This recipe for sugar free banana cake is actually from The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook, but you’d honestly never know!It’s a little more dense than some cakes, but Little One loves it and I think it’s yummy too! I’ve doubled the original qualities given in the book and substituted butter for margarine, and personally I think this makes for a more enjoyable cake.

Ingredients (showing double what appears in the book)

200g (7oz) self-raising wholemeal flour (or plain flour with 2 tsp baking powder)

1 tsp ground mixed spice

100g (4oz) margarine (or unsalted butter if for weaning little people)

150g (5oz) raisins

400g (14oz) mashed banana (3-4 medium-sized ripe bananas)

100g (4oz) walnuts, ground or finely chopped (we have never included these!)

2 eggs, beaten

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (170 Fan)/350F/Gas Mark 4. Lightly grease and line a 450g (1lb) loaf tin (I use these tin liners from Lakeland because they’re super quick!).

2. Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the spices. Cut or break the margarine/butter into small cubes and add it to the flour. Using your hand, rub in until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs (you could do this in a food processor if you prefer).

3. Put the raisins into a separate small bowl, along with 1 heaped tbsp of flour (whichever one you are using). Stir to coat the raisins before adding the raisins to the flour mixture in the large bowl. Mix together and make a well in the centre.

4. In a separate bowl, mash the banana, walnuts (if using) and stir in the eggs. Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and mix well.

5. Pour into the loaf tin and put it in the oven. Turn the oven down to 160C (150 Fan)/325F/Gas mark 3 and bake for 45-60 minutes. I always keep an eye on it from about 40 minutes as it bakes quickly in our oven – a quick test to see if a skewer comes out clean at about this time usually helps.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

This cake will keep for about a week in an air tight container. Enjoy! 🙂