As you're probably totally aware, Wednesday marks International Banana Day, a time for us to celebrate one of my personal favourite fruits. I would say I probably eat a banana every day, and I'm definitely not alone.
According to Stats NZ, New Zealanders are very fond of the yellow fruit, getting through 18kg of bananas each every year.
There could be worse things - bananas are a fantastic source of fibre, potassium and protein.
However most of us wouldn't think twice about chucking away the skins - they're the part you absolutely don't eat, right?
WRONG.
Apparently banana skins are also great used in smoothies, chutneys, and curries, and can also be candied.
They can be used as a fertisiler for the garden and even used to polish silverware.
And in this case, they case, they can be baked into a cake.
Banana peel sticky upside down cake. Serves 6.
Ingredients
- 6 ripe bananas
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 120g unsalted butter, softened
- 200g brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g self-raising flour, sifted
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Toffee Sauce
- 125g unsalted butter
- 1 cup lightly packed dark-brown sugar
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170ºc and line a 22cm cake tin with baking paper, greasing the sides (if you are using a loose-bottomed pan, place a folded sheet of foil around the base in case some of the maple syrup leaks)
- Pour maple syrup into the base of the pan. Slice 3 bananas in half lengthways and layer them, cut-side down.
- For the cake, rinse the remaining 3 bananas under cold water, cut off ends then blend banana and skins together in a food processor.
- Beat butter and sugar until thick and pale. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla, then fold in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon.
- Fold in bananas and pour the batter over bananas in pan. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Meanwhile for the toffee sauce, combine butter, sugar, and cream in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium (so sauce doesn't boil over) and boil, stirring frequently, until sauce thickens and darkens slightly, about 4 minutes.
- Once cake is cooked. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins before turning out onto a plate.
- Pierce hot cake all over with a skewer, then drizzle over half the sauce.
Best served warm but also delicious at room temperature.
Recipe courtesy of Dole and Gretchen Lowe (My Weekend Table)
Newshub.
