Brilliant Banana Loaf - with a little something extra

My previous attempts at banana cakes have been rather less then successful, or average at the very best. Then I had a Banana breakthrough. This recipe has proven to be the one for me with repeatable, edible, come back for seconds, grab and run Mum results. Hurrah! For me its got to be recipes that the family love and also mostly use store cupboard ingredients. So onto Bananas, our portable healthy 'snack in its own sack'. I imagine this Banana bounty happens to  most families - we buy and eat a lot of Bananas, we waste a few too. As much as we love them, there are always the odd few that go 'over ripe' and result is 'yuck Mum brown bits' or similar complaints of being too squishy. Actually, I can add to that the half eaten Banana that has nothing wrong with it other than the fickle attention span of the under 5 year old.

Cooking with american cup recipes is relaxing - with the Junior Gingerbread's joining in it makes life really easy. So, why not slot this recipe into your mental library of something quick to stop wasting bananas. Oh, and this works with defrosted frozen bananas as well - so if you have a lonely overripe one in the fruit bowl, pop it in the freezer in chunks and add to it until you have enough.

Ingredients
3 to 4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour

1/3 cup melted butter

3/4 to 1 cup light brown sugar (I always use the smaller amount)

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon sherry (optional)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Or 1.5 teaspoons of mixed spice instead of the above two

Oven temperature 180c.

Method

Use a fork to mash the bananas. How mushy you make them is up to you. I like mine reasonably coarse. In another bowl mix the egg, vanilla essence and sherry.Once that's done everything else is done using a  silicone spatula or wooden spoon.

Add the liquid ingredients to the banana and mix. 

Next stir in the flour and spices.

Do not over mix as this is what can make banana cake rubbery.

Tip into a greased loaf or round cake tin and bake for 50 minutes or until your skewer comes out clean.

Adapted from here.