Banana cake with walnuts

This recipe is an update of previous ones. The process of making is a lot more work but the reward is a yummy, fluffy loaf of banana that isn't too sweet or choc a bloc with distracting/gummy bits of banana, nuts and whatever you care to put in it.

As a mildly sweet loaf, it is good to be eaten as lunch with a bit of salted butter or salted caramel spread. I ate the muffins, made with the excess batter, on its own but hubby likes to jazz up his food quite a bit hence the spreads.

This is the yummiest recipe among my many banana cake recipes. 

Makes one 8 x 3 loaf

Ingredients: 

Flour mix A : 

160g white flour

40g wholemeal flour

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

Yoke base B:

150g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

50g brown or castor sugar

1 pinch of salt (or sea salt flakes)

4 yolks

2 medium bananas, mashed

extras:

1 handful toasted walnuts, smashed to smithereens

½ handful of high cocoa content  chocolate nibs (optional)

Meringue C:

4 egg whites

50g castor sugar

Method:

Prepare a 8x3x2 inch non stick pan. If using a normal pan, grease and dust.

Sieve flours and set aside.

Whisk butter until it turns pale.

Whisk in sugar and salt.

Add yolks , one at a time, until the batter looks homogenous.

Whisk in mashed banana, walnuts and chocolate, one component at a time.

Whisk in prepared flours, in 3 or 4 portions.

Separately, whisk the  egg whites until coarse foam forms.

In a steady stream, whisk in the castor sugar until whites is about to  stiff peaks.

Note: Stop whisking when stiff peaks form or else the meringue will appear dry and hard to fold.

At this stage, preheat the oven to 180C, with a low rack.

Scoop ⅓ of the meringue into the yolk batter and folk to loosen the batter.

Fold in the rest of the meringue until batter is homogenous.

Expect the batter to be thick but light in texture.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, leaving 1-2 cm clearance from the top.

Any excess, transfer to a muffin tin.

Bake in the preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes until top is tanned and skewer pierced into the center of the loaf comes out clean (sans melted chocolate)

Cool on a rake. When the pan is cool to the touch, remove the cake to cool further.