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Banana Cake Recipe

by · 44 comments
Banana Cake
Banana cake is very popular in Hong Kong style bakery shops. Since banana is quite expensive in Hong Kong, not all bakery shops have banana cakes available. When we moved to Australia, we could easily find beautiful and cheap Australian bananas. Not long, the price of bananas was going up.

Bananas were extremely expensive in 2006, about three years ago. The price increased across the country by 400-500%, rising as high as $13-35/kg. The normal price was about $2-3/kg before that year. Sometimes we could get good quality bananas below one dollar per kg if supermarkets put them on sale. The increased price of bananas was due to the shortage of banana supply after a severe cyclone that destroyed 80 to 90% of Australia's banana crop. Australia is relatively free of banana pests and diseases, and therefore does not allow bananas to be imported. (Hop over to take a look at the detailed report via wikipedia if interested)

Now, we’re really glad that banana supply is back to normal, yet the price has increased significantly since then.

My family loves eating this healthy fruit very much, to the point that we can’t live without it everyday. So when bananas are on sale or in season, I’d buy as many as we can consume. Then I’ll reserve some to wait them ripe enough and bake this beautiful and tasty banana cake.

Banana Cake (Printable recipe)
By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Yield: one baking pan, sized 11.5cmx22cmx6cm

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 cups plain flour
  • 250 4 ripe bananas
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 3/4 cup sugar, white or brown (if you like darker colour, use brown)
  • 1 egg, whisked
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/4 cup milk (or 1/2 cup, depending on the thickness of the batter)

Banana Cake Procedures

Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 175C (350F).
  2. Smashed the ripe bananas in a large bowl with a spoon or process in a food processor. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to combine melted butter with the smashed bananas. Stir in sugar, whisked egg and vanilla. Add 1/4 cup of the milk first, then combine well. If the batter is too thick, add more and adjust the amount as you go.
  3. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt in the mixture. Stir in sifted flour, one third at a time. No need to stir too hard, just fold and incorporate all ingredients thoroughly.
  4. Transfer mixture into a greased 4x8 inch baking pan. Bake for about 1 hour. Test with a needle. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked through. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack. Enjoy!
Notes:
  • If you feel too tired of smashing banana with a spoon, use a food processor. Just process bananas for a few seconds if you’d like to retain some texture.
  • I found it’s better not to use an electric mixer for making banana cake. Use a spoon or whisk just to incorporate all ingredients together without over-stirring. The cake would be turned out really soft.

44 comments :

  1. I love banana bread, so I imagine I'll love this banana cake too - thanks for sharing!

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  2. I love it, but I like to add some raisins too! :) Yumm! Clara

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  3. Banana cake sounds fantastic, yum!

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  4. I love banana and I love banana in bread or cake! So aromatic and yummy. Yours look wonderfully baked.

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  5. I like banana cake too. In Malaysia, banana cake is a common sight and yes, bananas are so expensive in Adelaide too!

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  6. thanks for sharing, Christine!

    Mel

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  7. Nice recipe. Banana prices thankfully have never reached the high of 2006 again, although they are a little higher than normal at the moment. We can't live without them and all the recipes they make in our house either.

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  8. I'd tried making banana cake with chocolate chips and they came out awesome. Thankfully, banana in Malaysia is very cheap. We can afford to eat them every week.

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  9. Beautifully baked cake. Bananas are also not that cheap in Malaysia nowadays.

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  10. I like using ripe bananas for banana bread too : ) I have a recipe in my blog too, mine without butter but using apple sauce & poppy seeds : ) There are just so many versions that you can play around.

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  11. Lovely! I used to make banana cake quite often and actually Mister is better than me!

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  12. yummmm banana cake! your cake came out so moist and soft

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  13. This looks yummy! I just posted a blog with my banana bread that also has coconut in it. It's my kids fav. If you have time check it out and let me know what you think
    http://gonnawantseconds.blogspot.com/2009/11/banana-bread.html

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  14. is the butter salted or unsalted

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  15. To Anonymous,
    I used unsalted butter.

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  16. Great cake! It sounds delicious :)

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  17. Thanks for the recipe..one doubt,is the baking temp.and time 175C for one hr.?

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  18. Thanks for the recipe. I tried it today and it tasted amazing. ^^

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  19. What is the difference between baking powder and baking soda? Can I use baking powder instead?

