Choc-chip banana cake

I know it's the time of year for simnel cake and melting down easter eggs to make chocolate cornflake cakes, but here at The Hookery, an unfortunate shopping malfunction has resulted in a glut of bananas.  I only like bananas while they're green, so eating them as plain old bananas isn't an option.

There's only one thing to do...

Choc-chip banana cake!

Before you start, you'll need a 2lb loaf tin.  I could only find a 1lb loaf tin and so made a 1 lb loaf, half a dozen muffin-sized buns and a mini loaf.  It was as frantic a search through the cupboards as you might imagine (I didn't dig out the tin until I had the batter ready to go).

Preheat the oven to 190C (gas mark 5).

Ingredients:

3 medium-ish bananas
150g soft brown sugar
75g butter or marg
3 eggs
250g self-raising flour
1tsp cinnamon
100g chocolate chips

Mash the bananas and set them to one side.  If you add a teasoon of sugar, they seem to be easier to mash. I know not why, but 'tis so.

In a saucepan, gently heat the butter or marg and the brown sugar until both are melted and mixed together. Don't let the mixture boil. As soon as you have a nice thick caramel-ish mixture that is all combined, set it to one side to cool.

In a large bowl, sift together the cinnamon and self-raising flour.

Beat the eggs into the cooled sugar and butter mix.

Pour eggs + sugar + butter into the flour and stir. You should end up with a slightly lumpy batter (irrespective of the earlier sifting...).

Add the mashed banana and the chocolate chips and stir. If the batter seems quite runny, that's fine.

Pour into a 2lb loaf tin (or many cakes tins until you have used up all the batter) and bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

You'll want to check it after 30 minutes - if the top is browning too much, cover with some greaseproof paper.

If you make individual buns, they'll only need c.25 minutes. A 1lb loaf should only need about 40 minutes.

Put the kettle on and enjoy.