How to win friends and influence people…

I mentioned it was my husband’s birthday last week; well I think it’s a tradition in most offices to take in cakes on your birthday.  He asked if I would mind baking him some to take in and of course I said I would!  There were about 30 to feed so I made a batch of these ginger and chocolate biscuits, and some blueberry and cinnamon muffins (based on my basic muffin recipe).  By the time I got on to baking the last cake I was feeling the urge to try something new, and so I came up with this recipe for banana and orange cake.  I love banana cake and the orange makes it less heavy than a traditional banana loaf.

Banana and orange loaf

Recipe:

Cake:

• 100g Butter
• 150g Sugar
• 150g Self raising flour
• 2 Large eggs
• 2 tbsp Milk
• 2 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed
• Zest of an orange (unwaxed) or 2 tsps orange extract

Glaze:

• 3 tbsps icing sugar
• 3 tbsps fresh orange juice or 1 tsp orange extract plus 2.5 tbsps water

Preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease and bottom line a 2lb loaf tin.  Cream together the butter and sugar, then add in all the other cake ingredients and stir until smooth.  Pour into the tin and bake for 55-70 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Meanwhile mix together the icing sugar and orange juice.  When the cake is cooked, pour over the glaze straight away and leave in the tin to cool.  This makes the cake extra juicy and sticky!