Simple Banana & Coffee Cake

Simple Banana & Coffee Cake
In recent times, my wife D has been on a baking spree. From pizzas (flour to whole wheat versions) to varieties of cakes and muffins on demands of the younger lass at home. Of course, I had the privilege of enjoying the without cheese version. With the incoming weekend and post Pujo de-stressing in the works, thought let me also join in the baking spree. However, this was planned to be gifted for a friend visiting home.

After sifting through various options, planned to bake a banana coffee cake. While most of the recipes are for various banana cakes, I worked in a bit of twist with coffee. Without doubt the proof of the pudding is in the eating and I am waiting for the feedback from the "consumers" :). The recipe is as captured below.


Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Coffee: 2 tsps; mixed in 1/2 a cup of luke warm water
  • Dry fruits (Optional): Chopped Walnuts, Raisins
  • Decorative garnish

Process:
  • Allow all ingredients to be at normal room temperature. Butter the baking dish, sprinkle a bit of flour and keep aside.
  • Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together in another bowl. Keep aside.
  • In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; add in one egg at a time, allowing each egg to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. Once you have a nice fluffy mix, stir in the banana pulp into the mixture.
  • Fold in the flour mixture into banana mixture gradually and keep mixing until the complete batter is evenly blended. 
  • Gradually add in the coffee and keep mixing till you have a nice consistent mixture.
  • Pour batter into the prepared baking dish. 
  • Optional (Dry fruits): Pour the mixture in parts. Pour a layer, sprinkle the dry fruits, pour the next and sprinkle the dry fruits. I did this in 3 layers. This also prevents the dry fruits from getting lumped into isolation.
  • Preheat the oven to (225 degrees C). 
  • Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
  • Once the cake is done, after about a minute, sprinkle the decorative garnish and keep it inside the oven for sometime. This helps the garnish to settle in due to the residual heat. You can also sift a thin layer of confectioner's sugar over the top if you want it to look fancy.



Location: Talegaon Dabhade, Maharashtra, India

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