You might be wondering when this site will finally include a recipe - an actual, real life recipe. Well, as Morrisey said - in a kind of paraphrasey misquoted way - that time is now. I found a version of this recipe on Pinterest and it's the best Banana Cake going around - except that it makes an enormous cake that's just way too big for Easter Show standards, it needs a few more spices for added extra taste (especially since it had none int he first place) and it needs to be adapted a little for the Australian methods. So here is my version of it, with all the adaptations mentioned above.
Ingredients:
1 cup of mashed fresh, but let's face it quite on the over ripe brownish side, banana
2 tsp lemon juice (or a little vinegar)
2 and 1/4 cups SR flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon, and if you have it a half tsp of nutmeg and a tiny pinch of clove
1.5 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup soft butter
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup of milk, soured with a good dash of vinegar or lemon juice
Method:
I'm going to keep this one pretty simple for recipe number one. Are you ready? Grease and flour your tins or do whatever you normally do to them. Don't let me sway you! Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees. You know your oven better than I do, so use your own judgement here. I'll post something about ovens later, but for now just work with what you know. Oh and take your butter out of the fridge. It really needs to be soft, but not melted. Ready?
Now of course you can do this in the electric mixer - I did - but if you want an arm workout feel free to do this the old fashioned way. Whichever you choose, whip your eggs with the sugar until you have a very thick, glossy and pale yellow mix. Add the vanilla, and the spices and makes sure it's all as fluffy as an eggy cloud. You want the electric mixer out now, don't you?
While that's happening grab your milk and let it sour a little by adding the vinegar or lemon juice. This combines with the baking agents to give you a good chemical reaction as the cake comes together - if you haven't tried it before give it a go. Otherwise, normal milk is fine too. Having mastered the art of doing two things at once, now try for three. Sift your flour with the baking powder so it's lump free.
Now, take each these things to the mixer - the milk mix, the sifted dry ingredients and the soft butter.
With the mixer on low, blend the very soft butter into the egg mixture. When it's just combined, you'll want to gently add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, just until it all comes together and is nice and smooth. It will take a few minutes. With many recipes you can leave blending to really get it aerated and light, but with this one you already did that at the start with those lovely eggs, so you don't need to do that now. Be gentle.
The batter should be relatively thick, thick enough that when you read some of these crazy recipes that say 'pour' the batter into the tin you wonder just how milky it's meant to be. This is a thick pour, like pouring... concrete. But in a good way!
That's all you need to do really, pop that baby in the preheated oven and wait until it's done. But in the immortal words of Whitney Houston - How will I know? She also said some other pretty unsavoury stuff about cocaine and the like, and probably never really discussed baking. In any case, you will know if you very gently take a look in the oven - be quick now before you let the heat out - and touch it softly in the middle. If it feels soft or wet at all, it's not done. Put it back and check again in five more minutes. It should be firm to the touch and slightly springy.
My oven isn't great, but in a good quality 20cm round tin mine took about 50mins. You can see mine there in the photo and I can assure you it was cooked all the way through. The slightly crumbly texture was because i was impatient and hungry and I cut it just a tad too soon, still warm and delicious. Try it and see.