Another highly popular and foolproof recipe from my childhood. We had it in loaf form and cupcake form, all expertly prepared by our black & white amah-che. Sometimes the cake was baked into shortcrust pastry cupcake shells. The cupcakes were stored in a Danish butter cookies tin that was kept on top of the fridge – well out of reach of hungry little hands!
Again, this one I had already typed up because so many friends & relatives had asked for the recipe before.
[12/1/08 update: See a list of grandma's other sponge cake recipes here.]
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4 oz / 115g butter or margarine
4 oz / 115g castor sugar
4 oz / 115g flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 banana
Pinch bicarbonate of soda
Cream fat & sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Fold in sifted flour and baking power.
Mash banana, add bicarbonate of soda. Add this to sponge mixture & mix well.
Put into 2 tins.
Bake 30 mins at 375˚F / 180˚C.
Just made this today. Reduced sugar to 65g-70g and it was still way too sweet, perhaps because I used one and a half very ripe Pisang Rajah bananas (my favourite kind!).
The quantity is very little – only enough for half a loaf tin, not two tins! Unless very small ones of course. I would probably make 3 times this quantity next time.
Also tried using all wholemeal flour instead of plain flour, and was surprised how successful it was! Not as heavy as I expected, the cake rose nicely and had an unusual nutty edge to it.
This is Allan. Saw yr blog and I am sure many people have benefitted from it. Are there any cake recipes? I would love to try if u have…am sure yr grandma is a wonderful baker too.
Hi Allan, thanks for visiting and yr msg. The cake & pastry recipes are towards the end of the notebook so I will get there eventually – am working my way through slowly page by page… :)
What kind of flour works best?
Regular plain white flour is generally used for cakes and cake flour is known to give an even lighter and finer texture. Personally, I try to use wholemeal flour as much as I can because it’s healthier, and personally I’m happy with the taste, although my friends and family who are not used to wholemeal have commented about the grainy texture.