Banana used to be very expensive - when my mother was growing up in Japan, that is... (Now, you can buy bananas almost anywhere in the world, and they are not exactly super expensive fruits.) She had to get sick so that her parents feel sorry and buy her a banana. It was so exotic, exclusive, and she didn't mind getting sick, because of banana... - I don't think my grandma would have approved that, but at least, that was my mother's opinion.
Anyway, when she grew up, got married to my father, "status of banana" had somehow changed, and they were inexpensive, and she was in banana paradise! She could buy bananas as often as she wanted. As a result, I was overfed with bananas. She gave me banana for snack, froze banana and made me eat as Popsicle (please refer to the article: Banana popsicle), and she baked banana cake. Sometimes I feel that I have eaten enough share of my banana of my life.
Due to the fact of growing up in a different circumstances, my husband has slightly different opinion about banana. And he happens to love banana cake.
We buy bananas like everyone else, but when there are only two left, he just leave them on the kitchen counter as if they are invisible. I believe this is his "smart move" because he knows that when bananas get too ripen, I bake banana cake (and he knows exactly how many very ripen bananas I need!)
So, despite the long introduction, recipe is quite simple.
Ingredients: (this makes two loaf of banana cakes.)
125 g butter softened in room temperature
150 g brown sugar
2 eggs
200 g flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbs cinnamon
2 very ripen banana
1/2 cup sour cream, or crème fraîche, or vanilla yoghurt (use what you have in fridge.)
Directions:
1) Heat up oven at 180 C degree with fan, and grease the cake form.
2) Mix flour, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl. Shift for a few times.
3) Beat butter with electric mixer
4) Add brown sugar, and keep beating until fluffy.
5) Add egg one by one. By the time both eggs are well beaten into the batter, its texture is "creamy."
6) Add flour mixture into butter mixture and mix with spoon only until blended.
Tips: When baking soda comes in contact with acid (in this case, sour cream, crème fraîche, or yoghurt) it would start giving out bubbles of carbon dioxide. Thus, it's important to mix quickly and start baking right away.
7) Bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Prick with knife, BBQ stick or bamboo stick. If it comes out clean, it's done.
8) Let it cool. If you are not to eat them right away, you can freeze it!