Friday, January 22, 2010

Banana Sponge Cake

I got a bunch of bananas in the fridge that has ripen to a point where the skin has turned black *LOL* Desperately looking for something to make use of it and finally settled for this sponge cake. The banana sponge is adapted from Richard Goh's recipe and I love it alot because it is really spongey without having to use any emulsifier. To my surprise, it also yields a pretty big cake with only 3 eggs.

You can see how spongey the cake is. This is from the big cake which is 8x3inch round cake pan.

This is the cakelet version of it. The batter could not fit into the 8x3inch round pan.



Banana Sponge Cake (9" cake)
Ingredients
3 eggs (55g-60g each preferably room temperature)
120g sugar (original 150g)
290g banana, mashed (original 200g, I used about 4 delmonte size bananas)
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
100g oil

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170 degree C
2. Grease and line a 9" round tin (do not grease the sides. Just the bottom will do)
3. Whisk eggs, sugar & banana at max speed till stiff or double in volume (if your eggs are a bit cold, it will take a longer time to get it stiff. But just keep mixing it)
4. Add in sifted flour and gently fold it well by hand or spatula
5. Take about 1/3 of the batter and add into the oil and mix till the oil blends into the batter
6. Pour oil mixture into the 2/3 of the batter and gently mix well till well incorporated
7. Bake for 40 - 45mins or till skewers comes out clean

32 comments:

tracieMoo said...

it looks really moist! I love banana cakes. They are the best cakes ever!

SINCITY said...

Good mrng!!

U think i can subsitute oil for butter or margarine and btw. 100g is around how many ML please?

Im new in baking and wud lurve to try dis recipe, please help!!

Many thanks!
Sarah

Zurynee said...

Yes TracieMoo, I love banana cakes too :-)

Sarah, yes you can sub the oil with butter or margarine but it will cover the taste of the bananas a little bit though :-)

100g is about 120ml around there :-)

HTH
Zu

SINCITY said...

Dear Zu,

thanks so mch for d prompt reply!!
I will try dis and let u know of outcome and post it on my blog okies!! heheheh....

Warmest Regards,
Sarah

Anonymous said...

Hi Zu!
I'm back n sg permanently :P
any recommendations where to head in order to buy a good oven? what ur fav oven maker? thanks.

Zurynee said...

oh you back for good? tat means we can meet up yeah ;-)

Mine is a built in oven and the brand is Indesit from Mayer. Ariston is very popular but seriously get a good brand oven because most of them are very reliable. Table top oven, you can check out Rowenta or Tefal. For me, my dream would be to own a professional standalone range :-P

jlam said...

Thanks for the recipe!

My cake shrank in volume after it was baked and cooling, would adding cream of tartar into the batter prevent that? If so, how much do you recommend and when should I add it?

thks.

Zurynee said...

If you really need to add cream of tartar, I would say about 1/4tsp. The cake should not shrink too much. Alternatively, you can omit greasing the sides of the baking pan and just lined the pan. Also, make sure that the oven is not too hot.

HTH
Zu

boadicea3011 said...

judie: just something to share from past experiences in making something similar..

quote "Method 3: Whisk eggs, sugar & banana at max speed till stiff or double in volume..."

u can actually try this next time.
- whisk eggs at max speed ~1min
- add sugar, whisk till double in size
- add mashed bananas, mix with a spatula instead of an electric mixer

eggs are difficult to handle if one is not as professional as zu :P

zu: sori eh potong jalan..

boadicea3011 said...

that professional standalone range... name a few please. can cari chance to buy new one, wohoo! :P

will be looking at Baby Belling soon.

Zurynee said...

No problem boadicea3011, but I am no professional :-)

As for professional free standing cookier, Ariston has one. Check out www.mayer.com.sg

Have fun !
Zu

triy said...

hi Zu,

I tried this banana cake recipe, but it became banana kueh instead. Must be because i missed your instruction on not to grease the sides of the pan. Nonetheless, it's delicious. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Zu,

I´m a silent reader of yr wonderful blog. I just can´t help it but to let u know how grateful I am that u share this recipe. I hv since made this banana spongecake 5 times n it´s definately on my fav list :) Many thanks for sharing it with us.

cheers
purplegirl

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro said...

I love your blog! It's got good pictures and recipes on mostly Singapore food, which being a Singaporean abroad (in Sweden), I find irresistible.

Cheryl

Anonymous said...

Hi Zu,

You've mentioned to line the 9" round tin. Do I need to line the side of the tine or just the bottom of the tin will do? Pls enlighten as I am beginner to baking.hehe..
Thanks...
Meg

Zurynee said...

