cafe banana bread

Delicious slabs of brown banana bread, *ahem* just like you get in the cafe. I have been working on perfecting this recipe for a very long time (longer than I'd like to admit) and there have been many disasters along the way. I post it now because I think this is the best its gonna get for my home kitchen. Obviously add walnuts or chunks of banana to suit your taste- and I daresay some cream cheese frosting wouldn't go amiss. This was done in a 20cm x 20 cm super deep square teflon cake tin. A general rule of thumb is to use as many bananas as fit in the tin whole (with the skin on) and go from there. It sure is alot of bananas!

Ingredients:

Bananas, roughly 10 small to medium size, spotted ripe
3 1/2 cups self- raising flour (do not substitute)
2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed
5 X medium eggs (50-60g)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
50 g butter, melted
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cardamom

Method:
(preheat the oven to 140°C / 275°F / Gas Mark 1)

1. In a big bowl, peel and break the bananas into chunks. Mash this well with a potato masher. Pour in the vanilla, melted butter, and crack the eggs in, stirring until everything is a unified mixture.

2. In another bowl, place flour, salt, spices, and brown sugar. Mix this with your hands, breaking up any lumps of brown sugar as you mix.

3. Grease the cake tin with butter, and place strips of wax paper going both ways so that they over hang by at least 2 inches over the edges of the tin. This will make it easier to lift out when its done, and it is important to grease the pan now so that when the flour activates with the liquid ingredients it will spend little or no time waiting to go in the oven.

4. Pour the flour mixture into the banana mixture and fold until you have a uniform batter. Pour this into the tin and quickly place on the middle shelf of your oven. Bake for 1 hr and 20 min, or until when you push down the top there is no squidgyness underneath the crust, and when a skewer comes out clean. Keep your eye on the temperature as every oven varies. Store at room temperature.