green tea banana and prune cake

When Da and I had dinner guests (that is, the family of the Three Musketeers and Da's cousin, MT) at our home on Valentine's Day this year, I decided to bake a cake because Tau Suan's birthday was just around the corner and we would probably not be able to meet him on the actual day (which fell on 19 February 2009).

I was debating what cake to bake when I saw an overipe banana on top of our microwave oven. I had bought the banana a few days before that, intending to snack on it in the evening at work but I ended up bringing the banana home.

When you bake banana cakes or banana muffins or fry banana fritters, it is advisable to use overripe bananas as they are sweeter and softer in texture. What you can do is to freeze the bananas when they are overripe and take them out from the freezer when you need to use them. The skin may turn black when the banana becomes overripe but you will still be able to use the banana in your baking or cooking.

As there were 9 of us for dinner and I only had one banana, I baked a green tea banana and prune cake in a 9" square baking pan.

Ingredients

2 tbsp matcha (green tea powder)
200g wholemeal flour
200g plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g butter (softened)
100g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup ground almond
200g banana (mashed)
200g pitted prunes (cut into small pieces)
2 tsp banana essence
cinnamon sugar (for the topping)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and line a 9" square baking pan with baking paper. Set aside.

3. Sift the matcha, wholemeal flour, plain flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Set aside.

4. Whisk the butter and sugar using an electric mixer. Beat 1 egg, add it to the mixture and whisk well at low speed. Repeat with the other egg.

5. Add the ground cinnamon, ground almond, mashed banana, pitted prunes and banana essence. Whisk at low speed.

6. Fold in the flour mixture and mix well.

7. Pour into the prepared baking pan.

8. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the entire top portion of the batter.

9. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Tips

1. The cake will taste "nutty" due to the wholemeal flour.

2. Turn your cake into a dessert by placing slices of the cake in a bowl and topping with cookies and cream ice cream. Sprinkle raisins on top.