sugar-free banana bread recipe

I was recently talking to some bloggers about authenticity in blogging - and to cut a long story short, the way I would describe it is this; some bloggers tell you that they make a recipe, following it to the letter. They sieve the flour, let the eggs sit at room temperature over night, they use the five or six different bowls required, weigh everything to the the .99th of a gram, and never lick the spoon. I am not one of those bloggers. I admit to you, freely, that I never sieve my flour, create as little cleaning up as possible, and always lick the spoon (and before you start on about raw eggs, just pipe down). Basically, I know baking is a science, blah blah blah, but my mother was a chemist, and this is how she raised me. Mother knows best, and all.

This is all rather a long tangent, but I thought you'd like that little analogy, and I thought I would show you my most recent favourite 'throw it all in and shove it in the oven', recipe. Sugar-free banana bread! Banana-anything is my vice, I've heard tell of people that exist that don't like bananas, and I wonder how do you live? What do you put in smoothies? How do you fuel yourself before a run? What do you smother with cream and chocolate sauce and place on a waffle and tell yourself it is healthy because it has fruit in? I'm going off on a tangent again, aren't I? Onto the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
- 125g self-raising wholemeal flour;
- 1/2 tsp baking powder,
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon;
- 75g sultanas;
- 50g butter, melted;
- 2 tsp vanilla essence;
- 1 egg;
- 1 tbsp milk;
- 3 ripe bananas, mashed.

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a small tin with baking parchment.
2. In a large, microwavable bowl, melt your butter in the microwave. Add the vanilla essence, egg, milk and mashed banana.  Mix until everything is mixed together well.
3. Add in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon) and sultanas and mix well with a wooden spoon.
4. Pour into the lined cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin and then turn out.

Adapted from this BBC Good Food recipe for banana cake (adapted in that their recipe was incredibly badly worded!).

A few notes about this little recipe, it only makes a small amount, but the cake itself is quite a dense one, so I find that I don't get through it very quickly, so don't be fooled into doubling the recipe (like I did once!) unless you've got a lot of people coming over. Obviously, you can also forgo the sultanas if you don't like them, but I place you people in the same category as those that don't like bananas: mad.

I find it's at it's peak when eaten warm from the oven with a bit of butter, or toasted for breakfast with a glass of milk. The brown flour takes some getting used to, but it leaves me feeling full and without that awkward bloated feeling that I get from eating white flour, so I'm pleased with that, too.

Essentially, this cake is really good I'm really pleased to have found this recipe, and its going in my repertoire for future use!