Strawberry Banana Whole Wheat Cake

Seasonal fruits are always fresher and healthier and when its strawberry season, you grab on to every opportunity to use them in your bakes. It is such a beautiful fruit with rich and nice flavors, you can use it in so many forms in your bakes.

So this weekend, I thought of pampering myself with a cake (Well, that seldom happens!!). Picked up some fresh strawberries, a ripe banana, few basic ingredients and followed some simple steps and I had myself a wonderfully moist, soft  tea cake.It can be part of my breakfast, evening tea or any other time of the day ,because who needs a reason to eat a cake  🙂 ,especially when it is made in whole wheat flour(Yeah I know, you read that right!)

Follow these simple steps with all available home ingredients and I promise you,  this would satiate all your cake cravings. This recipe yields close to 1 pound cake.

Prep Time	Cook Time	Total Time
20 mins	30 mins	50 mins

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat Flour	1 Cup
Brown Sugar	¾ Cup
Baking Powder	1 tsp
Baking Soda	½ tsp
Milk	¼ – 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract	1 tsp
Fresh strawberries	1 cup
Ripe Banana	1(medium-sized)
Olive Oil (You may use any flavorless cooking oil)	1/3 cup
Salt	1 pinch

Pans and Pots:

• 1 large mixing bowl
• 1 thick bottom pan
• 1 Baking tray (6/7 inches)
• Wooden spatula
• Convection Oven
• Gas stove/Induction

Method:

Strawberry compote:

• Chop strawberries in large chunks and add them to a heavy bottom pan.
• Add ¼ cup sugar to it and keep it on low flame.
• Keep heating the mixture till the sugar dissolves and strawberries are little mashed. Do not over mix as we want the strawberry chunks to be there in the cake
• Keep aside and cool the mixture completely

Tip: Strawberry compote is made to reduce the tartness of strawberries, else when baked may result in little bitter taste

Cake Batter:

• Sieve whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together (repeat this step twice*) and keep aside.
• In a large bowl add oil, remaining sugar (1/2 cup), ¼ cup milk ,vanilla and mix well.
• Add the strawberry compote (with all the juices), mashed banana and gently fold with a wooden spatula (Do not use electric mixer)
• Add the flour, salt, baking soda, powder mixture and milk alternatively spoon by spoon to the bowl (Batter may have lumps, but do not over mix or cake will be harder)

*Tip: Sieving the flour makes the cake airy and light and allows mixing of dry ingredients.

Baking:

Grease the pan nicely with little oil on sides and base and dust it with little flour

• Pre-heat oven (convection) to 180 C
• Pour the batter into the baking tray and keep the tray over the grill in oven
• Bake for 25-30 min or until a toothpick comes out clean

Tip: Bake time will differ from oven to oven and temperature of surrounding too. Set it up for 25 min to start with and bake in bursts of 1-2 min at same temperature to check if it is done

Serving:

• Cool it for 30 min at-least and then run a sharp knife on edges of the pan and invert  the cake out of pan
• Cut into pieces and serve with a dollop of fresh cream and some strawberries or just have it as is with a cup of tea
• Can be stored for 3-4 days in an airtight container in refrigerator

If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment below , rate it, and don’t forget to post pictures of your cake! I’d love to see what you bake up. Cheers, friends!