Fruit salad banana cake

I arrived home one day last week and was shocked at what I saw when I stood in the kitchen. On the bench, I saw a black banana, a squishy pear and a clammy apple. YUM! Although such items are most welcome in the compost bin, I felt the need to bake them into a soft banana fruit salad cake. What amazed me though is that I could SEE the fruit on the bench when I walked in. I had an eyes tested on the weekend and in my right eye, I could read the smallest line on the sign. My left eye is a little backwards and could only read the first line, yes, the line with the HUGE letters. I didn't know my eyes were so bad! I am excited about soon receiving  my new glasses:)


So, the cake. A great cake if you have old fruit sitting around. The juice from the fruits make it extremely soft, moist and juicy. It reminded me more of a pudding, so I ate it warm with cream on the top Mmm:) I am sure vanilla icecream would work a treat as well. You can use any fruits you like; apples, peaches, pear, banana, berries, nectarines, plums, dried fruits...Whatever is attracting the flies in your kitchen!

Fruit salad banana cake
This recipe is based on a banana cake from 'Classic Country Cooking: Traditional Australian Fare' by Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen, page 93. 

I changed the sugar content and used baking powder instead of soda (I don't know where my mum stores the baking soda...yes, I live with my parents, how cool am I?! What's even cooler is that they feel so sorry for me for not being able to attract a rich man to take me away that they let me live here for free *thumbs up*). Instead of using two bananas, I used one and used extra fruit to replace the second banana.

What you need

• 1 apple, peeled and chopped
• 1 pear, peeled and chopped
• Handful of raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 60g butter
• 70g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 mashed banana
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 125g self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Cinnamon for sprinkling

 What you need to do

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a loaf baking tin (I used a 11cm x 21 cm tin) with baking paper.
2. Place chopped apple and pear into a saucepan with a tiny bit of water and heat until the fruit has softened slightly. Or, stew until very soft if you prefer. Once softened to your liking, take off the heat, add in the raspberries and allow to cool.
3. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar.
4. Beat in the egg and the baking powder.
5. Mix in the mashed banana and stewed fruits.
6. Add the milk and mix to combine.
7. Mix in the flour.
8. Pour the mixture into the baking tin, sprinkle with cinnamon and bake for 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Do watch the baking time; my oven is 28 years old and takes a long time to cook everything, so yours may not take as long.

Mmmm fruit salad banana cake:) This is what the cake looks like at 8pm in bad lighting

If you have old fruit in your household but do not wish to make the cake, you can still stew the fruits and freeze them for future use:)

Pretty easy to prepare, seeing as though I baked it after work. I never do anything after work as I am so worn out from sitting down and looking at Excel all day...and waking up at 04:50. Ugh Excel. *Does the evil eye to Excel* Oh, I may as well give Outlook the evil eye too. That program hates me and always cries out 'not responding, not responding'! *Does the evil eye to Outlook*



If you are in Sydney on December 29, perhaps a meet up and afternoon tea at the Bourke Street Bakery interests you. Click here for further details.