Image is for illustrative purposes only.

This is a moist, oil-based banana sponge built around real banana puree rather than a few mashed bananas stirred through a butter cake. The crumb is soft, tender and close, the colour is a warm golden brown, and the flavour is sweet banana rounded out with the caramel note of brown sugar.

Because it is made with oil it stays moist for days and slices cleanly, which makes it a good base layer for cream cheese fillings, caramel, or a simple buttercream. It is sturdy enough to be levelled, split and stacked for a decorated cake, and it is just as good eaten plain with a cup of tea.

Ingredients

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Weight Per Unit: 709
Number of Units: 2
Unit Size: 200mm (8 inch) round cake tin
WEIGHT
(grams) 		ALTERNATIVE METRIC INGREDIENT IMAGE CONDITION
A 500 17.6 ounces Banana Puree Banana puree is simply very ripe bananas blended smooth. It is sold frozen in bakeries, but at home you can make it by blending or mashing ripe, heavily speckled bananas until no lumps remain.
From very ripe bananas 		blended smooth
B 200 7 ounces Whole Egg Eggs are one of the most common ingredients in a typical cake. Egg yolks and whole eggs store significant amounts of protein and choline, and are widely used in baking. Usually an eggs role in a cake is to add moisture and richness, act as a raising agent as well as a glue to bind the ingredients together. room temperature
C 150 150 millilitres Cooking Oil Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavouring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and in this sense might be more accurately termed edible oil. Cooking oil is typically a liquid at room temperature, although some oils that contain saturated fat, such as coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil are solid. There is a wide variety of cooking oils from plant sources such as olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil (rapeseed oil), corn oil, peanut oil and other vegetable oils, as well as animal-based oils like butter and lard. Oil can be flavoured with aromatic foodstuffs such as herbs, chillies or garlic.
Neutral flavoured
D 275 9.7 ounces Self-Raising Flour Self-rising or self-raising flour is white flour that is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents. Self-rising flour is typically composed of the following ratio: 1 cup (100 g) flour, 1 1⁄2 teaspoons (3 g) baking powder, a pinch to 1⁄2 teaspoon (1 g or less) salt. sifted
E 125 4.4 ounces Brown Sugar Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content (natural brown sugar), or it is produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar (commercial brown sugar). no lumps
F 125 4.4 ounces Sugar Sugar is the generalized name for sweet, short-chain, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. They are carbohydrates, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. There are various types of sugar derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose (also known as dextrose), fructose and galactose. The table or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide. (In the body, sucrose hydrolyses into fructose and glucose.) Other disaccharides include maltose and lactose. Longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides. Chemically-different substances may also have a sweet taste, but are not classified as sugars. Some are used as lower-calorie food substitutes for sugar described as artificial sweeteners.
G 25 25 millilitres Milk Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Milk is processed into a variety of dairy products such as cream, butter, yogurt, kefir, ice cream, and cheese. Modern industrial processes use milk to produce casein, whey protein, lactose, condensed milk, powdered milk, and many other food-additives and industrial products. room temperature
H 7.5 1.5 teaspoons Sodium Bicarbonate Sodium bicarbonate (a.k.a baking soda, bread soda, cooking soda, and bicarbonate of soda), referred to as "baking soda", is primarily used in cooking (baking), as a leavening agent. It reacts with acidic components in batters, releasing carbon dioxide, which causes expansion of the batter and forms the characteristic texture and grain in pancakes, cakes, quick breads, soda bread, and other baked and fried foods. Acidic compounds that induce this reaction include phosphates, cream of tartar, lemon juice, yogurt, buttermilk, cocoa, vinegar, etc. Natural acids in sourdough can be leavened with the addition of small amounts as well. Sodium bicarbonate can be substituted for baking powder provided sufficient acid reagent is also added to the recipe. Many forms of baking powder contain sodium bicarbonate combined with calcium acid phosphate, sodium aluminium sulphate or cream of tartar. Sodium bicarbonate was sometimes used in cooking vegetables, to make them softer, although this has gone out of fashion, as most people now prefer firmer vegetables. However, it is still used in Asian and Latin American cuisine to tenderise meats. Baking soda may react with acids in food, including vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid). It is also used in breadings such as for fried foods to enhance crispness. Heat causes sodium bicarbonate to act as a raising agent by releasing carbon dioxide when used in baking. The carbon dioxide production starts at temperatures above 80 °C. Since the reaction does not occur at room temperature, mixtures (cake batter, etc.) can be allowed to stand without rising until they are heated in the oven.
I 5 1 teaspoon Salt Common salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent; the open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%. Salt is essential for animal life, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous of food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.
J 5 1 teaspoon Banana Essence Banana essence is a concentrated flavouring used to lift and round out the taste of real banana in baking. A very small amount is enough, so measure it carefully.
1417

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Method

STEP ACTION DETAIL CONDITION
1 Prepare Grease and line the tins and bring all ingredients to room temperature. Room temp.
2 Pre-heat Turn the oven on to 165 C. Fan off, standard bake.
3 Whisk Whisk B, E and F (whole egg, brown sugar and caster sugar) together. Pale and slightly thickened, sugar starting to dissolve.
4 Add Pour in C (oil) in a steady stream while mixing. Smooth and emulsified.
5 Mix Stir in A, G and J (banana puree, milk and banana essence). Evenly combined, no streaks.
6 Fold Sift D, H and I (self-raising flour, sodium bicarbonate and salt) over the top and fold through. Just combined. Do not over mix.
7 Fill Divide the batter between the prepared tins and level the tops. About two thirds full.
8 Bake Bake at 165 C. Around 1 hour for a large tin, less for smaller tins. A skewer comes out clean.
9 Cool Rest in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Completely cold before cutting or filling.

Important Notes

The half batch given here makes about 1,418 g of mixture, enough for two 200mm round tins or one deep 250mm round tin. The bakery bakes the full batch at 165 C for 1 hour; smaller home tins will be done sooner, so start checking at around 35-40 minutes with a skewer. Chef's tip: roasted, chopped cashew nuts folded through the batter or scattered over the top before baking work very well with this sponge. Because the cake is oil based it keeps moist. Wrap well once cold and keep at room temperature for 2-3 days, refrigerate for up to a week, or freeze wrapped for up to a month.

Tools & Arrangements

Mixing bowls, hand or stand mixer with whisk, spatula, sieve, blender or fork for the banana puree, digital scales, 200mm or 250mm round cake tins, baking paper, skewer, cooling rack.

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