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!

The post Sugar free banana cake appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

I had a look on the internet and came across this recipe on This Cotswold Girl‘s blog (which is fab – lots of lovely recipes and things!). Let’s face it, anything with Nutella in it has to be good. And a little bit dangerous. My mission is to not eat what’s left out of the jar with a spoon…but I did test it out beforehand, just to check it was ok… I did also overfill the loaf tin slightly, on account of the fact that we had already packed the muffin tin and cases, so it isn’t the prettiest cake I’ve ever made – BUT it would look better if I hadn’t done that, so I’m sure yours will look amazing! It tastes SO good though, and you just have to give it a go – we only eat bananas in cake and we love this one.

Ingredients

4 large / 5 small black / old bananas (don’t use ripe ones – it doesn’t taste as good)

100g butter

140g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

140g light brown sugar

4 heaped tbsp Nutella

2 tbsp milk

Method

1. Mash up the bananas with a fork in a mixing bowl

2. Add in all other ingredients – bar the milk and Nutella – and stir until it forms a smooth mixture. (You could soften the butter in the bowl first and mix in a bit of sugar to get it going – I’m going to do this next time.)

3. Heat the milk and Nutella in a pan over a low heat to form a smooth, chocolatey liquid

4. Pour the Nutella into the mixing bowl and roughly fold in. Don’t mix in completely as you’ll want it to form a marbled mixture.

5. Pour into a loaf tin and bake for 30-40 minutes at 180C (it took about 55 in our oven, so just keep an eye on it!). Leave to cool before removing from the tin and eating. Best enjoyed with a cuppa

The post Banana and Nutella cake appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Ingredients

125g self raising flour
50g ground almonds
100g butter, cubed
100g light muscovado sugar
150g runny honey
1 ripe banana, mashed
2 medium eggs, beaten
25g flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a 28 x 17cm tin.

2. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the ground almonds. Place the butter, sugar and honey together in a small pan and heat gently until completely melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

3. Add the melted ingredients to the bowl and add the banana and beaten eggs. Beat well to give a smooth mixture before pouring into the prepared tin.

4. Level the surface and scatter over the flaked almonds. Bake for 30-35 minutes until well risen and firm to touch.

5. Turn onto a wire rack to cool and then cut into pieces.

This mixture makes excellent muffins as well as cake pieces. Enjoy with a cuppa!

The post Sticky honey, almond and banana cake appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.