Banana Crumble Cake

Both my hubby and I are dessert people - we love sweets and can have them anytime, anywhere. That's one of the reasons that I try and make my baked goodies a little healthier, I suppose... 

Banana Cake is amongst our favourites. This time, we had friends over for a coffee and I wanted to add a little special element to my usual banana cake - so I added this crumble topping, and it turned out to be an excellent idea. Not only did both of us love it, but also the friends. My hubby even asked me to make it again, and, that's definitely music to my ears :-)

The Cake is really light, soft and an absolute melt in the mouth and the crumble topping is indeed, the highlight of the Cake. A slight nutty taste and some dark cocoa powder definitely added on quite a bit to the flavour.

Ingredients

1 - banana, mashed (yields 1/3 cup)

3 tbsp heaped - whole wheat flour

1 tbsp - dark muscovado sugar

1 tbsp - cream

2 tbsp - condensed milk, sweetened

2 1/2 tbsp - sunflower oil

1/2 tsp - cinnamon powder

1/4 + a generous pinch - bicarbonate of soda

a pinch of salt

For the topping

1 tbsp - whole wheat flour

2 tbsp - instant oat flakes

1/2 tsp - dark cocoa powder

1/2 tbsp - pistachio, blanched and thinly sliced

1 tbsp - dark muscovado sugar

2 tsp - ghee (clarified butter) or melted butter

Method

1. Add the ingredients for the topping in a bowl and mix well until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Keep aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease a 6 inch/15 cm rectangular cake tin.
3. In a bowl, add all the liquid ingredients and mix well.
4. In another bowl, add the flour, cinnamon powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar and mix.
5. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture and mix very lightly. Do not overdo the mixing.
6. Spoon the thick batter into the greased cake tin. Add the topping onto it and press gently.
7. Place the tin in the center of the preheated oven and bake for approx 30 minutes.
8. Let the cake cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then very gently insert two spatulae, one on each side of the cake and lift up the cake and put on a wire rack to cool completely. 
9. Cut into slices and serve. 

Enjoy!