S2, Ep 6: 4Ps 3Gs, Pickles and Banana Cakes

Listen to the Episode

Gillian’s Banana Cake

You will need:

220g self-raising flour or 220g or plain/all-purpose flour combined with 1 tsp of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of bi-carb soda /baking soda

200g sugar (I like to use brown sugar, but use any kind you like)

120ml of a good, fresh vegetable oil or canola oil

2 large eggs

450g of mashed, very ripe bananas (about 5 medium-sized)

120ml of heavy or thickened cream (cold)

A handful of chopped nuts (optional). I used Annabelle’s pecans.

To start:

Prepare your cake tin. I used a rectangle tin (see photo) or you can use a 20cm/8” round tin.

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celcius /350 F

In a large bowl, combine all your dry ingredients. Mix them together well.

In a smaller bowl, mix together your eggs, oil and bananas with a fork.

Make a well in the middle of your dry ingredients and add the egg mixture. Stir to blend well.

With a mixer, whip the cold cream until you are a little beyond soft peak stage. Fold it into the batter.

Pour mixture into your cake tin. I decorated mine with a banana split lengthways and gently pan fried with butter to get a light caramelisation, then placed on top of the batter but you don’t have to do this.

Bake for about 45mins. Check to see if the cake is cooked through by using a skewer poked into the centre of the cake. When cooked, remove from oven and place cake tin in a plastic bag until cake is cool. There will be condensation in the bag but that’s ok. Gently remove cake from tin when it is cool.

G xxxx

The bananas on the right are ready to use in your cake. The ones on the left, for your smoothies.

Allamburra organic eggs with their trademark hen footprint stamp. Their farm is on Tamborine Mountain, Queensland

Links

This is the most powerful, moving article, written by American author Ariel Levy. It’s not about an ectopic pregnancy, rather her miscarriage in a hotel in Mongolia.

Here is Ann Pattchet’s wonderful essay on female friendship in full.

And a recipe for dill pickles.

Lamington wedding cake