Banana Loaf Cake

This cake has been my staple 'healthy lunch box treat' for a couple of years now - ever since I found it in the 'Cook Yourself Thin - Quick and Easy'. It's great for those days when you feel you've eaten a few to many bakes but can't face the idea of the day without one! I've always stuck exactly true to the recipe, but this time I decided to go off-piste. The recipe calls for walnuts but, being without them, I turned to pecans. These always lend themselves to a more toffee-like flavour so I thought I'd make a few adaptions to continue this idea: the addition of chewy sultanas and the substitution of some of the light soft brown sugar for dark molasses. I also substituted half of the white flour for wholemeal - adding depth and making them that little bit healthier - I don't think this takes anything from the flavour... otherwise I wouldn't have added it, as flavour comes first of course!

Ingredients (makes 7 slices in a small loaf tin - about a 500g one if you can):

50g margarine

40g light soft brown sugar

45g mollasses/dark soft brown sugar

1 egg

150g mashed banana (peeled weight - about 2 bananas)

50g self raising wholemeal flour

50g self raising white flour

15g chopped pecans (plus about 5 halves for the top)

50g sultanas

Method:

1. Beat margarine and sugar until light and fluffy (this will take a fair bit of beating with the molasses!)
2. Beat in the egg.
3. Fold in all remaining ingredients apart from the pecan halves.
4. Grease and line a loaf tin and pour in the mix.
5. Top with the pecan halves then cook in the oven for 45mins - 1hr (check it and remove when a skewer comes out clean).
6. Remove from the tin when fairly cool, then leave on a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an air tight cake tin.

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