Sticky Toffee Banana Cake
Do you have more over-ripe bananas but tired of the same banana bread recipe? Try making a sticky toffee banana cake! It’s a happy marriage between the quintessential banana bread and classic sticky toffee pudding. This is a perfect way to use all those spotty brown bananas in your fruit bowl.
Instead of the traditional banana bread method, this sticky toffee banana cake recipe is modified for a cake-like result. The banana cake itself is not as dense as the classic sticky toffee pudding, which uses dates and brown sugar as sweeteners. The trademark flavour of the sticky toffee pudding is, of course, black treacle for its distinctive bitter-sweet flavours. The toffee sauce uses a light syrup instead for a less “bitter” flavour but no less delicious. I made this for Easter brunch this year and it was a big hit with my little family.
Tips
- Whereas most cake recipes call for butter soften at room temperature, this recipe calls for melted butter. The result will be soft yet dense (think: brownies) because the melted butter already released its water content.
- This recipe calls for lemon juice, which may seem odd given that this is not a lemon cake. The lemon flavour doesn’t actually come from the juice itself but from the oils from the zest. Acidic ingredients are generally used to enhance flavours and help with the leavening and tenderisation of cakes. Baking is a science after all.
- Enjoy this with vanilla ice cream, or on its own with a cup of tea or coffee.
Happy baking!
Sticky Toffee Banana Cake
Ingredients
- 1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1.5 cup mashed bananas from 3 very ripe bananas
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the Toffee Sauce
- 1-1/4 cups double cream
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Pinch salt
For Serving
- Sliced bananas
- Chopped pecans or toasted walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 177°C/350°F. Butter and lightly flour a 20×20 cm (8×8 in) baking dish.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the melted butter and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, mashed bananas, lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix well.
- On low speed, stir in the flour mixture in batches until just incorporated. Be sure to fold in the flour pockets.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until golden, about 35-40 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake, it is comes out clean, the cake is done.
Toffee Sauce
- To make the toffee sauce, bring the double cream, brown sugar, golden syrup, butter, and salt to a boil in a heavy small saucepan over high heat, whisking until the sugar dissolves. Take care not to burn the sauce.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer, whisking occasionally, until the sauce is thickened to a consistency of syrup, about 15 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and cool.
- Spoon 1/3 to 1/4 cup of the toffee sauce over top of the baked banana cake. Return the cake to the oven and bake until the toffee sauce is bubbling, about 6 minutes.
- Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for at least 30 minutes. Cut the cake into 9 squares Serve the cake slightly warm or at room temperature with warm toffee sauce and top with sliced bananas and nuts, if desired.
Notes
