Banana Loaf

A squidgy banana-ry loaf that will go down well at home with a cup of coffee for breakfast or hold it's own at a social gathering (our church coffee morning!)

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 100  g butter
• 5  ounces light muscovado sugar
• 2  large eggs
• 2  ripe bananas, mashed (about 1lb in weight)
• 50  g pecans, roughly chopped
• 50  g raisins
• 150  ml buttermilk
• 280  g plain flour
• 1  teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 50  g icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C Fan or 180°C conventional or gas 4. Butter a 20 x 13cm loaf tin and line the base4 with greaseproof paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time (don’t worry if the mixture looks curdled). Stir in the mashed bananas, pecans, raisins and buttermilk.
3. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda on top of the banana mixture then fold in until evenly mixed, taking care not to over mix. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the top.
4. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until a skewer pushed in the centre comes out almost, but not quite, dry. Remove from the oven and leave for about 10 minutes, then turn it out of the tin on to a cooling rack to cool.
5. For the icing, mix the icing sugar with 2-3 tsp cold water to give a smooth, runny consistency. Using a dessertspoon, drizzle the icing in lines across the loaf.