – seemed to work really well.
3. After draining the sultanas I kept hold of the brandy and poured it over my first slice. Probably best to do this in the evening when you don’t have much planned, makes you a bit sleepy.
4. Instead of the final step (take to work and share with friends) I opted for keep at home and scoff all by yourself.
This is my second time of making this version of Banana Cake and the whole family loves it! I have tried several recipes over the years and not really been keen on the taste or result. This version is definitely the one I will stick with!