CARAMELISED PECAN & BANANA LOAF

Ingredients:

 Topping:

100g butter

100g brown sugar

100g pecan nuts

 Batter:

6oz plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

4 medium free-range eggs

9 oz sugar

5 floz sunflower oil

2 ripe bananas, mashed

 Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Butter a 2 litre loaf tin or similar

 Method:

 Melt the butter and sugar in a pan and cook for a few minutes until it has turned into a toffee sauce. Turn off the heat and add the pecan nuts, stir until covered with the toffee sauce. Tip the pecans and sauce into a buttered ovenproof dish.

 Sift together flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Whisk together the sugar and eggs until they thicken up, then beat in the oil. Add the mashed bananas and mix well.

 Tip the batter into the ovenproof dish to cover the toffee mixture. Bake for around an hour or until a knife comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 10 minutes then turn the cake out onto a plate or board.

Vegan Banana Cake

This banana cake is absolutely delicious and it contains no wheat, dairy, sugar or eggs. As you can see mine caught slightly on top but that added to it weirdly!

Ingredients:

8 Medjool dates, 6 very ripe bananas, 120mls sunflower oil, 120mls date syrup, 100g roughly chopped walnuts, 100g coconut flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Method:

Bring the dates to the boil in enough water to cover. Turn them down to a simmer for around 20 mins until very soft. Remove the stones and mash along with the bananas. Beat in the pil and date syrup. Add the baking powder and xantham gum to the coconut flour. Fold in the walnuts followed by the coconut flour. Tip the mixture into a loaf tin and bake at 170 degrees for between 50 and 80mins (depending on how hot your oven is, they all vary!) and take it out when a skewer or knife comes out clean.

Allow to cool or not, I like all my cake straight from the oven!

BTW I haven't cheated and sprinkled icing sugar on top that's actually coconut flour.