Banana Cake with Purple Apricots

When I was requested to prepare a low fat cake, my solution was to rely heavily on mashed ripe bananas. Their creaminess is an excellent replacement for fats, and their natural sweetness helps reduce the sugar levels, all while still ending up with a very tasty cake.
The fact that the cake is also very easy to make, and can be prepared in one bowl, makes it even more appealing.

As I was planning to top the cake with these beautiful purple apricots I’ve found at the store, the cake needed a denser texture, so that the fruits will not sink to the bottom. For this reason, I’ve ended up lowering the amount of liquids to minimum. I was happy to discover that despite this, the cake did not come out dry at all. In fact, it was so tasty and aromatic that I plan to make it again, with different fruits and other additions.

Variations I’m thinking of so far include other seasonal fruits on top, chocolate chips or chopped nuts in the batter.
Another option is to bake the batter without any additions, in a loaf pan, and use it as breakfast bread. The texture is perfect for slicing and lightly toasting.

So, you are invited to use this cake recipe as is, or as a base for your experiments. I’ll be happy to hear about your take on it!

Makes: 16
Prep time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
8 medium firm purple apricots
1 2/3 cups mashed very ripe bananas (from 4 large)
2 XL eggs
3/4 cup sugar (can be increased to 1 cup if you prefer the cake sweeter)
¼ cup real maple syrup
¼ cup oil
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 Tbs baking powder
Dash salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Line an 8” (20cm) X 11” (28cm) baking pan with baking paper.
2. Cut the apricots in half and remove the pit. Set aside.

3. Place the mashed bananas in a large bowl. Add the eggs, sugar, maple syrup, oil, cinnamon and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix well to a thick batter.

Pour the batter into the pan. Place the apricots halves on top, cut side down.

4. Bake for 45 minutes, until the batter is golden and the fruit soft. Place on a rack to cool before cutting.