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  20. Hi Christine, thanks for your recipe, it is really easy adn simple. Your picture of the cake looks delicious... tried your recipe today
    I have 2 doubts , at 175degress for 1 hour the cake started to burn at the base in 30 minutes, any suggestions ?

    Also should i use baking powder or soda ( i used soda and it started bubbling while whisking in the flour). Again, any suggestions

    Thanks a lot any suggestion will help.

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  21. To Anonymous,
    175C is not too high. If the base of your cake started to burn too quickly, move your cake to upper rack of your oven or lined a baking paper at the base of your cake tin before transferring the batter into it.

    As fruit, like banana, contains acid, will react with baking soda, resulting in releasing some bubbling to make the cake nice and soft.

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  22. I tried to bake this cake today, it turned out very hard, what could i be doing wrong?

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  23. To Anonymous,
    Hmmm...it shouldn't be hard at all.
    Did you double check the amount of ingredients you used? Anything you did different?

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  24. Hi Christine,

    Can I use regular butter instead of salted one? i have problems getting salted butter in my country.

    Thank you.

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  25. Hi Christine,
    Can I use regular butter? I can't get unsalted one in my country.
    Thank you.

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  26. Can I use regular butter? I can't get unsalted one in my country.

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  27. To Anonymous,
    It's better to use unsalted butter because you can control the amount of salt used in your cake.
    If you can't get any unsalted butter, you might like to get the less salted or regular one, then not adding any salt in your batter.

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  28. Hi Christine,

    Would like to know, baking soda = sodium bicarbonate is it?

    thanks
    -karen-

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  29. @Anonymous:
    Yes, it is. You might like to take a look at this article:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_bicarbonate

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  30. sorry Christine,

    Would you mind giving me the ingredients in grams as I have no idea what 1 cup is...

    Many thanks
    much appreciated!
    Love your baking!

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  31. @Anonymous:
    Thanks for your love of my baking. Will measure in grams for sure when I manage to find some bananas at cheaper price and make this cake again. Until then, thanks for your patience.

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  32. Hi Christine,

    I'm waiting for your measurement in grams too :)

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  33. @Anonymous:
    Sorry for keeping you waiting.

    Finally, made banana cakes again after the price has been dropped recently. Here's the measurement I got for you:

    Ingredients
    245 gm plain flour
    4 ripe bananas
    60 gm unsalted butter, melted
    150 gm sugar, white or brown (if you like darker colour, use brown)
    1 egg, whisked
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    1 tsp baking soda
    1/8 tsp salt

    Note: the amount of sugar can be adjusted accordingly, as it depends on how much banana paste you add.

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  34. Hi Christine, just curious the "cups" measurements you have is US or metric measurements? thanks!

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  35. @hon:
    All recipes on this blog are developed in metric measurement (Australian):
    1 cup = 250ml
    1 Tbsp (tablespoon) = 20ml
    1 tsp (teaspoon) = 5ml

    I have put the measurement on the right side bar of this blog.

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  36. made this banana cake early this morning. Yum! I reduced sugar to 100gm, and it baked for 50mins in big cupcake pan... thnx for the recipe

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  37. Hi Christine, compare to your chinese version of banana cake, milk was left out in english version recipe , can you please check ? Thanks for your recipe, i bake more than five cakes in three weeks

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    Replies
    1. Hi Low,
      Yeah, not sure why the milk was left out. I have updated the recipe.
      Thanks for your question and love of my recipe.


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  38. Hi Christie, I bought your book - airmail from HK, I live in UK. I tried the banana cake today but it came out very dough-ie,as in really like eating a lump of dough ! not at all like a cake, taste ok though. Is it because I put in too much banana or is it because I use baking powder instead of soda ?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for your support of my cookbook.

      As for your question, could it be that the batter was over-beaten, as this is a very common problem? Putting too much bananas into the batter could also hurt the texture because it will make it turn into a paste-like mixture.

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    2. Thanks for the reply. May be the bananas I have was on the large side. I will use less banana and will also buy some baking soda instead of using baking powder. I was told that 1 part of baking soda is same as 3 part of baking powder! so may be that is why it has not risen as well. I will make it again next week and see how it goes.

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    3. Perfect. Just to say that I have used less banana and baking soda rather than baking powder and it has come out perfect. Yummy Yummy !

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  39. Hi christine, what kind of milk are you using?

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