Monday 16 August 2010

banana, blueberry & orange loaf cake

More often than not, I get late night cravings for something sweet and as tedious as it may sound, I actually prefer to pull out ingredients from the pantry and bake from scratch. Yes, I could easily just open up the pantry and get something instant to eat but somehow the act of that doesn't seem to satisfy and I end up eating more than I should. Alternatively, to bake something from scratch, you can pick what you want to bake and can choose that recipe that will hit the spot. And sometimes, it's really just the welcome distraction of baking that will take my mind off munching on unnecessary late night snacks. I'll finish my baking and decide that I really wasn't all that hungry after all.

Continuing the list of loaves I've made lately, here's a recipe for a banana, blueberry & orange loaf.

Recipe adapted from Carol Pastor's 'Simple Home Baking'. Funny enough, I actually bought this recipe book for all her madeleine recipes and I haven't made a single one yet! Will get to it though.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Beat 85g softened butter with 115g caster sugar until light and creamy. Gradually add 1 lightly beaten egg and stir in until the mixture is smooth and well combined. Sift in 225g self raising flour, pinch of salt, 2 tsp baking powder. In a separate bowl, mash together 4 medium sized bananas. Add banana mash to the creamed butter mixture along with 125g blueberries (in my recipe, I've used frozen blueberries), and rind of 2 medium oranges. Fold together gently. Pour the mix into a lined loaf tin. Bake for 60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean (recipe actually says 45 minutes but my loaf was nowhere near baked!)

Bizarrely enough, this loaf didn't have such a browned crust like the banana loaf I made in my last post. Note that the frozen blueberries do make parts of the loaf slighly gooey when it first comes out of the oven making the loaf hard to cut but rest overnight, you'll be able to slice away quite easily (and to be honest, I think this is a loaf that tastes better the next day).


You might've noticed that I haven't included a whole lot of photos in this post like I usually do. It was a spur of the moment decision to bake and I got quite carried away and simply forgot to take the photos. I can assure you though that this was a very lovely loaf and I will most certainly be making it again.

7 comments:

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Well done! I usually go for convenience late at night. I wish I were more like a late night baker though! :P

Amy @ cookbookmaniac said...

I love anything blueberry. In fact I dont eat them enough :(

My spur of the moment cooking always turns out better than the ones where I spend days preparing!

Hey, that's a cookbook I don't have! Whats that one!? :D

Maria @ ScandiFoodie said...

I love blueberries! This cake looks so scrumptious, I'd love to try it!

mashi said...

Good on ya for having a healthy snack rather than a convenient one.

Same, I do get tempted to bake from scratch, the satisfaction is incredible.

This recipe looks better than the classic banana bread one you posted earlier. With the twist of blueberries, I'm so baking it x

Joyti said...

...and I thought I was the only one who liked to bake in the middle of the night. Its always nice to have something warm instead of something from a box. Plus, you'll have something left for the next day.

Rita (mademoiselle délicieuse) said...

Late night baking can be really soothing. I love the methodical following of steps in complete silence. When I lived at home my mother would hate it because she's a light sleeper, so she'd here my clunking followed by the smells of baking!

panda said...

lorraine - i guess i like baking at night when it's nice and quiet. during the day it seems a little chaotic sharing the kitchen with the rest of the family ( my dad keeps telling me I get in his way but that's because he likes cooking too!)

amy - i can eat punnets and punnets of blueberries! mum has told me off for keeping the fridge door open whilst i've picked at punnets of blueberries. and yes, spur of the moment baking always does seem to turn out better! found this book at basement books!

maria - this is definitely one of those loaves which taste good and photograph well :)

mashi - i probably still need to cut back on the sugar and butter to make this recipe a bit more healthy but definitely, this loaf was much better than the previous banana bread recipe!

indie tea - I can't agree with you more! it's actually really peaceful baking at night although there's been times when i've gotten a bit carried away and finished baking in the early hours of the morning!

mademoiselle delicieuse - coming home from a stressful day at work, the one thing i look forward to is baking; for me it just clears my mind so I can start fresh the next day!