While bribery
is very much to be frowned on, I have found that working in financial services,
cake can go a long way. Yes, teams
powered by sugar are more productive and having checked on the Financial
Conduct Authorities website, I look like being a ‘cake pusher’ hasn't been regulated out of existence.
That said, I
personally hate fiddly recipes and don’t like sweet things but my suggestion of
making a nice lasagne was turned down so I headed into the kitchen, committed
to keeping my cool. I chose to make a
Banana Ginger loaf as not only did it look good and I had most of the ingredients
but the recipe looked simple as it only had 4 steps. It also came from a book that my Nan gave me and having worked on the radars on the Orkney isles in the war, I suspect she was rather a low-faff cook too.
Excited by the
simplicity, I decided to make double the batter so I could spread the love
(i.e. sugary bribery) far and wide!
Banana
Ginger Loaf [makes one large loaf]
300g plain flour
4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed allspice
2 ½ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
200g soft butter
200g soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
6 medium well ripened bananas (mashed)
120ml milk
2tbsp golden syrup
4 tbsp chopped crystalised ginger
You start by sifting the flour, ginger, mixed allspice,
baking powder and salt into a bowl. This
provides your upper arms with an excellent work out and the ability to cover
all surfaces in your kitchen with a light dusting of ‘snow’.
Then add butter, brown sugar and eggs to the
ingredients and beat thoroughly until well blended. Sadly, this is when it started to go off track
as I soon realise that a) there was a heck of a lot of batter in the bowl b) my
bowl is a lot smaller than I remembered. After all these years, I can admit that size does apparently matter.
Grabbing a cider (for inspiration) and my biggest
pot, I began the ‘exciting’ task of slopping one gloopy mess into another dish. My ladylike credentials buggered off at this
point and I confess the loaf was not only made with love but certain levels of
profanity.
Covered in flour and cross, I then added the
bananas, milk and syrup to the mixture before adding the finely chopped
ginger. Pouring the mixture on myself
and my kitchen I wrestled it into two greased loaf tins (10 x 28 cm) and muffin
tin sheet. There is a lot of mixture
which really does keep on giving.
Put into oven at 160 C or 325 F for about 45 to 60
minutes – turning the temperature lower if the top gets too brown. Remove from the oven and turn out once it has
cooked slightly. Avoid burning yourself – as I did – and present
proudly to colleagues as ‘just a little something’ that I whisked up over the
weekend in one of my minor domestic goddess moments.
Would I recommend that other low-faff bakers try
it? Definitely, if I hadn’t had size
issues, it probably would have been far easier and for a relatively simple recipe
it delivered a very moreish spicy banana ginger punch that even I liked
L x
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