Banana Crumble Cake

We had another helping of snow over the weekend, and I don’t about you but I’d already kind of had my fill of it from last time.  In fact there was still a bit of snow left on the ground last week which my Mum very ominously explained was “hanging around for more.”  Ugh.  I groaned and rolled my eyes when I ripped open the curtains on Sunday morning, but the truth is that a heavy helping of snow is a great excuse to:

1. Trudge to the local newsagent to buy “supplies” (Alllllll the chocolate).
2. Eat said supplies whilst binge-watching something (Sunny and I discovered Suits a couple of weeks ago and WE. ARE. OBSESSED.).
3. Bake some banging banana bread.

I probably wouldn’t have bothered had it not been for the snow, but I had a few manky-looking bananas sitting in the fruit bowl looking sorry for themselves and kind of needed a break from Suits (because the theme tune was ringing in my ears and I was punctuating every sentence with “God Damn it!”).  I didn’t fancy making bog-standard banana bread though, so I decided to experiment, and – sweet jesus – the end result was perhaps the best banana bake I’ve ever made.  Seriously.  Fluffy cake, crunchy crumble topping and a sweet and sticky  cinnamon drizzle.  I won’t bother making banana bread again, this will be my go to.  So I guess I can thank the surprise snow for that!

Banana Crumble Cake (with Cinnamon Drizzle)

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 250g Self Raising Flour
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 3 Ripe Bananas
• 100g Butter
• 2 Eggs
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 100ml Milk

For the Crumble:

• 50g Butter (Cold!)
• 100g Flour (plain or self raising, doesn’t matter)
• 50g Demerara Sugar
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 75g Roughly Chopped Walnuts

For the Drizzle:

• 100g Icing Sugar
• 1 tbsp Water
• 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1. Line a deep, rectangular baking dish/tray and set the oven to 180.  To make the cake, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder in one bowl then set aside.  In another bowl, roughly mash the bananas and then mix in the butter, sugar and eggs.  Next, gradually add the flour and milk – alternating between the two.  Pour the mixture into the baking tray, then set aside while you make the crumble.
2. Now for the messy bit!  In a bowl rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until the mixture looks a little bit like fine breadcrumbs.  Stir in the sugar, cinnamon and chopped walnuts.
3. Sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly over your cake batter, then bake in the oven for about 50 to 60 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean).
4. While the cake is cooling, make the drizzle.  Stir the ingredients together to make a runny icing – adding a little more water or icing sugar until you reach the right consistency. 
5. Once the cake is cool, drizzle the icing over the top and then cut into squares.  Serve warm! 🙂

Spring’s taking its sweet time this year!  Can’t wait for some warm, sunny weather! 🙂