Weekend Cooking: Sour Cream Banana Cake

Earlier this year when the flooding and cyclone hit Queensland, one of the casualties was the banana crop. As a result bananas have been extortionately expensive for months, and so there was no way that you would be buying bananas just to make cakes with.

Finally, prices are on their way down again, and so I have had a couple of bananas sitting in the fruit bowl, steadily ripening to the point where a cake can be made. I do have a favourite banana bread recipe, which was one of my earliest Weekend Cooking posts, but I did think it was time to try a new recipe, and this one looked, and tasted, delicious.

It was my intention to actually make this but it the little chef ended up taking charge and making it himself! The only thing he really needed assistance with was the icing.

Sour Cream Banana Cake

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup mashed banana (you will need 2 large, very ripe bananas)
2 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Icing

180g white chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup sour cream

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease base and sides of a 7cm deep, 19cm square cake pan and line with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Using a metal spoon, gently fold in sour cream and bananas. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda over batter and gently fold through.

Spoon batter into cake pan. Smooth surface. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Make icing Place chocolate and sour cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat, stirring constantly with a metal spoon, for 3 minutes or until smooth. Remove from heat. Stand for 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Pour icing over cake, allowing it to drizzle down sides. Serve warm.

Notes

Sour cream banana cake (without the icing) can be made a day in advance. Store at room temperature in an airtight container. To warm, place un-iced cake on a microwave-safe plate lined with baking paper. Heat, uncovered, on MEDIUM-LOW DEFROST (30%) for 4 to 6 minutes or until warm to the touch. Ice while warm.




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