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.

Hookery Cookery: Appley Attic Muffins

Not so long ago, Lucy at Attic24 posted a muffin recipe.

Well, I had everything in the cupboard, so I whipped up a quick batch. 'Twas very good!

Then I made a few substitutions and made a lemony batch.

Then a lemon and seedy batch.

Then an appley batch. And these were my favourite.

I don't think there have been two consecutive days here at The Hookery where the cake tin has been empty.  I've tweaked the appley version quite a bit and as it's my favourite, I thought I'd share. Before you go any further, go and check out the original post at Attic24.

The instructions are exactly the same, but the ingredients have been tweaked. You will need:

Dry ingredients

100g self raising flour
40g caster sugar
25g oats
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp baking powder
40g sultanas

Wet ingredients

60ml (4tbsp) milk
30 ml (2 tbsp) sunflower oil
1 egg

Also, one apple, grated. I've been using a royal gala apple and I grate the skin too using a fine grater (the smallest one on the grater, if you have a choice). You might want a little brown sugar to sprinkle on the top too.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 (gas mark 4)

Pop six muffin cases in a cake tin and you're set.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Measure out the wet ingredients into a separate jug or bowl and beat together well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir. Add the grated apple.

You should now have a slightly bumpy-looking mixture which is vaguely reminiscent of bircher muesli, like so:

Spoon it into the muffin cases, sprinkle a little brown sugar and bake for 25 mins.  You should then have something more like this:

Delicious. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to put the kettle on, there's a bun begging to be scoffed.

Eeeeeaaaatttt mmmeeeeeeeeeeee!