Peach Banana Pie

Another one in the series of pie recipes. Most of them seem to involve a combination of delicious-sounding fruits; somehow the double-barrelled, hyphenated names are very alluring :)!

[22/9/07 update: Grandmother’s recipe for shortcrust pastry for the pie crust here.]
[19/12/07 update: another shortcrust pastry recipe from grandma here.]

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Banana Bread

This is yet another McCalls recipe.

The ingredients and techniques look very similar to the family-favourite Banana Cake recipe I posted earlier, although the quantity of ingredients looks different. There seems to be very little shortening here, whereas the other recipe is actually rather buttery and I’ve found myself reducing the amount of fat when I make it.

‘Shortening’ is specified here, which I take to mean a vegetable shortening such as Spry or Crisco. These days, you might not want to use hydrogenated vegetable oils like that because of the trans fats. You could use butter instead, which might produce a slightly different result.

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Banana Sponge Cake

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.

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