Banana!

After a big day out at Ikea (it is C-razy there on Saturdays!), Adam and I succumbed to a very late lunch of KFC, and hence are now feeling KFC regret.  Tres uncomfortable. Neither of us are hungry, so instead of cooking dinner I decided to put the over ripe banana's from our fruit bowl to good use. The price of banana's at the moment is insane, but thankfully our next-door neighbour gave us a bunch, apparently his brother has a tree :)
So I donned my apron (made for me by my beautiful nan Mausey) and got to work. 

Since moving into our house a year and a half ago - I haven't actually used the oven much at all. For 7 months I ate at Mums house most every night while Adam was in Brisbane. We also have a Webber and like to cook our roasts in there. Oh and an ALDI pizza cooker to cook our pizza's. I used to LOVE to bake but for a long time I had an oven the size of a microwave - and hence, fell out of the habit. 

Oh my God. Leo is having cat nightmares. He is asleep and whimpering. (!!)
So I made a batch big enough for two little loaves of the banana cake recipe I grew up eating. When I think of food in Pottsville, I think of Jam Drops, Peanut Biscuits, amazing birthday cakes and of course Mum's Banana Cake with butter. It's a simple recipe but it's awesome. I have made it a bunch of times in my first few years in Brisbane and even won an award during My Friend Emma's cake week - for 'best use of banana'. So cooking it tonight, I felt comfortable and confident.... but its been a while and I don't know my oven.
My super cute timer rings and pull the cake out and it looks great! Just the right kind of brown, nicely raised. I do the wooden skewer test and pull it out - the inside of the cake is completely liquid. Saddened but not discouraged, I put the cake back in and set my timer for another 20 minutes. Timer goes off, I open the door and smell burn :( The top is dark brown. Poop.
Pop her out of the pan and the bottom is burnt. Still not discouraged, I try to go all Masterchef on its ass. You know where they cut the bad bits off and serve it up all minimalistic and stuff. Yeah turns out I'm not so goot at that either... every piece I cut falls apart.

Slightly miffed but undeterred, I fill the pan with cake mix again, this time lowering the heat on my temperamental oven and extending the cooking time. The timer sounds and I am scared to look in the oven for fear of disappointment. Pull it out - test it... Wahoo!!! It's perfect.

To celebrate my feat and to display my awesome skills, I decided to put it the cake display thing. I can't think of what it is called right now, but we bought it for the wedding lolly table to put Mausey's coconut ice on it. It's this -

Nothing like sharing a slice of banana cake with butter whilst watching the X-files together. 


Mum's Banana Cake
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
3 ripe banana's (super ripe and revoltingly mushy)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
Method:
Cream butter and sugar.
Beat in egg and banana's one at a time.
Add dry ingredients, then milk.
Bake in moderate oven 35-40 minutes.
Bon Appetit!