This recipe was in a liftout booklet from the Women’s Weekly back in October 1991. It’s another take on the old bread and butter pudding with the twist being fruit loaf and banana instead of plain old white bread and butter.
This is a bit of a twist on the usual carrot cake. No eggs needed and a great way to use up very ripe bananas, which is always useful.
Some people might argue that this is a summer recipe, but others, like my father, would disagree. He enjoyed a bowl of ice cream every night – summer or winter.
Thel was one of Mum’s golfing friends and a very good cook, there’s a few of her recipes scattered throughout Mum’s collection. This banana pudding would have appealed to Mum as she and Dad both liked bananas, there were always some in the fruit bowl. This pudding would have been a good way to use up those that had ripened just a little too much.
SPICED BANANA PUDDING
Sift flour, baking powder and salt, add half the sugar. Fold in beaten egg mixed with milk and melted butter. Pour into greased slab tin, top with banana slices, brush with extra melted butter. Mix balance of sugar with orange rind and cinnamon, sprinkle over bananas. Bake in mod oven 30-35 mins. Serve hot or cold with cream or ice cream.
As you can see this recipe comes from a publication called WOMAN and is dated November 12, 1951. Must admit I’ve never heard of the magazine, but fruit crumbles have been around for a long, long time so it’s not surprising this recipe dates back that far. The difference with this recipe is that it uses bananas mixed in with the apples and I think that would taste great, especially with a little ice cream or cream on top.
I think the comments that go with this recipe that Mum cut out of the newspaper make it sound somewhat unusual “economical, keeps for ages and can be made as a cake”. Worth a try maybe?
As you can see this recipe comes from one of Mum’s original handwritten notebooks. It’s hard to read so I’ve rewritten in out down below. These days there’s lots and lots of different Banana Cake recipes, but this old one was way before you could buy sour cream, so you had to make your own sour milk by adding lemon juice to warm milk. Easy to do and it makes a lovely moist cake.
This is another use for ripe bananas, they change the basic pikelet mix into something that doesn’t need the jam and cream topping. They would be good for afternoon teas, suppers or even the kids lunchboxes.
We always had bananas in the fruit bowl and I suspect Mum made banana fritters when there were a few too many ripe ones left. I think her original recipe was simply the bananas chopped into a sweet batter mix, but these ones have a few other added ingredients which would add to the flavour.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 