When you are so fat that you pant when you climb a flight of stairs, you look into changing your lifestyle. For most of the people, that means healthy diet, proper exercise, lots of walking, going to gym etc etc etc.

And for me, it meant taking out the ‘Low Fat Baking’ book instead of the regular ones. And the diet plan? That’s my ‘yearly’ new year resolution.

And Oh! the stairs??

I just take the elevator now :-D.

Happy Baking!

Recipe adapted from: Low Fat Baking (Spiced Honey and Banana Cake) 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice ( I used <1/2 tsp cinnamon)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar (brown, if available.)**See Note Below
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup milk (or orange juice)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup dried fruits (raisins/sultanas/dried apricots/cranberries/tuttifrutti)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease and line a 9″ circular pan or a 7″ X 11″ rectangular pan.
2. In a big bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, mixed spices and sugar until well mixed.
3. Make a well in the center and add lightly beaten eggs, oil, milk, honey. Mix using a wooden spatula.
4. Add mashed bananas and the dry fruits. I used cranberries. Mix until everything is incorporated well.
5. Pour into the pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes. Towards the end of the baking time, insert a skewer and check for crumbs. If the skewer comes out with crumbs, bake again for another 5 minutes. Continue until the skewer comes out free of crumbs.
6. Once baked completely, let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack. When it’s completely cool, cut into slices.
7. Glazing is optional. I mixed some powdered sugar , about 1/2 cup, with a few tablespoons of milk till it reached the consistency I wanted.

**Note: The cake with the glaze ended up too sweet for many(not for me, though :D). So the next time, I might reduce the sugar by a couple of tablespoons less.

The flavour develops as it sits. Unfortunately, we didn’t let it sit too much ;-).

This is my entry for Bake-a-thon 2013. Check out the linky tool below for entries from other participants.

This cake also goes to

• Vardhini’s Bake Fest hosted by Lail of With a Spin
• Cakes Mela
• Christmas recipes
• Favourite recipes Event: Christmas Recipes
• Let’s Cook Christmas Party Food