Paradise Loaf Cake

I was prompted to check a recipe on the Marks and Spencer app, which I have on my tablet, for a Paradise cake.  Made with banana, pineapple, sultanas and pecans, with added flavour from cinnamon and ground ginger and topped with some frosting it seemed an ideal recipe. The recipe calls for a 2lb/900g loaf tin, but I think an 8 inch round would work quite well too.

For mine I decide the loaf tin would suffice.  I also adapted the recipe very slightly, using some butter instead of the full amount of oil suggested.  I also calculated the amount of pinepple, without juice, from the suggested 216 gram tin on pineapple chunks.

The recipe is simple to make by mixing the dry ingredients in one bowl the wet in another and then mixing the two before adding the fruit and nuts.  All very easy.  

Then it just needs to be baked and cooled before adding some frosting.  I decided on buttercream, rather than butter and cream cheese, and I don’t think that detracts from the end result in any way.

                                       Paradise Loaf Cake – VideoIngredients:
For the cake:

• 100ml vegetable oil
• 90ml of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 bananas
• 2 large eggs(XL in USA)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 200g soft light brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 50g pecans, roughly chopped
• 75g Sultanas, soaked and drained
• 140g pineapple chunks(weight after draining juice from tin) each chopped into 4 pieces

For the buttercream:

• 200g softened unsalted butter (you can use 100g butter and 100g cream cheese)
• 200g icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/ 350F/ Gas Mark 4
2. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin
3. In a large bowl mash the bananas.
4. Add the oil, butter, eggs and, vanilla extract and mix together( I used a hand mixer).
5. In another bowl place the flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt and whisk to mix together.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and beat on a slow speed until all is combined.
7. Add the pineapples, sultanas and pecans and mix with a spatula until they are all combined.
8. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin.
9. Bake in the oven for an hour, until the cake has risen and a skewer in the centre comes out clean(if it doesn’t return the cake to the oven and bake for a further 5 to 10 minutes and test again.
10. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
11. Place the 200g butter into a bowl and sieve in the icing sugar.  
12. Beat until combined into a nice, smooth buttercream.
13. Place the buttercream into a piping bag, with a nozzle attached,  and pipe over the cake.