My blog has been VERY quiet as of late, I’ve been super busy doing other things like my sisters wedding, and spending time with my family back home. I’ve been struggling to balance life, work and hobbies, I still have so much to do. I know, it’s ridiculous right? I have the same hours in the day as Beyonce. I’m just going to apologise to my followers right now for this. I hope you understand, plus I really couldn’t get my head in the right place after the attack on Manchester last week, my thoughts go out to everybody who has been affected by this. I think everyone else who lives or works in the city has been bothered/scared about what happened.
But as true brits, we always stay strong have a brew, and get on with it. What better way to get on with things, than to have a classic banana loaf with your brew!
My other half’s dad is always making this classic, but always the full gluten version. So I saw the bananas, took a chance and made one of my very own. I made this dairy free too, so more people can enjoy it!
I was looking back at my old photos from Edinburgh earlier this year, and I remember having this delicious, moist loaf with vanilla icing on the top. So I just created this basic buttercream in the recipe which really brings out the flavour of the banana and suits the cake really well.
Ingredients
For the loaf
4 Overripe bananas
1/2 cup Dairy free margarine
2 Medium Free Range eggs
1/2 cup Caster Sugar
3 tbsp Dairy free milk (I used almond for the little bit of flavour)
1tsp Vanilla extract
2 cups Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour
1tsp Xanthan Gum
1tsp Gluten free baking powder
For the buttercream
3 cups Icing sugar
1 cup Dairy free margarine
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
Dried banana chips (optional)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180*C and grease/line a loaf tin.
- Mash the bananas up in a bowl.
- In a separate bowl, cream together the margarine, sugar, and then slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Add in the bananas, vanilla and milk.
- Fold in the flour, Xanthan gum and baking powder, until a thick cake batter appears. Try not to over mix once you’ve added the xanthan gum, as you can over work it.
- Pour evenly into the loaf tin, and bake in the middle of the oven for around 50 minutes. To test if it’s cooked, poke a skewer in, and if it comes out clean, it’s cooked!
- Leaf the loaf to cool on a wire rack. If it’s risen a bit too much for your liking, like mine did, you can chop the top off to give an even finish.
- For the buttercream icing, beat the margarine until soft. Mix in the icing sugar one cup at a time, and then add in the vanilla.
- Transfer the buttercream into a piping bag, and pipe on the top. I just dotted mine on in blobs.
- Top with the dried banana pieces, serve, and enjoy with a cuppa!
The Coeliac Sloth 