There are so many recipes for banana breads and cakes on the web that it hardly seems worth offering up another one, but this vegan banana syrup loaf has a lot going for it.
For a start, it’s uncommonly easy and involves just seven ingredients. As long as you’re equipped with a food processor, the mixture can be assembled in a few minutes.
It’s halfway between banana bread and a golden syrup cake, making the most of both ingredients for warm banana and toffee flavours, a soft, lightly sticky texture and a rich golden colour. The riper the bananas the better.
An extra drizzle of syrup swirled through with a skewer before baking creates an excellent sticky crust. The before and after pictures below show roughly how much syrup to use and how it will turn out. For a sweeter, stickier cake, you can be more generous with the syrup, of course!
Banana Syrup Loaf…
Ingredients
- 200 g very ripe bananas
- 90 ml light olive (or other mild tasting) oil
- 110 ml golden syrup, plus extra for drizzling
- 3 tsp (1 tbsp) vanilla extract
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 190 g white/unbleached self-raising flour
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line or lightly oil a standard 2lb loaf tin.
- For the best texture, grind the coconut a bit first in a processor or grinder, to break down the shreds into a rough flour (this isn’t essential).
- Add the coconut, flour and bicarbonate of soda to a large bowl and whisk well to ensure everything is evenly combined.
- Place the bananas, oil, syrup and vanilla in a food processor or blender and blend until fairly smooth.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the banana mixture, stirring and folding as you go, until you’re sure there are no pockets of unmixed flour.
- Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the top, then drizzle more golden syrup down the middle. Use a skewer or sharp knife to draw a wave or swirls through the mixture, along the length of the cake.
- Bake for around forty minutes. It will have a dark golden top, and an inserted skewer will come out clean when it’s ready.
- Leave it to (mostly) cool before slicing. It will store for a few days in an airtight tin.
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