Banana cake with lemon icing

From: Like Grandma Used to Make

Serves: 10
Yield: 1 cake
Ready in: 1 hour 10 mins (20 mins prep - 50 mins cook)

Ingredients for banana cake with lemon icing

For the Cake:
140 g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 ripe, medium bananas, mashed well with a fork

For the Icing:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
Strained juice of 1–2 lemons

Preparation method for banana cake with lemon icing

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Melt the butter gently in a small saucepan, then cool a little. Add the sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Sift the dry ingredients into a wide bowl and pour in the butter mixture. Stir everything together, adding the mashed bananas; do not overmix or beat the batter.

Turn the mixture into a lightly buttered 6-cup ring tin and bake for 30 minutes. The cake should be browned, slightly shrinking from the sides of the tin and a skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean.

To make the lemon icing, put the icing sugar in a bowl and add enough lemon juice to make it a barely pourable consistency. Spread over the cooled cake and leave to set.

Variations for banana cake with lemon icing

*Banana and Orange Cake: Add the grated zest of 1 large orange to the banana cake batter. Substitute the juice of 1–2 oranges for the lemon juice in the icing.

*Banana and Coconut Cake: Add 1/2 cup desiccated coconut to the banana cake batter. Sprinkle the icing, before it sets, with toasted desiccated or shredded coconut.

*Banana Muffins: The banana cake batter can also be used for muffins. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Lightly butter 12 deep muffin tins (or line with bought paper cases) and pour in the batter. Cook for 12–15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out on a wire rack. When cool, spread with lemon icing.

*The cake can also be topped with lime icing. Simply substitute the juice of 3 limes for the lemon juice when preparing the icing.