Banana, Date and Honey Loaf

Soft banana loaf with sweet dates mixed throughout, poked and drizzled with honey soaking through.

I definitely took summer for granted. I am now fully understanding the problems of photographing food in the winter. It's awful. Light is never your friend. Especially not now the clocks will be going back this weekend, making it even darker. But yay for an extra hour in bed.

Autumn is still my favourite season though. I must keep telling myself. Just not for food photography. 

It has definitely been one of the most challenging aspects for me with this blog. I've never thought of myself as a photographer. I still don't. Pro ice cream tester is more like it.

I took one photography class when I was at university and I feared that I would drop the DSLR half time I was holding it. I'm a clutz like that. All I can really remember from the class is rule of thirds and aperture. Not much in the grand scheme of things. One day when I've got more experience I'll take a leap of faith and buy one, but until then my little point and shoot does a good job. And it doesn't matter if I drop it. Bonus!

Loaf cakes are among my favourite thing to bake. They're so simple. Whiz everything in a bowl, pour it in the tin and away we go. Nothing confusing about it. And still easier than a box cake. Which I'm not totally opposed to using every now and then.

This one is especially delicious. It's essentially three of my favourite ingredients all wrapped up together in a soft sponge with even more sweet honey dripping through it.

I've been wanting to make a poke cake for a while now. So instead of just drizzling honey over the top, I used a skewer to poke the loaf before drizzling a tablespoon of honey over it. While the cake is still warm, the honey just melts into it. Perfect with a cup of tea in this autumnal weather.  

Banana, Date and Honey Loaf

Ingredients:

2 medium bananas, ripe

200g self raising flour

160g unsalted butter

70g caster sugar

2 tbsp of honey + 1tbsp for drizzling

2 eggs

80g chopped dates

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160C/Gas mark 3, then butter and line a loaf tin with greaseproof.
2. Puree the bananas in a large bowl until there are no lumps. Then add all the other ingredients in, except the chopped dates and extra honey. Whisk until well combine and then stir in the dates to the mixture. 
3. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and level. Bake in the oven for 1hr-1hr 15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. 
4. Remove from the oven, and while it is still warm, poke several holes into the loaf with a skewer and drizzle over the tbsp of extra honey. Be careful not to add more than 1tbsp as the sponge will become very wet if you do. 
5. Allow to cool completely before turning out to serve. 

I think this is probably one of the simplest loaf cakes I've ever made. It's perfect to make as a treat to take into work and so easy to throw together! What are your favourite loaf recipes?