The Ultimate Banana Cake with Passionfruit Honey Frosting

• 250g butter, at room temperature
• 1½ cups raw sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large, very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ½ cup hot milk
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

 Passionfruit Honey Frosting

• 100g butter, at room temperature
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp passionfruit pulp or lemon juice
• 3 cups icing sugar

Preheat oven to 160°C fanbake. Grease a 23cm-diameter springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper. 

Beat together butter, sugar and honey until creamy. Add eggs, vanilla and bananas, beating hard for 2-3 minutes. The mixture will look quite separated.

Dissolve baking soda in hot milk and add to mixture. Gently stir in flour and baking powder until just combined (do not over-mix). Spoon into prepared tin and smooth top. Bake until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the top bounces back when pressed (60-70 minutes). Cool in tin, then turn out and ice.

To make Passionfruit Honey Frosting beat together butter, honey, vanilla, passionfruit or lemon and icing sugar until light and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Spread evenly over the cooled cake. Store iced or uniced cake in a sealed container in a cool place for 2-3 days or freeze. If desired, drizzle with extra passionfruit pulp just before serving. 

Variations

To make four small cakes instead of one big one, use 10cm tins (recycled large tuna cans are perfect – look for cans that don't have a plastic coating inside) and bake for 45-55 minutes. 

To make muffins simply divide the mixture between 12 muffin tins and cook for about 20 minutes.

This recipe is from my book The Free Range Cook: Through the Seasons