Banana Sour Cream Cake

Who can resist a tantalising slice of moist banana cake?

The secret to a tasty banana cake is a well-aged over-ripe banana. I take my banana fermentation quite seriously, allowing the bananas to ripen on the counter for at least two weeks, letting it go until the skin's about to start growing mould - seriously! I then carefully peel the bananas, plop them into a container, give them a quick mash with a fork and freeze until a banana bread urge arises. It defrosts like a dream in the microwave.

I adapted the recipe below from a Donna Hay recipe by adding walnuts - an essential crunch and contrast factor in my personal appreciation of banana cakes. This is a moist cake, almost fail-safe with the amount of sour cream involved. I found it a tad oily straight out of the oven, but the keeping time is amazing, staying moist for about five days. In fact I thought it tasted best two days later.

The cake is quite springy to the touch, and unlike banana bread, doesn't need toasting or any added butter to serve.

Banana Sour Cream Cake
(adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2)

125g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup roughly mashed banana
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted

Cream the butter, caster sugar and brown sugar, using an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one a time, beating well until incorporated, between each addition.

Sift in the flour and baking powder. Add the cinnamon, sour cream, banana and walnuts and combine gently with a metal spoon, taking care not to over-mix.

Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased 10cm by 20cm loaf tin.

Bake for about 40 minutes at 180C (170C if using a fan-forced oven, and less another 10C if using a non-stick teflon pan) or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Allow to rest in the tin for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.