…can it really be the longest day? I try hard to avoid the thought, put into words on TV this morning, ‘Well, it’s all down hill from now on!’ Nooooo…

But I’m getting excited now. This weekend We are off to the the South Coast, near the New Forest, to stay for the weekend. It will be a family party, to include little boys – and Higgins – so it’s going to be fun! And as it’s an early birthday celebration for me, I am, wait for it … not allowed to do any cooking !!!  WOW!  (I’m just hoping that doesn’t mean I have to do all the washing up!)

But, I’m sure that doesn’t mean I can’t slip a cake or two into the coolbox to take with us, and I do have a banana problem.  Why do they apparently leave the shop green, and within the space of (it seems) a day they look like this?

But I have my trusty Michael Barry recipe to help out on these occasions…

(You can always tell a good recipe book by it’s disgusting appearance and grease splattered pages.  This one is twenty years old and some pages have to be prised apart…oh dear!)

However, I will pass my version this banana-y goodness on to you to use if you are ever similarly affected by a glut of squidgy-ness.

Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4, 350 deg F (180C)

8oz (225g) SR Flour

4oz (100g) butter

5oz (150g) golden granulated sugar

1lb (450g) bananas (the gooier the better, peeled and
mashed)

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

100g Silver Spoon chocolate chips
Method

Mix all the ingredients except the chocolate chips together, in a food mixer or by hand in a bowl with an electric whisk.  When it’s thoroughly mixed, add the chocolate chips. Pour into a 2lb loaf tin,  I line it with a strip of baking parchment, and bake for between an hour and an hour and a half.  The loaf is done when a skewer pushed into it comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

The chocolate chips are a real indulgence, I often use up ends of bags of assorted dried fruits, cherries, nuts  in this recipe and you could add some mixed spice, no two cakes are ever the same!  It keeps well too, if it’s allowed to!