You are welcome purplegirl, glad that you like it :-)

Thanks for dropping by Cheryl :-)

Hi Meg, you just need to line the bottom and do not need to grease the sides :-)

Zu

媽媽阿四 said...

Hi Zu,

My cake didn't rise much - could it be because I didn't beat the bananas with the eggs? (I did beat the eggs+sugar till very stiff, but then just stirred in the bananas gently.)

Well it still tasted very yummy though! thanks
:)

- Ah4

Mel said...

Hi Zu

Thanks for sharing this recipe =). I tried baking the cake today and it turns out ok except that it is abit too soft and moist (Very difficulty to cut the cake and its abit sticky). I'm wondering if I need to add a bit more baking soda as the quantity of banana is 290g. For sponge cake, have I got to invert the tin as in chiffon cake, and wait till the cake has cooled before taking it out of the tin?
Would appreciate your advise.Thanks

Mel

Zurynee said...

Hi Mel,

You should bake it a little bit longer. It looks like the cake is alittle bit underbaked. For sponge cake, sometimes I invert sometimes I dont :-P But it is best to invert to give it a nice height.

HTH
Zu

Mel said...

Hi Zu,

Thanks for the quick reply ^^. Do you mean even when the cake is cooked, it still have to remain inside the oven for another few mins? I checked with a satay stick and it came out clean. It drop out of the tin when I inverted it. (I'm using a non stick pan and didn't grease the side just the base. Weird, it just pop out. lol)

Zurynee said...

Hi Mel,

It looks like the cake is still wet since it comes out when you inverted the pan. Usually when I check my cake with a skewer, I will touch it to see if it feels sticky even if it comes out clean. You may want to bake it a bit longer but cover the top with foil to prevent over browning. I also check the sides of the cake. If it comes of the sides alittle bit, it means you can take it out.

HTH
Zu

mel said...

Hi Zu,

Thanks once again for the quick reply. Will take note of these pointers when I do my 2nd baking =)

Have a nice weekend.^^

Mel

Ana said...

Hi boadicea3011,

Saw that you wrote abt baby belling and i've been looking for it for sometime, do you know where to buy coz i cant seem to find it?

Unknown said...

Hi Zu,

My cake didn't rise much, which step did i go wrong?
But it taste very yummy! My kids loved it!

Zurynee said...

Hi Shirleyhoo,

It could be due to a few reasons:

1. Sugar+eggs did not emulsified enough
2. Over folding of the batter when you added the flour

Also, do not grease the sides of the pan but if you do, make sure to flour it too. This is to allow the cake to climb better. Once the cake is bake, you may want to invert the pan to minimise collapse. I also bake at the lowest rack so that it will rise nicely.

HTH

Squareface said...

Hi Zu,

Thanks for this recipe. I love banana cakes! I tried baking it just now, but sadly it didn't rise much and turned out to be a bit too moist. I didn't have any baking soda so I used self-raising flour instead. Is this the reason why it failed to turn out okay? Where can I get baking soda? I couldn't find it in NTUC, they only have baking powder. Also I use cream honey instead of sugar to make it a healthier version, could this be an issue why it failed to turn out right as well?
Thanks so much for your time,
Ruth

Zurynee said...

Hi Ruth,

You can get baking soda from supermarkets. Ntuc does carry it but maybe it was out of stock? Shop N Save, cold storage and even small shops do have it. However, you can still use self raising flour without any problem. You need to use sugar to incorporate more air into the eggs so that it will whip nicely to double the volume. You can replace white sugar to brown sugar too. Bake it a bit longer if you find it too moist. Alternatively, you can separate the eggs and do the chiffon method.

Zu

Unknown said...

Omg wow this recipe is solo yummy that half hr after coming out the oven its gone :( but will definitely make it again I've made banana cake before but using butter it tastes so much better with oil,
Highly recommend this recipe :)

joey said...

may u know the egg is all the way beating with high speed?hw to test it already reach stiff peak.the banana mash with fork before add to mixture to beat it?can u explain the folding technique to me? then im done with just 7inch pan it rise at begining then gradualy shrink d.when i unmould it the bottom there shrink to inside,the top is flat.may i know wat are the reason,i try many times also like tis way..

joey said...

hi,msy i know after it become double in volume isit stil can see bubbles there?how to test it already done?i beat till the trail didnt dissapear am i overbeat it?can u teach how to folding the flour?i always mix till the batter deflate and the flour not mix evenly.isit use bigger spatula work better?when folding need to move the mixng bowl also?what type of mixing bowl suitable for making this kind of cake?

Zurynee said...

Hi Joey,

You can view this video on how to fold it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqG7phdGY04

Zurynee said...

Hi Joey,

This video will give you and idea how much you need to whisk the egg. Take note of the consistency. it should be like lava like consistency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhC_Nav-514