Brilliant Banana Loaf Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, stir in the mashed bananas.
• In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Blend the banana mixture into the flour mixture; stirring just to combine. Fold in the nuts.
• Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to fan 160C/ conventional 180C/gas 4. Butter a 20 x 13cm loaf tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time (don't worry that the mixture looks curdled). Stir in the mashed bananas, pecans, raisins and buttermilk.
• Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda on top of the banana mixture, then fold in until evenly mixed, taking care not to overmix. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the top.
• Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until a skewer pushed in the centre comes out almost, but not quite, dry. Remove from the oven and leave for about 10 minutes, then turn it out of the tin on to a cooling rack to cool.
• For the icing, mix the icing sugar with 2-3 tsp cold water to give a smooth, runny consistency. Using a dessertspoon, drizzle the icing in lines across the loaf.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a 2lb loaf tin with some butter and line the base with baking parchment, then grease this as well.
• In a large bowl, mix together the butter, sugar and egg, then slowly mix in flour and baking powder. Peel, then mash the bananas. Now mix everything together, including the nuts.
• Pour your mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hr, or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack before removing from the loaf tin. The loaf can now be wrapped tightly in cling film and kept for up to 2 days, or frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost and warm through before serving. Serve in thick slices topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with a little Easy chocolate sauce (see recipe, below).