Banana Sponge Cake

I got no intention to bake a banana cake but was happen to saw a branch of ripe banana on the kitchen table. The yellow skin start to appear with black dot which mean is quite ripe.

Ripe banana is best to use it to bake a banana cake. I found a recipe from happyhomebaking, which is quite a healthy one. The ingredients use oil instead of butter.

This is not the kind of rich and buttery banana cake but the texture is spongy, soft and light. I don't feel so guilty when I ate 2 slice at a go for breakfast.

I made a mistake, which I underbaked the cake and I didn't know after tasting time. The bottom and outer area are perfectly fine and cooked. The uncooked is on the top centre area.

I tend the cake in the middle of baking because the top area start to brown and I afraid it will burn if I let it bake without tend with a foil. After 40 minute of baking, I used the toothpick and check the cake by inserted toothpick at the side (outer area) and it come out clean but I did not check the centre area. The cake look perfectly fine with a glace on it. A lesson learned, I should do a thoroughly check at different area.

Recipe source: http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.sg/2011/04/my-latest-endeavour.html

Ingredients:
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 120g caster sugar (original recipe uses 150g)
- 250g to 300g bananas (3 large ripened bananas, cut into chunks)
- 150g cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 80ml vegetable oil (original recipe uses 100ml)
- 20ml milk (I used low fat fresh milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Methods:

1. Grease (with butter) and flour sides of an 8" round pan, line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Sieve together cake flour, baking powder and baking soda. Sieve the flour mixture twice and set it aside.
3. Place vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl, set aside.
4. Place eggs, caster sugar and bananas in a large mixing bowl. With an electric whisk, whisk the mixture at Low speed for a few seconds (to break up the bananas). Change to medium-high speed, and whisk the mixture till it becomes thick, pale and triple in volume. This should take around 7 to 8 mins. The batter should leave a ribbon like trail when the paddle is lifted. Test by lifting up the whisk/paddle, and draw an '8' with the batter. The number should stay for a few seconds. Turn to Low speed again, and beat for another 2 mins. This is to stablise the air bubbles in the batter. (Note: do not over beat the batter, it is not a good thing if the '8' doesn't disappear.)
5. Sieve over the flour mixture in 3 separate additions. Each time Fold In the flour carefully with a Spatula, making sure there is no pockets of flour being trapped at the bottom of the bowl. Do not stir the batter with the spatula, it will cause the batter to deflate too much.
6. Pour a small portion (less than 1/3) of the batter into the mixing bowl in Step 3. Fold in with the spatula until the oil mixture is fully incorporated into the batter.
7. Pour the mixture in Step 6 back into the rest of the batter (Step 5). 
8. Fold in the batter with the spatula making sure the mixture is well combined. (By now the batter could be deflated by about 20% or so as compared to Step 4).
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, the pan should be about 3/4 full. 
10. Bake in preheated oven at 160 degC for 40-45mins or until the surface turns golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. (The edges of the cake should pull away slightly from the sides of the pan.) Remove from oven, unmold and leave to cool (inverted) on a cooling rack.