Vegan Banana Bread

To be truthful, I didn't bake this banana bread for it's vegan properties (though I do have some vegan friends who would love it!). As well as containing no eggs or butter, there are no weird ingredients. This is something that puts me off a lot of vegan/healthy bakes, as I usually wouldn't have ground nuts, seeds, or special oils in the house. It's the perfect store-cupboard recipe to have with a cup of tea. Vegans and non-vegans will both love this loaf.

Although it is described as a bread, it doesn't contain any yeast, and you don't have to leave it to rise before baking. Basically it's a cake...in a bread shape.

Makes one 2 pound (1kg) loaf

Ingredients:

225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda *
2 tsp cream of tartar *
* instead of the bicarb and cream of tartar, you can use 3 tsp baking powder instead
100g brown sugar + extra for dusting.
3 tsp cinnamon
3 large bananas, mashed
75g vegetable oil

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan/gas mark 6. Grease a 2 pound (1kg) loaf tin - I didn't use greaseproof paper. Instead after greasing, dust the sides and base of the tin with brown sugar.

2. In a large bowl sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar and cinnamon. Stir in the sugar.

3. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the vegetable oil and mashed bananas. Mix until no more bits of flour can be seen - the mixture will be fairly dense.

4. Pour into your prepared loaf tin, and bake for an hour, checking after 30 minutes. If the top is browning a lot, cover with foil and return to the oven. Bake the cake until it feels firm, and a skewer comes out clean when poked in to the cake.