Valentines' Special - Eggless Banana Cake - Baking - Andhra Telugu Recipes - Indian Vegetarian Food

Ingredients:

• Maida – 140gms

• Baking Powder – 2Level tea spoons

• Baking Soda – 1/2Level tea spoon

• Sweetened Condensed Milk – 200gms

• Melted Butter – 70ml (Unsalted Butter)

• Vanilla Essence – 1tsp

• Ripe Bananas – 2 (Peeled Bananas – 200gms)

• Water – 55gms (1/4Cup)

• Almonds – 10

(Online Conversion utility to convert Gms to Cups & Temperatures etc)

Preparations:

Take a mixing bowl and place a sieve in it. Into the sieve add maida, baking powder and baking soda. Sift the ingredients for even mixing and to get a lump free flour mix. Peel the bananas and mash them using a fork. Mashing the bananas using a fork leaves a texture which gives a nice taste in the cake. Take a rectangular cake pan of size 7*5*2 (Length-Breadth- Height). Prepare the pan by smearing ghee at the bottom and sides of the pan. Chop almonds into bite sized pieces and keep them aside. Preheat oven in convection mode at 200^oC— it takes 15 minutes for the oven to get preheated.

Method:

To the sifted flour mix add chopped almonds and mix. Add melted butter, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla essence and mashed bananas to the flour mix and mix well. Now add water little by little and make a uniform batter. Transfer the cake mixture into the prepared pan and tap to level it. Place this pan in the preheated oven and bake in convection mode at 200^oC for 50 minutes. Baking timings differ as the temperatures differ from oven to oven---so watch the cake and judge. When cake is done it leaves the sides of the pan. To test the cake, insert a toothpick in the centre of the cake and check. If the toothpick comes out clean then the cake is done. If batter is sticking to the toothpick then bake for few more minutes till the cake is done. Once the cake is done, remove it from oven and leave it in the pan for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, run a knife through the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Transfer the cake on to a wire rack and cool completely. Using a serrated knife slice the cake into pieces of desired thickness. Fresh cake appears moist and tastes delicious.

Points To Notice:

When we bring bananas from the market, usually we would be left with few bananas which would be ripened after few days. Instead of throwing away those ripe bananas it would be useful to make banana cake with them. Using ripe bananas gives a sweet taste to the cake.

Use ingredients which are kept at room temperature—like sweetened condensed milk. When the ingredients are not at room temperature it takes longer time to bake the cake.

Preheating oven is also an important step which should not be ignored. Here it took 15 minutes to preheat the oven.

Sifting the dry ingredients mixes them properly. At times there are lumps in baking soda which appear on the sieve after sifting the ingredients which can be mashed with fingers and mixed into the flour.

Using almonds gives a nice crunch to the cake. Any other nuts may also be used instead of almonds.

Mashing bananas using a fork leaves a texture which gives a nice flavour while eating the cake. So never grind the bananas to mash them—instead use a fork.

Always fill only 2/3^rds of the pan with the cake mixture and leave space for the cake to rise for best results.

While baking the cake, use the time mentioned to bake the cake as a guideline and check in between. As the temperature differs from oven to oven, keep watching in between while the cake is baking. When the cake is done it leaves the sides of the pan. As mentioned above one may even test the cake using a toothpick.

Once the cake is baked, remove it from oven and allow it to rest in the pan for 5 minutes. When a hot cake is transferred immediately after baking, it crumbles and will not hold shape. So it is important to rest the cake in pan for 5 minutes before turning it on to a wire rack.

To cool the cake keep it on a wire rack as air passes from all sides (even underneath).

To cut the cake use a serrated knife the get even slices.