Little monkey's happy banana loaf
Bananas could help you to feel happier as they contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to promote relaxation and improve mood. A low sugar banana loaf is what everyone needs as a treat now and again. The cinnamon gives the loaf a deceptive sweetness to taste and the banana is well just banana to taste. The loaf is reasonably moist and crumbly at the same time. In actual fact it is also low in fat too made with only 90g of butter. A 1/16 of a loaf or half an adults portion contains around 10g of refined sugar, roughly the same amount as shop bought baby sweet bar treats. Zahara really really liked this cake yesterday and could have probably have eaten a whole adults portion – but I obviously didn't let her!
Ingredients
90g unsalted butter
2 tbsp honey (agave nectar if under 1)
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup caster sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup of mashed banana
1 ½ cup self raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp bicarbonate soda
1 tbsp milk
Method
1. Grease a approx. 20cm loaf tin and line base with grease proof paper. Preheat oven to fan 180C.
2. Cream butter, honey and sugar by beating with an electric mixer. Beat in egg.
3. Stir through banana.
4. Stir through sifted dry ingredients along with milk.
5. Spoon into loaf tin and cook for around 40 mins – the cake will turn a dark golden colour on top and a fork will come out clean (no cake mixture stuck to it) when spiked.
Tips
This is a really easy cake to make with a toddler. It's keeps for 72 hours in an air tight container. Ideally for a baby older than a year due to sugar content, and also they need a good pincer grip to handle chunk bite size pieces - the cake is too crumberly for hand grabbing finger shaped pieces.
Facts
The banana is, in fact, not a tree but a high herb that grows up to 15 metres. Bananas could help you to feel happier as they contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to promote relaxation and improve mood.