Easy does it - Banana Walnut Cake

I finally tried out a recipe from Kevin Chai's Easy Stir N Bake Cakes. Decided on this recipe as I had some bananas in the freezer and also leftover walnuts from mooncake-making.

I remembered the buzz when this book was launched as the title of the book said it all... no mixer needed... all you need to do is to give the ingredients a few stirs and then you bake it! But I did not buy the book immediately then, instead, waited till the buzz died down and then I started to hunt for the book. And HUNT I really did! The book was sold out at many places and I finally found a copy (the LAST COPY) on the shelves at popular bookshop, in a shopping ctr at Novena. Even then, this book suffered the same fate as the many other recipe books I had, left at the book shelf at home, till I finally picked it up on one lazy weekends. :P

Back to the recipe....

I was afraid that the over-ripe bananas will make the cake too sweet so I reduced the amount of sugar. Also I did not have a small tube pan indicated in the recipe, and searched everywhere until I found the smallest tube pan I have at home. Still, the cake turned out quite short. But well, it did taste good! So good, that everyone had 2 helpings (I cut small slices) and the cake was gone in 1 afternoon. I did not have any buttercream on hand to decorate the cake, so I melted some white chocolate and drizzled it on and finally, sprinkled some chocolate rasps on top.

Here's the recipe, with my modfication.

What you need

• 100gm plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp soda bicarb
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 70gm castor sugar
• 80gm veg oil
• 150gm bananas (diced)
• 40gm walnut (toasted and chopped)

What to do 

• Preheat oven at 170 degrees. Grease a 20cm tube pan. Set aside.
• Sift flour, baking powder, soda bicarb and salt tog in a mixing bowl.
• Combine eggs, sugar and oil tog in another bowl. Give it a few whisks. Stir in sifted flour mix and then mix in banana and walnut till well blended.
• Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in 170 degrees for 35mins. Stand cake in pan for 10mins before unmolding onto wire rack to cool completely.
• (Optional) Deocrate with melted chocolate.