Bonkers for bananas!

This is my all time favourite go to banana bread recipe because it's sugar free, uses olive oil instead of butter and comes out super moist and soft. This is definitely more a banana 'bread' than banana 'cake' but feel free to use 1/2 of brown sugar instead of honey if you prefer a sweeter banana bread. If I'm making this to share with friends then I'll usually use sugar instead of honey. 

I find this banana "bread" (we all know it's cake) recipe to be the easiest thing to whip up and there's minimal washing up.

Ingredients
- 1 3/4 self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1/3 cup of honey or maple syrup or 1/2 cup of brown sugar if you prefer it sweeter
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil 
- 2 mashed bananas
- 2 peaches (diced). Optional

Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Mix the dry ingredients. 
- In a seperate bowl, mix the remaining ingredients together and add to the dry ingredients.
- Mix well with a spatula and pour into a lined loaf tin.
- Bake for 50 - 55 minutes until cooked.
- Allow to cool before slicing.
- Easy :D

There's a cake cooker function on my rice cooker and I've always wanted to try it out so I made my first rice cooker cake a few days ago. It turned out fine but I left the cake in the rice cooker so the cake deflated ALOT. Next time, I'll be taking the cake out of the rice cooker immediately after it's cooker so the cake wont deflate. The cake took 70 minutes to cook in the rice cooker under the cake function. 

What's the difference between a baked banana bread and a rice cooker banana bread?
The rice cooker version is much easier to wash up :p
However, I prefer the baked version as the crust is harder whereas the rice cooker version is quite soft and chewy. 

Happy baking!
xoxo

Honey, where's the sugar?

I love to bake but since there's only two of us at home, most of my cakes find their way to the parents and in-laws. With all of them becoming increasingly health conscious, I've begun experimenting with healthier alternatives. They're so healthy, even Sugar gets an occasional sweet treat!

One of my favourite cakes which I have been baking weekly is a sugar and gluten free almond teacake. 

Ingredients
-1 1/2cups of almond meal
-4 eggs (seperated) 
- 1/2 cups of honey (can be substituted with maple syrup)
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- honey to drizzle on top

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees. 
- Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer till they're foamy.
- In a seperate bowl, mix the remaining ingredients together on low.
- Gently fold half the egg whites to the other ingredients till incorporated then fold in the remaining egg whites.
- Pour into a round and lined cake tin.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes till cooked.
- Once cooked, use a skewer to poke holes all over the cake and drizzle over the honey whilst still warm so it soaks into the cake. Leave to cool completely before cutting. 

I've also made versions where I added goji berries, inca berries or shredded coconut to the mixture prior to baking. You can adjust the amount of honey depending on how sweet you like your cakes. I prefer them less sweet because I don't feel as guilty eating more :p 

Happy baking!!
xoxo