Do you rememberWorzel Gummidge*? He was a big fan of cake and tea and I seem to remember that if formed quite an integral part of each episode. I always found the head swapping that went on a bit freaky and his nose a little too warty but would gladly have put up with all that for a slice of the delicious fruitcake he always seemed to have! There were four cakes which dominated my childhood, a particularly delicious caraway seed cake, a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, lovely rich Christmas cake (all home made by Maggie) and shop bought battenburg cake, eaten at my grandma's house. And whatever Worzel was eating on a Sunday afternoon.
I love all kinds of cake and am planning to make some butterfly cakes soon, inspired by Jane at Yarnstorm. Being a girly girl, I love cupcakes and french fancies and the like in pretty pastel colours, with sugar roses, silver balls and other tiny offerings, but there is still a place in my heart for a good old fashioned loaf cake, the kind that goes so well with a cup of tea, particularly on a chilly autumn day. This one scores a little on the 'not too bad for you' scale too as it contains bananas and prunes - pottasi-yummy! Still, it has a fair whack of butter and sugar too so maybe just two slices...
Banana, Prune and Walnut Cake
225g self raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
100g salted butter
125g dark muscovado sugar
450g very ripe bananas
2 medium sized organic free range eggs
50g walnuts (or whatever nut you like)
75g prunes, snipped into little chunks
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and baseline a 2lb loaf tin (ingredients may have gone metric but cake tins stay firmly imperial!).
Sift the flour and spice into a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter and sugar in a pan.
Peel and mash the bananas and then stir into the butter/ sugar mixture. Mix into the flour with the eggs, walnuts and prunes. You should have a slushy looking mixture with a lovely treacly, banana smell. Pour into the cake tin.
Bake in the oven for about 1 and 1/4 hours but possibly a bit longer, until a skewer or fork comes out clean. The length of baking depends on how sloppy the bananas became when you mashed them. The riper the banana the better the taste but the slower the bake if you see what I mean.
Cool a little then turn out and place on a wire rack to cool completely (if you have the willpower and if you do can you send me some please, thank you). Serve in generous slices with tea, candles and the rain lashing against the window.
I LOVED Worzel Gummidge! I didn't mind the head swapping (what a strange child!). Perhaps that was because I had read the books before seeing the tv show. Nice to remember with you!
Posted by: Kris | 16 November 2007 at 08:55 PM