Walnut Banana Cake
A dense, buttery banana cake sweetened with brown sugar and warm cinnamon, with toasted walnuts folded through. Baked in a tin until the crust is deep golden and a skewer comes out clean.
- Total
- 87 min
- Prep 15 · Cook 62 · Rest 10
- Serves
- 1
- Difficulty
- Easy
You'll practice: Folding · Toasting spices
- No rush
- Sweet
- Oven
Instructions
-
Heat the oven to 175°C. Line a 23 x 13 cm loaf tin with parchment paper, leaving a little overhang on the long sides.
~5 min
Parchment overhang lets you lift the baked cake out cleanly without greasing or inverting the tin.
-
Spread the 80 g walnuts on a small tray and toast in the oven until fragrant and lightly darkened, 6 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool, then roughly chop.
~8 min
Toasting drives off moisture and triggers Maillard browning, deepening the walnuts' flavour and crisping them.
Toasting spices Toast nuts in a single layer at moderate heat until fragrant and one shade darker. Watch closely near the end, as they burn quickly and turn bitter.
-
While step 2 cooks
While the walnuts toast, peel the 3 ripe bananas into a large bowl and mash with a fork until almost smooth, leaving a few small lumps for texture.
~5 min
Leaving lumps preserves some banana structure so the crumb stays moist rather than turning pasty.
-
Melt the 100 g butter and let it cool slightly. Stir the 150 g brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 0.5 tsp salt into the mashed bananas, then stir in the melted butter until evenly combined.
~5 min
Cooling the butter slightly prevents it from cooking the eggs, while cinnamon and salt deepen the batter's flavour.
-
Whisk the 250 g plain flour and 1 tsp baking soda in a medium bowl. Pour into the wet mixture and fold with a spatula just until no dry flour remains, then fold in the chopped walnuts. Stop as soon as the batter comes together.
~4 min
Folding just until combined limits gluten development, keeping the cake tender instead of tough and gummy.
Mash the bananas only until mostly smooth: over-mashing or over-mixing the batter develops the flour's gluten and gives a tough, gummy cake instead of a tender one.
Folding Use a spatula to cut down and lift the batter over itself until just combined. Stop the moment no dry flour remains; extra strokes develop gluten and toughen the cake.
-
Scrape the batter into the lined tin and smooth the top. Bake until the cake is deep golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out with only a few moist crumbs, 50 to 55 minutes. If the top browns too fast, lay a sheet of parchment loosely over it.
~55 min
A skewer with a few moist crumbs signals set crumb; wet batter means the centre is still raw.
If your bananas are less than fully ripe, the cake will be less sweet and less moist; the deep golden crust and clean skewer are still the cues to trust, not the clock.
-
Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then lift it out by the parchment and cool on a rack before slicing.
~10 min
Resting lets the crumb set and steam escape, so slices cleanly instead of tearing or crumbling.