Rustic Banana Walnut Cake (Eggless)

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This is a cake I’ve been making for many many years now and it never fails to get polished off in a day. It’s definitely not a perfect looking cake inside but has a rustic, homemade appearance with the baking soda and yoghurt combination making the edges and corners of the cake a slightly chewy darker brown. Thats actually the most delicious part.

The eggless recipe gives it a moist texture with the overripe bananas contributing to that further, giving it a lovely caramelly taste. Be sure to try to use overripe bananas here. You can use the seriously overripe ones with black skin that you would otherwise be throwing out into the trash. The more ripe the bananas, the more complex a flavour you’ll get. 

This cake takes a bit longer to cook because of the general level of moistness so don’t be worried if you have it sitting in the oven for more than an hour. Mine takes about 1 hour 10 minutes in my oven to be perfectly cooked but every oven is different, so just follow my instructions on the recipe. Don’t be worried about the darker bits. Thats the yummiest part! Eat the cake warm. It’s the best then. There’s no cinnamon or other flavouring here as I just wanted the banana flavour to stand out and that comes most with overripe ones. 

Ingredients

3 overripe large bananas
2½ cups flour
2½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1½ cups sugar – powdered 
⅔ cup oil 
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract (optional. Not used here)
100 gms walnuts roughly chopped

Get Started (Pictorial steps below)

  • Line a 9 inch diameter or square baking tin with butter paper/parchment paper and oil the sides of the tin. 
  • Preheat your oven to 180°C with only the bottom heating rods turned on. 
  • Mash the bananas in a bowl nicely. 
  • In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  • Add the sugar to the oil in another bowl and mix till they combine well and the sugar dissolves a bit. I’ve found this gives it a lovely smooth texture and better taste. 
  • Now add the bananas and the oil and sugar mix to the flour. Fold the batter well. It will become a bit lumpy. Then mix the yoghurt and water together and add it to the batter. Fold well. Don’t mix too vigorously as the gluten in the flour will make the cake very heavy. 
  • Pour the batter into the lined baking tin and bake in the centre rack of the oven for an hour and 10 minutes. Yes this does take a while as the batter is a bit dense because there is no egg to give an extra lift to the cake. 
  • Insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean, your cake is done. if there’s still batter on the cake, keep it for another 10 minutes and test with the skewer again. 
  • Once the skewer comes out clean, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool. After it has cooled, run a sharp knife along the edge of the cake to loosen it from the sides of the tin.
  • Flip the cake over on to a plate, remove the butter paper from the bottom and place the cake upright on a serving dish. Enjoy it warm. 
  • You can store the leftover cake in an airtight container in the fridge in summer. Heat the cake for 30 seconds in a micro before eating again. In winter, you can leave it out for a couple of days in an airtight container.

Important Notes: I only use the heating rods at the bottom of my oven for baking my cakes. If you have an oven where you don’t have the option of turning the rods on the top off you can place an oven tray between the rod and the cake. I don’t use ovens which have only heating from the top. 

The most important thing to note when baking is to Know Your Oven. Every oven behaves differently. There have been cakes that have called for 40 minutes of baking time and mine has taken an hour. This knowledge is critical for your baking success.

Don’t use anything less than a 9 inch baking tin as this is a large cake. If you’re using 2 tins, then adjust the baking time of the cake. It will take less time to cook. So check on it after 40 minutes. Only remove the cake when the skewer comes out clean.

Pictorial Steps

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